Is SIEVE working OK?

[Jerry]

My long-working custom SIEVE script seems to have stopped working in the last few days. Anybody else having any trouble?

[n5bb]

No, I have not noticed any problems, and some tests I just ran on two Fastmail accounts both showed those sieve scripts working fine. Please try this:

• Log into the current Fastmail web interface at https://www.fastmail.com
• Navigate to Settings>Rules
• You should see this notice above the normal rules:
  You also have custom rules defined in siever code. Edit custom sieve code.
• Click the link to edit your sieve code, then click Save at the upper left.
• If anything is wrong with your rules, you will see an error message above your sieve code, starting with a line such as:
  

  Unable to parse script: script errors:

• Do you get such an error? If so, you need to edit your sieve so no errors are shown. A common problem would be specifying a folder name or path which is incorrect.
• If these steps above are OK, then let us know which type of sieve command is failing. For example, post in this thread a simple sieve script which doesn't work correctly.

Bill

[Jerry]

I pared my script down to a single entry, and pasted it into the first "Insert Sieve Code Here" box of the four available boxes. No error messages were reported upon "saving."

if header :contains "from" "jerry@example.com"
{ addflag "\\seen"; fileinto "INBOX.Business.Netflix"; stop; }

The received message gets delivered to my main INBOX instead of to the NETFLIX folder. This problem started last week on my full Sieve script which hadn't been altered in months. I think the last time I changed it was to remove the "REQUIRE" header, which is now built in to the Fastmail application.

[BritTim]

How odd! I assume after doing your recent test, you looked back at the script to confirm it contained what you expected.

If you have a paid account (ie not one of the old guest or member accounts) it may be worth asking support about this. It may really be that your account is broken somehow.

[n5bb]

The rules system is working correctly with your exact example.

• I created a subfolder named exactly as specified in your code.
• A normal rule I created (no custom sieve required) files messages properly into that subfolder.
• I copied/pasted your rule into custom sieve. It also works.
• I was sending test messages using another Fastmail account, which allows a wildcard personality so that I can type in jerry@example.com as the From address.

My guess is that you had folder renaming issues affected by this change a couple of months ago. Folder names must be exactly correct (including capitalization) in a sieve rule.
What's in a name – mailbox names via IMAP
https://blog.fastmail.com/2016/07/13...ames-via-imap/

I recommend that you switch to using the normal rules if possible, and only use custom sieve for very special situations. When using the normal rules system the actual available folders are shown, so you can't get the wrong folder name (or capitalization).

Bill

[Jerry]

I turned this knotty problem over to the Fastmail gurus last week. It stumped the first echelon, so it got passed along to Yassar. We both wrestled with it for several days. It worked, then it wouldn't work, then it would work again, for no apparent reason.

My code, which was originally created in 2003 and is pasted into the Fastmail Sieve GUI from my local file, hadn't changed and appeared to be valid. The target folder paths all existed and were capitalized properly.

Mysteriously, the code started working again after a couple of rounds of pasting, saving, signing out, signing in, clearing all sieve code from the GUI, saving, signing out, signing in, and pasting again. Best guess for a reason at this time seems to be some sort of "server caching."

[n5bb]

I'm glad it's now working! Since that exact sieve code worked during my test, it must have been as they said some caching or other behavior which affected only some accounts.

Bill