Message filters apply actions on messages based on conditions that you have defined. You can define filters for both incoming and outgoing emails.
Filters will be automatically applied to incoming messages for local accounts (such as POP). Mail servers for remote accounts (such as IMAP) often already filter mail directly on the server as this is faster. If you want to apply your Evolution filters to remote accounts, you can enable this under Edit ▸ Preferences ▸ Mail Accounts ▸ Edit ▸ Receiving Options ▸ Options ▸ Apply filters to new messages in Inbox on this server.
To manually apply filters on messages in a folder, select the messages and click Message ▸ Apply Filters or press Ctrl+Y.
You can select all messages in a folder by clicking Edit ▸ Select All or pressing Ctrl+A.
Click Edit ▸ Message Filters, or click Message ▸ Create and select the criterion the filter will be based on.
Click Add.
Enter a name in the Rule name field.
Define the conditions for the rule. For each condition, you first select which part of the message will be checked and then define the comparison.
For more information on the available conditions see Available Filter conditions.
If you want to define multiple conditions, define under Find items if any or if all conditions have to apply, and click Add Condition and repeat the previous step.
Select the Actions for the Filter in the Then section.
For more information on the available actions see Available Filter actions.
The order of filters is important. Filters are applied to the original message in sequence, like a recipe.
If your first filter has a Stop Processing rule, then all the email messages that match this filter will ignore all the succeeding filters.
When you move a message to another folder, "moving" actually means appending a copy of the message to the destination folder and marking the original message for deletion. So any subsequent filter rules will be applied to the original message that is now marked for deletion. Therefore moving a message should usually appear last in a sequence of filter rules.
If you want to define multiple actions, click Add Action and repeat the previous step. For example, if you want no other existing filters to be applied choose Stop Processing as the second action in the list.
Click OK.
Click Edit ▸ Message Filters.
Select the filter.
Click Edit.
Make the desired corrections, then click OK twice.
Click Edit ▸ Message Filters.
Select the filter.
Click Remove.
Click OK.
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