Filter Existing Mail

leog21 · Post by **leog21** » Wed Nov 14, 2007 12:38 pm

Is there a way to run a mail filter on existing mail in the inbox?

mmorse · Post by **mmorse** » Wed Nov 14, 2007 12:52 pm

You can track/vote for: Bug 1112 - a user should be able to run filter rules over an existing set of mail items.

-Though it's currently already scheduled for GunsNRoses - the 5.5 roadmap

In the meantime, you might use the saved search feature.

(Though I realize you might be looking to see what the filter would apply to, or don't want to spend time duplicating the functionality of your filters and all, etc.)

bjared · Post by **bjared** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 10:27 am

I'm looking for this very filter, so I can move all 77,000+ "Mail Delivery System" erorrs I got overnight into a new folder for easy deletion...
I'm not about to delete them via the Web UI. I'll have to see if thunderbird or Outlook can assist me with that. They were all sent to our noc address, so there are going to be a couple other people with 77,000+ messages as well. Hmm...

Krishopper · Post by **Krishopper** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 11:03 am

I had a similar situation and created a saved search and logged into my account via IMAP and did it that way.
I have also used the POP3 search trick.
username: user@domain.com{from:mailer-daemon@domain.com subject:"Mail Delivery Status"}

Will log in as user@domain.com and only POP messages that match the search in between the {}'s.

bjared · Post by **bjared** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 1:47 pm

Thanks for that tip. I'll have to keep that in mind for next time. Thunderbird actually had a very nice search feature, and I could select them all and file them into the trash. (I also hit the "Delete" button at the bottom of the search results window, but it was still working on the 77,000+ messages from pressing "File", I think. Nonetheless, I got them deleted. That was exciting.

Krishopper · Post by **Krishopper** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 1:49 pm

I do like Thunderbird's search feature as well - but when you're dealing with that much email, I tend to like to have Zimbra do the filtering and Thunderbird can just deal with only the messages in the saved search that Zimbra shows it... oh how I love the saved searches.