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Can an email filter be set to expire?

  • 1 reply
  • 2 have this problem
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  • Last reply by Toad-Hall

123Michael321
123Michael321
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I'm thinking of changing my email client from Forté Agent (which I've been using for - no exaggeration - 20 years) to Thunderbird.

One feature which Agent offers is the ability to set a filter to self-destruct after a fixed number of days. (Or even after a specified number of days during which time no message triggers the filter. But let's keep the question simple.)

For example, if I'm getting lots of emails in May with the subject header, "Great Savings on Christmas Trees," I could set up a kill filter on "subject: christmas trees," which I might set to exist for only the next 180 days - on the theory that by November, I might actually want to see emails about Christmas tree sales, but until then I'm not interested.

Is there any add on or plug in or somesuch, which would permit me to do something similar in Thunderbird?

I'm thinking of changing my email client from Forté Agent (which I've been using for - no exaggeration - 20 years) to Thunderbird. One feature which Agent offers is the ability to set a filter to self-destruct after a fixed number of days. (Or even after a specified number of days during which time no message triggers the filter. But let's keep the question simple.) For example, if I'm getting lots of emails in May with the subject header, "Great Savings on Christmas Trees," I could set up a kill filter on "subject: christmas trees," which I might set to exist for only the next 180 days - on the theory that by November, I might actually want to see emails about Christmas tree sales, but until then I'm not interested. Is there any add on or plug in or somesuch, which would permit me to do something similar in Thunderbird?

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Toad-Hall
Toad-Hall
  • Top 25 Contributor
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I do not know of any addon that can apply a self desctruct /time limit, but the filter could be set up with a Date condition. eg: Apply filter when: select: 'Getting new mail' and 'filter before Junk classification' 'Match all of following' 'Subject' and 'Contains' and 'Christmas Trees' 'Date' and 'Is before' and '31/10/2016' Perform this action: 'Delete Message'

So that emails received after that date should remain in Inbox. Obviously, you would need to modify the date after you have finished needing to see emails, eg: '31/10/2017', but it would be a once a year modification. It would also save you from creating the filter again.