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Where is the filter log? How do I see if it's working?

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  • Last reply by Toad-Hall

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Recently it doesn't seem as though Thunderbird Filters are working. I thought that "Run Now" on the Filters Dialogue used to work on the one filter which one had just finished editing. Filters that I modified yesterday have not updated my in-box. I did have a Thunderbird crash yesterday while loading a particularly large filter.

Where do I find the filter log? How do I test it? Is this snafu from a recent Tbird update?

TIA.

Recently it doesn't seem as though Thunderbird Filters are working. I thought that "Run Now" on the Filters Dialogue used to work on the one filter which one had just finished editing. Filters that I modified yesterday have not updated my in-box. I did have a Thunderbird crash yesterday while loading a particularly large filter. Where do I find the filter log? How do I test it? Is this snafu from a recent Tbird update? TIA.

Chosen solution

All of those filter dates in Log are very old and it is clear there has been no logging for a while. Go back to see the Filter Log and click on 'Clear'. Make sure Filter Log still has the 'enable filter log' checkbox selected. Did the Filter Log actually clear the contents? Close the Filter Log window.

In Message Filters window Make sure the correct mail account/email address has been selected at the top. Note: filters run in the order they are listed.

Make sure any filter(s) you want to run has the 'Manually run' checkbox selected. Make sure 'Run selected filters on : has the correct folder has selected Highlight the filter you want to run. and click on 'Run Now' Then check the Filter Log

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Where do I find the filter log?

  • Menu icon > Tools > Message Filters
  • click on 'Filter Log' button
  • The Filter Log opens in a new window.

If it is not enabled:

  • Click on the checkbox for 'Enable the Filter Log'

If it has been enabled then it will display what it has been filtering. You can click on the 'Clear Log' button to clear everything if desired.

re :. I thought that "Run Now" on the Filters Dialogue used to work on the one filter which one had just finished editing.

The filter you had just 'edited' would need to have the 'Manually Run' checkbox selected, otherwise it will not work. You would need to make sure the filter you had just finished editing was 'Enabled' and selected You would also need check the'Run selected filters on' had the correct folder selected. Then click on 'Run Now' Then click on 'Filter Log' to see results.

re :Filters that I modified yesterday have not updated my in-box. Filters are only applied to new unread mail received in the Inbox. If mail was previously downloaded before the filter was created then it will not filter those emails unless you manually run the filter on the Inbox.

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Thanks, Toad-Hall. I have somewhere between 60 and 100 filters. They are all "enabled". Is there some function key to select/deselect all?

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The beginning of the log showed a few dates in 2017. I went to the end of the log which also showed a few dates in 2017. Clicking on the end of the log, downloaded some more stuff. The current end of the log shows 4/24/2019.

I went into the log clicked Control-A, Control-C then tried to copy to a new Evernote link. It caused a runtime error in Evernote from Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime library.

Now Thunderbird has crashed.

Ideas?

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Chosen Solution

All of those filter dates in Log are very old and it is clear there has been no logging for a while. Go back to see the Filter Log and click on 'Clear'. Make sure Filter Log still has the 'enable filter log' checkbox selected. Did the Filter Log actually clear the contents? Close the Filter Log window.

In Message Filters window Make sure the correct mail account/email address has been selected at the top. Note: filters run in the order they are listed.

Make sure any filter(s) you want to run has the 'Manually run' checkbox selected. Make sure 'Run selected filters on : has the correct folder has selected Highlight the filter you want to run. and click on 'Run Now' Then check the Filter Log