I recently created a POP3 rule set to (pre-)filter header text and "Delete from server". In the Download Controls for retrieving POP3 mail, the "Download only unread mail" is on and the "Default action after filtering" is set to Download. In the General settings for that profile, the "Delete mail ... once it has been retrieved" option is on. My intention is to not even download junk mail that I can identify, but load all the rest and then have Pegasus delete it from the server.

The POP3 rule set seems to work fine. I don't get any of the junk mail I don't want and it is deleted (moved to trash) on the server. The problem is that after the other mail is downloaded, it is not deleted from the server. If I attempt to Check the host for POP3 mail again from Pegasus, no messages are loaded (they have been read by Pegasus) but they still are on the server showing as unread in the inbox when I look at them directly on the web mail site. Prior to implementing the POP3 Rule Set, the downloaded messages were deleted properly from the server.

What am I missing? Why are they not deleted from the server now? Any help is appreciated.

Bob

I suspect that your mail host is 'protecting you' by not deleting messages. I am not a POP3 filter guru though so I can not directly answer you question. My forays into server side filtering have not left me feeling warm and fuzzy. My approach is to create filters on the mail host to delete messages I know I never want to see, but I am conservative in that approach for fear of deleting valuable messages. Instead I let Pegasus Mail download and then I use new mail filters to divert unwanted messages to a folder. I keep that folder open (I run Pegasus Mail in List mode) which allows me to easily check it for false positives. I have a folder-close filter attached to that folder that deletes messages older than 30 days. This gets triggered each time I close Pegasus Mail making that folder self-cleaning.

Brian,

Thanks for the response. I would tend to agree with you if the problem hadn't started happening after I implemented the POP3 filter. Prior to that I only used the option to "Delete mail on server once it has been successfully retrieved". Server messages were deleted correctly. Is there something different in the way the two "delete" options work?

Bob

There is some logic to thinking that server-side filtering would take precedence over any other message handling. If so, I wonder if a POP3 filter set needs a 'delete on server' rule that acts on the messages that are downloaded when deletion after download is the goal. The behavior you describe seems to indicate so.

I just tried removing the POP3 filter and left the General setting of "Delete on server" active. All the mail that was accumulated there was downloaded, including duplicate copies of mail that had been downloaded before but marked as "Read" by Pegasus. Checking the web mail on that server showed that all the downloaded mail was deleted (moved to trash) as expected. Wouldn't that indicate a conflict with the POP3 filter process and the normal "Delete after downloading" actions?

Bob, IIRC you have a Gmail account. Is that the account you have posted about?

Know that Gmail is a different animal. They don't play by the RFC rules. It would not surprise me if server-side filtering did not behave 'normally' on a Gmail account.

I don't know if there is anyone in my sphere that understands Gmail but am happy to send out some inquiries to see if I can get an explanation on what should be normal behavior and what Gmail may be deviating from.

Would the following two questions cover what you are trying to figure out?

1. The normal "Delete after downloading" action is ignored whenever a POP3 filter is active. Is this normal? (eg: Must a "delete on server" rule exist and be triggered by every downloaded message?)

2. Messages that are downloaded during POP3 filtering get downloaded again when the POP3 filter is removed. It this normal, and if so, can it be prevented?

Brian,

Yes I do have a Gmail account but that is not the server in question. It is actually Yahoo. Cox mail has converted to Yahoo and I have an account there as well. You would not believe the spam/junk that comes through from there. I am not seeing the problem with Gmail, at least so far.

Yes your two questions cover the situation I'm seeing.

OK. I'll see if I can get any clarity.

Bob, what version of Pegasus Mail are you running?

Version 4.80.1028, Jan 16 2022, build ID 1028

Methinks you should change it to OFF (e.g. not checked) and also set ON (e.g. checked) "Delete mail on server once it has been successfully retrieved". This shall do. Below screenshots of my settings.

I'm back Bob, but with nothing more to add than what @euler has contributed.

I think Euler's suggestion may have worked. I tried it this morning and the results were what I had expected. I'm going to watch it for a couple more days. The spam and junk mail continues to flood in from Cox/Yahoo so it'll be a good test.

Thanks for the help.

Bob

Despite having SpamHalter active for a long time and well trained, downloading spam is always undesirable. What I've been doing here is visiting my Yahoo account with the Web interface from time to time, and there I take a look at both Bulk and Trash folders.

In the Bulk folder I check to see if any valid messages have gone there by mistake. If so, I select them and move them to the New or unread mail (INBOX) folder. In the Trash folder, where all downloaded messages go, I select all the spam found there and move them to the Bulk folder. This is the best way to train their filter. Over time, most of the spam will be retained on the servers and your visits there may be more spaced out.

I use this same process also with Gmail and GMX accounts, with the difference that I can train their spam filters using IMAP access.