Mail filter won't match both begins with and ends with "To" field.
I'm trying to create a mail filter that matches mail that is only sent to me. i.e. The "To:" message header contains only my email address, and no others.
I've tried "To"+"is"+"[email protected]", but that still matches when there are other addresses in the To field. I've also tried 2 filter lines: 1) "To"+"begins with"+"[email protected]" 2) "To"+"ends with"+"[email protected]" But that also behaves the same.
Surely this is a bug. Thunderbird 52.7.0 (32-bit)
All Replies (3)
You have misunderstood the use of "starts with" and "ends with".
Each address is parsed separately, so the filter is applied to each addressee in turn, not to the string containing all the addresses. "starts with" is equivalent to a wildcard for the domain part of the address. "ends with" is a wildcard character for the local part of an address. "contains" allows you to specify a substring anywhere in the address.
So your own address will always match both your "ends with" and "starts with" conditions, regardless of its position in a list of addressees.
Try filtering on other peoples' addreses. (recipient is not me). When you have dealt with messages addressed in any way to someone else, what's left over must be for you alone. So you may need two filters in order to apply specific actions to the two classes of messages.
Okay, I understand that now.
I've now tried a new way. I have updated my Personal Address book to ensure it does not contain my own email address. I now have 2 filter lines: To: + isn't in my address book + Personal Address Book To: + is + [email protected]
But it still doesn't seem to work. It's matching correct messages that only contain my name in To. but it's also matching other emails where To also contains addresses from my Personal Address Book.
Can you advise if this should work, or have I misunderstood another filter aspect? Thanks.
Are you saying that if you get an email which is sent to a group of people and you are one of the email address, you do not want this to be picked up?
You only want emails that are ONLY send to you; no one else is in the TO or CC field?
So you are trying to filter emails ONLY to you and to separate from other emails received where you are in a group of recipients?
The problem is that you are in both types. But the other recipients of same email are not,
What happens if you try to filter the group ones where there is more than one recipient. If in address book then move to X folder. As other recipients of email are in the address book, then those emails will get moved. If you have email only to you and you are not in address book then it will leave you in Inbox.