<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/xhtml; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body><div style="font-family: sans-serif;"><div class="plaintext" style="white-space: normal;"><p dir="auto">Multiple instances of MailMate are fine, but you can't replicate rules. IMAP doesn't have suitable locking primitives, so there's no way for MailMate to prevent such problems. The only answer that I know of is to keep all of the rules on one machine. In the past, I've done much of my sorting on a desktop, since it's always on. But there are exceptions. There are emails I want to see immediately, even if I'm just on my phone. Those I sort on my laptop.</p>
<p dir="auto">The question of how MailMate should respond to error messages is a completely different one.</p>
<p dir="auto">On 24 Apr 2023, at 14:32, Glenn Parker wrote:</p>
<blockquote style="margin: 0 0 5px; padding-left: 5px; border-left: 2px solid #777777; color: #777777;"><p dir="auto">I use MailMate on two computers in two physically separate locations. Each instance of MailMate uses a similar set of rules on my primary INBOX to relocate certain incoming email into dedicated folders. For example, the messages from this MailMate forum are directed into a MailMate folder. I realize there are other ways to manage this kind of thing in MailMate (isolating messages from email lists), but use a less sophisticated email client on my Android devices (AquaMail), and this style yields a fairly comfortable workflow for me across all my devices.</p>
<p dir="auto">I have found that I must be careful to avoid running my two MailMate instances at the same time. Otherwise they seem to get into a fight over who is going to execute the INBOX rules. When this happens, it typically generates a bunch of seemingly dire error messages from MailMate, and eventually causes MailMate to take one or more folders off-line.</p>
<p dir="auto">My points here are two-fold. First, if you try the same thing, don’t be too surprised if you run into some complications. So far, this has not resulted in any loss of email for me, but having a folder quietly go off-line while you’re not looking can be confusing.</p>
<p dir="auto">Second, I’d like to ask if MailMate could be more forgiving when it runs into this particular situation. That is to say, when moving messages between folders using automatic rules, if a message “disappears” during the operation, allow this to be treated as a soft error that can generate an (optional) warning, but don’t take any folders off-line.</p>
<p dir="auto">Glenn P. Parker
<br>
glenn.parker@comcast.net
<br>
_______________________________________________
<br>
mailmate mailing list
<br>
mailmate@lists.freron.com
<br>
<a href="https://lists.freron.com/listinfo/mailmate" style="color: #777777;">https://lists.freron.com/listinfo/mailmate</a></p>
</blockquote><br><p dir="auto"> —Steve Bellovin, <a href="https://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb" style="color: #3983C4;">https://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb</a></p>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>