Rules not working properly in Entourage

S

Sanjay Suda

Hi Folks,

Need some assistance with wayward rules.

I have established a number of rules for incoming as well as outgoing
e-mail. I use multiple mail accounts (hotmail. Gmail, etc) All are POP3 mail
accounts (except for hotmail)

The rules that I have developed work perfectly well on mail that arrives
new.

But when I try to apply the rules to older mail sitting in my Inbox or in my
sent folder then the rules apply without a problem to mail that is less than
2 weeks old but not to any of the older mail.

I have tried everything I could think of, including selecting an individual
mail message and trying to apply each individual rule separately to that one
message ­ no go. It just does not budge (like all other messages that are
more than 2 weeks old).

I travel a lot and at times my mail accumulates for over 2 weeks before it
gets downloaded and this is when the problem happens.

I am using Tiger and Office 2004

Any ideas

By the way ­ merry Christmas to all and may a jolly good time be had by all

Regards

Sanjay
 
D

Diane Ross

The rules that I have developed work perfectly well on mail that arrives new.

But when I try to apply the rules to older mail sitting in my Inbox or in my
sent folder then the rules apply without a problem to mail that is less than 2
weeks old but not to any of the older mail.
Click to expand...

This is a new one. I'm curious as to why you need to run your rules again.
Shouldn't the rules have run when the mail was downloaded? If you could
explain why you need to run them manually we might be able to help. AFAIK
there is no reason the age of message should affect if a rule will run or
not.
 
S

Sanjay Suda

This is a new one. I'm curious as to why you need to run your rules again.
Shouldn't the rules have run when the mail was downloaded? If you could
explain why you need to run them manually we might be able to help. AFAIK
there is no reason the age of message should affect if a rule will run or
not.
Click to expand...
Ok - I shall attempt to explain.

I just bought a new MacBook and started using the new software

Then after 3 weeks I had a disk crash and lost everything (except my files
and folders that I had available from the previous machine - no e-mails
though)

So to recreate my e-mail database I downloaded all my e-mails held on the
web

So now I had a full database of freshly downloaded e-mails (including the
e-mails that I had sent from the web while my machine was being fixed)

The only way I had to download the sent e-mails was to transfer them to the
Inbox of my web mail account and mark them as unread

So I had my sent e-mails sitting in my inbox. I then moved these to my sent
folder in Entourage (by sorting my inbox on name of sender so e-mails from
me showed up together).

I need to run my rules so these e-mails that are now sitting in my sent
folder get copied to the proper alternative folders and their categories and
project info needs to be established from scratch (when I send e-mails from
entourage then the e-mails get handled appropriately - but if I have sent
e-mails directly from the web during my travels and then need to download
these to my PC, it is then that I need to run the rules on my sent folder so
the e-mails get properly classified and I can refer to them properly.
I work on multiple projects across the world simultaneously and it is
important for me to keep my e-mails organised.

I hope I have explained the matter properly - there is a menu option that
allows one to apply rules on existing e-mails, it just does not work on
e-mails that are older than 2 weeks.

By the way since my disk crash I have also had a screen failure that put the
machine into service and repairs for another 2 weeks (service response times
in some areas that I work in is not as good as in other areas).

By the way the incoming mail that is downloaded again (as part of my effort
to rebuild my database on my PC) gets handled properly - it is just the sent
messages (those that are sent from the web and need to be downloaded to the
PC at a later time) that get affected.

Also, I have my G-mail account set up to gather my e-mail from all my other
POP3 accounts (as well as hotmail) and entourage only downloads the messages
from my g-mail account

Regards

sanjay
 
D

Diane Ross

Then after 3 weeks I had a disk crash and lost everything (except my files
and folders that I had available from the previous machine - no e-mails
though)
Click to expand...

What did you use for mail on the old computer? What type of account? POP,
IMAP, Exchange??? It might be easier to drag the data file to your new
computer and let Entourage import them. If it was Entourage you could just
drag the Identity folder to your new Microsoft User Data folder. You can't
use 'Import' from the same version unless it's an Entourage archive file.

I'm exploring other options to get your mail into Entourage with these
questions.
I need to run my rules so these e-mails that are now sitting in my sent
folder get copied to the proper alternative folders and their categories and
project info needs to be established from scratch (when I send e-mails from
entourage then the e-mails get handled appropriately - but if I have sent
e-mails directly from the web during my travels and then need to download
these to my PC, it is then that I need to run the rules on my sent folder so
the e-mails get properly classified and I can refer to them properly.
I work on multiple projects across the world simultaneously and it is
important for me to keep my e-mails organised.
Click to expand...

You could use "move to" rather than a rule. Create custom mail views to sort
your mail then "select all" in the mail view and use "move to".

Are the messages organized on Gmail? Have you considered setting up
Entourage to use your Gmail with an IMAP account? You could then drag from
the IMAP folders to "Folders on My Computer" then switch back to POP after
you get all of your mail.

Create Gmail labels and make Entourage folders

<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2007/11/create_gmail_labels_and_make_entoura
ge_folders.html>
I hope I have explained the matter properly
Click to expand...

Makes sense now what you are trying to do. I'm still a bit baffled about the
rules not working on the older messages.
Also, I have my G-mail account set up to gather my e-mail from all my other
POP3 accounts (as well as hotmail) and entourage only downloads the messages
from my g-mail account
Click to expand...

Be aware that Gmail is having some problems and users account are being
deleted or disabled. It's almost impossible to get your mail back. Be sure
you backup to your computer all mail on Gmail's servers. You could do this
in Apple's Mail application for an extra backup, or create a new Identity in
Entourage just for archiving these messages.

<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2007/11/disappearing_gmail.html>
 
S

Sanjay Suda

What did you use for mail on the old computer? What type of account? POP,
IMAP, Exchange??? It might be easier to drag the data file to your new
computer and let Entourage import them. If it was Entourage you could just
drag the Identity folder to your new Microsoft User Data folder. You can't
use 'Import' from the same version unless it's an Entourage archive file.

I'm exploring other options to get your mail into Entourage with these
questions.

You could use "move to" rather than a rule. Create custom mail views to sort
your mail then "select all" in the mail view and use "move to".

Are the messages organized on Gmail? Have you considered setting up
Entourage to use your Gmail with an IMAP account? You could then drag from
the IMAP folders to "Folders on My Computer" then switch back to POP after
you get all of your mail.

Create Gmail labels and make Entourage folders

<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2007/11/create_gmail_labels_and_make_entoura
ge_folders.html>

Makes sense now what you are trying to do. I'm still a bit baffled about the
rules not working on the older messages.

Be aware that Gmail is having some problems and users account are being
deleted or disabled. It's almost impossible to get your mail back. Be sure
you backup to your computer all mail on Gmail's servers. You could do this
in Apple's Mail application for an extra backup, or create a new Identity in
Entourage just for archiving these messages.

<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2007/11/disappearing_gmail.html>
Click to expand...
Hey - Thanks a lot for your help - muchly appreciated

One last query - may seem silly - but how do I setup and use an IMAP
account????
 
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