I'm trying to run a filter with Body Contains but it is not working. I
have the latest version of Thunderbird. The account is IMAP and I am
running the filter on a sub-folder. The folder is set to download all
messages. What am I missing here?

Saucer Man <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote:

> I'm trying to run a filter with Body Contains but it is not working. I
> have the latest version of Thunderbird. The account is IMAP and I am
> running the filter on a sub-folder. The folder is set to download all
> messages. What am I missing here?

Look at the raw source of the target message. What is shown (rendered)
to you may not be what is inside the message. Could be HTML was used,
or base 64 encoding. When looking at the raw source, copy it into the
clipboard, paste into Notepad, and do a search in Notepad to see if the
text you search for is actually in there. (*)

(*) Thunderbird is multi-platform. You didn't say under which OS you
are running Thunderbird. The above was for Windows. If using Linux,
perform similar operations there.

On 4/3/2024 2:04 PM, Saucer Man wrote:
> I'm trying to run a filter with Body Contains but it is not working. I have the latest version of Thunderbird.  The account is IMAP and I am running the filter on a sub-folder.  The folder is set to download all messages.  What am I missing here?

OK, I have an idea.

What if we had

TopFolder/SubFolder

Say we built a filter and told it SubFolder.
Maybe that "identifier" is not correct and
the foldername should actually be TopFolder/SubFolder .

Perhaps that's how it names them ? Dunno.
In a sense, an absolute path from the top of the namespace.

Paul

On 4/3/2024 2:04 PM, Saucer Man wrote:
> I'm trying to run a filter with Body Contains but it is not working. I
> have the latest version of Thunderbird.  The account is IMAP and I am
> running the filter on a sub-folder.  The folder is set to download all
> messages.  What am I missing here?

Thank you VanguardLH and Paul. I think the issue is the encoding. I
cannot read the message body when viewing the source as it is Base64. I
am running Windows and I tried to do some text to BASE64 conversions but
I am not getting the right results consistently. Is there a way TB can
convert before doing the match?

On 04 Apr 2024 20:12, Saucer Man wrote:
> Thank you VanguardLH and Paul.  I think the issue is the encoding.  I cannot read
> the message body when viewing the source as it is Base64.  I am running Windows
> and I tried to do some text to BASE64 conversions but I am not getting the right
> results consistently.  Is there a way TB can convert before doing the match?

TB decodes base64 and quoted-printable before searching through the body, IOW,
body search works. I fixed this myself years ago. If it doesn't work, then repair
the IMAP folder. Or move/copy the message to a new folder and search there.

--
Viele Grüße, Jörg
Sent with Betterbird. Simply better.
www.betterbird.eu - www.betterbird.eu/#featuretable
Es ist immer wieder erstaunlich: Kaum macht man's richtig, schon funktioniert's!

On 4/4/2024 2:12 PM, Saucer Man wrote:
> On 4/3/2024 2:04 PM, Saucer Man wrote:
>> I'm trying to run a filter with Body Contains but it is not working. I have the latest version of Thunderbird.  The account is IMAP and I am running the filter on a sub-folder.  The folder is set to download all messages.  What am I missing here?
>
> Thank you VanguardLH and Paul.  I think the issue is the encoding.  I cannot read the message body when viewing the source as it is Base64.  I am running Windows and I tried to do some text to BASE64 conversions but I am not getting the right results consistently.  Is there a way TB can convert before doing the match?

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1262213

The Body criterion doesn't appear in the filter dialog
if you have the (IMAP) account set to not keep messages
on the computer, i.e. headers only are downloaded. The
setting is in the Synchronization & Storage section in
Account Settings.

https://kb.mozillazine.org/Message_Filters#Filtering_the_message_body

[After adding Custom header, the string should be "Body"
It seems to change it to "body" anyway. And body does work.]

*******

I'm seeing some weird behavior here.

Thunderbird 115.9.0 on Linux Mint 21.3

Back when the ThaiSpam flood was underway, I used one USENET server
in "offline mode" and picked up both headers and bodies of message.
This made a roughly 450MB "comp.lang.c" MBOX to go with the
existing comp.lang.c.msf file. That was to be my archive, for
studying what filters would work against the flood.

I wanted to use that cache, to test Body filtering.

First, I entered a Body search for a nasty UTF-8 string.
I asked the filter to copy the message found, to a Subfolder
I have (created in another test case). The archive folder 2023.

So I press the Run button, to manually run the "run manually" filter.
Nothing happens. And nothing is present in the Filter Log.

So I'm rapping on the button (more than once) and trying stuff
and nothing will happen. The button does not provide a lot of
feedback, it's not modal, greyed out or the like.

Out of frustration, I change the filter definition to something
that should be easy to find: "Subject" contains "logic"
I click the Run button. That runs. Now the weird part. The
previous filter definition (now removed, as both filters
shared the title of "Test2"), the previous filter for the
UTF-8 string appears to have run. The Subfolder target,
has both Thaispam messages, plus it has messages with the
word "logic" in the Subject. These are the contents of .dat for each.

version="9"
logging="yes"
name="test2"
enabled="yes"
type="16"
action="Copy to folder"
actionValue="mailbox://nobody@Local%20Folders/Archives/2023"
condition="AND (\"Body\",contains,ว็บตรงไม่ผ่านเอเย่นต์)"

version="9"
logging="yes"
name="test2"
enabled="yes"
type="16"
action="Copy to folder"
actionValue="mailbox://nobody@Local%20Folders/Archives/2023"
condition="AND (subject,contains,logic)" <=== running this one, caused the previous one to finish

Thunderbird 115.9.0

I did not see any disk activity, but it's hard to glance
over to the machine and click the button at the same time.

So I could get a Body search to work, but it took the
weirdest sequence (like a case of constipation).

Paul

On 4/3/2024 2:04 PM, Saucer Man wrote:
> I'm trying to run a filter with Body Contains but it is not working. I
> have the latest version of Thunderbird.  The account is IMAP and I am
> running the filter on a sub-folder.  The folder is set to download all
> messages.  What am I missing here?

Thanks Jorg and Paul.

I tried repairing the folder but that doesn't help. I also tried a
different email which when I view the source, I can see the body text.
This email won't filter either. For me, I had to add the custom header
body or Body as it doesn't appear in the list of options. I thought
that if the folder messages are downloaded for offline use, Body will
appear in the drop-down. Also, other options in the drop-down, such as
Subject, are visible in the source. I can see the header "Subject:".
But, there is no header "Body:" in the source. The body text is just there.

On 4/6/2024 12:18 PM, Saucer Man wrote:
> On 4/3/2024 2:04 PM, Saucer Man wrote:
>> I'm trying to run a filter with Body Contains but it is not working. I have the latest version of Thunderbird.  The account is IMAP and I am running the filter on a sub-folder.  The folder is set to download all messages.  What am I missing here?
>
> Thanks Jorg and Paul.
>
> I tried repairing the folder but that doesn't help.  I also tried a different email which when I view the source, I can see the body text. This email won't filter either.  For me, I had to add the custom header body or Body as it doesn't appear in the list of options.  I thought that if the folder messages are downloaded for offline use, Body will appear in the drop-down.  Also, other options in the drop-down, such as Subject, are visible in the source.  I can see the header "Subject:". But, there is no header "Body:" in the source.  The body text is just there.

It checks your settings for the IMAP account,
and if the IMAP account is not configured to store
bodies locally, the Filter dialog removed Body
from the list.

That's what I was reading on the topic.

If you're doing a filter for USENET, the Body
should be there in that case. But for IMAP, the
filter logic goes to the extra bother of checking
how the IMAP account is configured. If the IMAP
account is only storing headers but not bodies,
it does not bother to allow Body to be put in
the Filter dialog.

Paul

On 4/6/2024 12:33 PM, Paul wrote:
> On 4/6/2024 12:18 PM, Saucer Man wrote:
>> On 4/3/2024 2:04 PM, Saucer Man wrote:
>>> I'm trying to run a filter with Body Contains but it is not working. I have the latest version of Thunderbird.  The account is IMAP and I am running the filter on a sub-folder.  The folder is set to download all messages.  What am I missing here?
>>
>> Thanks Jorg and Paul.
>>
>> I tried repairing the folder but that doesn't help.  I also tried a different email which when I view the source, I can see the body text. This email won't filter either.  For me, I had to add the custom header body or Body as it doesn't appear in the list of options.  I thought that if the folder messages are downloaded for offline use, Body will appear in the drop-down.  Also, other options in the drop-down, such as Subject, are visible in the source.  I can see the header "Subject:". But, there is no header "Body:" in the source.  The body text is just there.
>
> It checks your settings for the IMAP account,
> and if the IMAP account is not configured to store
> bodies locally, the Filter dialog removed Body
> from the list.
>
> That's what I was reading on the topic.
>
> If you're doing a filter for USENET, the Body
> should be there in that case. But for IMAP, the
> filter logic goes to the extra bother of checking
> how the IMAP account is configured. If the IMAP
> account is only storing headers but not bodies,
> it does not bother to allow Body to be put in
> the Filter dialog.
>
> Paul

What setting in the Accounts section am I looking for to see how the
bodies are stored?

Saucer Man <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote:

> What setting in the Accounts section am I looking for to see how the
> bodies are stored?

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/configuration-options-accounts#w_synchronization-storage-panel

VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:

> Saucer Man <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote:
>
>> What setting in the Accounts section am I looking for to see how the
>> bodies are stored?
>
> https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/configuration-options-accounts#w_synchronization-storage-panel

Look at the "Synchronization & Storage panel" section.

Jörg Knobloch <jorgk@jorgk.com> wrote:

> TB decodes base64 and quoted-printable before searching through the body, IOW,
> body search works. I fixed this myself years ago.

In Thunderbird with a code fix? If, what's the bugzilla ticket number?
Or was it some local workaround?

On 4/6/2024 1:33 PM, Saucer Man wrote:
> On 4/6/2024 12:33 PM, Paul wrote:
>> On 4/6/2024 12:18 PM, Saucer Man wrote:
>>> On 4/3/2024 2:04 PM, Saucer Man wrote:
>>>> I'm trying to run a filter with Body Contains but it is not working. I have the latest version of Thunderbird.  The account is IMAP and I am running the filter on a sub-folder.  The folder is set to download all messages.  What am I missing here?
>>>
>>> Thanks Jorg and Paul.
>>>
>>> I tried repairing the folder but that doesn't help.  I also tried a different email which when I view the source, I can see the body text. This email won't filter either.  For me, I had to add the custom header body or Body as it doesn't appear in the list of options.  I thought that if the folder messages are downloaded for offline use, Body will appear in the drop-down.  Also, other options in the drop-down, such as Subject, are visible in the source.  I can see the header "Subject:". But, there is no header "Body:" in the source.  The body text is just there.
>>
>> It checks your settings for the IMAP account,
>> and if the IMAP account is not configured to store
>> bodies locally, the Filter dialog removed Body
>> from the list.
>>
>> That's what I was reading on the topic.
>>
>> If you're doing a filter for USENET, the Body
>> should be there in that case. But for IMAP, the
>> filter logic goes to the extra bother of checking
>> how the IMAP account is configured. If the IMAP
>> account is only storing headers but not bodies,
>> it does not bother to allow Body to be put in
>> the Filter dialog.
>>
>>     Paul
>
> What setting in the Accounts section am I looking for to see how the bodies are stored?
>

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/imap-synchronization

(from here https://superuser.com/questions/1775490/thunderbird-imap-keep-the-emails-when-the-account-gets-closed-or-back-them-up )

*****************************************

I do have a sample. My account is with a server known as mail.local (an hmailserver at 127.0.0.1)

Directory of F:\Users\bullwinkle\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\bf9d5uv7.default\ImapMail\mail.local

02/02/2021 01:34 PM 1,302 Archives.msf
02/02/2021 01:44 PM <DIR> Drafts-1
03/26/2023 11:04 PM 2,890 Drafts-1.msf
02/02/2021 12:31 PM 1,299 Drafts.msf
02/02/2021 12:21 PM 198 filterlog.html
02/02/2021 12:31 PM <DIR> INBOX <=== folder full of .eml
12/16/2023 04:57 AM 11,418 INBOX.msf <=== Mork.db for the headers of those .eml files
02/02/2021 01:34 PM 1,302 Junk.msf
02/02/2021 12:21 PM 0 msgFilterRules.dat
02/02/2021 01:49 PM <DIR> Sent-1
12/16/2023 04:02 AM 7,248 Sent-1.msf
02/02/2021 12:31 PM 1,297 Sent.msf
02/02/2021 12:31 PM 1,305 Templates.msf
02/02/2021 12:36 PM 1,678 Trash.msf
11 File(s) 29,937 bytes

Directory of F:\Users\bullwinkle\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\bf9d5uv7.default\ImapMail\mail.local\Drafts-1

02/02/2021 01:49 PM <DIR> cur
02/02/2021 01:45 PM <DIR> tmp

Directory of F:\Users\bullwinkle\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\bf9d5uv7.default\ImapMail\mail.local\Drafts-1\cur

02/02/2021 01:44 PM 701 77970ba9-cc31-beae-e0c2-342d72240cd0@mail.local.eml

Directory of F:\Users\bullwinkle\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\bf9d5uv7.default\ImapMail\mail.local\Drafts-1\tmp

Directory of F:\Users\bullwinkle\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\bf9d5uv7.default\ImapMail\mail.local\INBOX

12/16/2023 03:46 AM <DIR> cur
12/16/2023 03:46 AM <DIR> tmp

Directory of F:\Users\bullwinkle\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\bf9d5uv7.default\ImapMail\mail.local\INBOX\cur

02/02/2021 01:50 PM 779 1d061a31-3183-37d2-49fe-7b1a42f5b277@mail.local.eml
03/27/2023 02:04 AM 772 1e9d2cce-8465-e34f-1dbb-77c9d364de31@mail.local.eml
02/02/2021 12:31 PM 3,045 2238c858-5991-91b4-2235-5350c67dfe89@mail.local.eml
02/25/2023 10:11 AM 2,369 3E5959F6-06E4-42A5-8CF9-084FCECAF474@mail.local.eml
03/26/2023 10:58 PM 821 53eb7e65-242a-5555-e086-0e38d911b94a@mail.local.eml
12/16/2023 03:46 AM 2,315 7630EB8A-9917-4551-B46C-A6A765C9CCD6@mail.local.eml
02/02/2021 12:31 PM 1,003 7af58627-eda4-90e8-804a-4f165a59a299@mail.local.eml
02/02/2021 02:16 PM 764 db40c286-d87f-18de-61c4-a1aa47583309@mail.local.eml
02/02/2021 01:51 PM 818 e5252beb-1783-4b23-1d87-4ea92f7c5389@mail.local.eml
02/25/2023 10:14 AM 2,332 E7901B33-2F87-4683-A843-8B7EF4DDB90D@mail.local.eml

Directory of F:\Users\bullwinkle\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\bf9d5uv7.default\ImapMail\mail.local\INBOX\tmp

Directory of F:\Users\bullwinkle\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\bf9d5uv7.default\ImapMail\mail.local\Sent-1

03/27/2023 02:04 AM <DIR> cur
03/27/2023 02:04 AM <DIR> tmp

Directory of F:\Users\bullwinkle\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\bf9d5uv7.default\ImapMail\mail.local\Sent-1\cur

02/02/2021 01:49 PM 564 1d061a31-3183-37d2-49fe-7b1a42f5b277@mail.local-1.eml
02/02/2021 01:49 PM 483 1d061a31-3183-37d2-49fe-7b1a42f5b277@mail.local.eml
03/27/2023 02:04 AM 475 1e9d2cce-8465-e34f-1dbb-77c9d364de31@mail.local.eml
03/26/2023 10:58 PM 524 53eb7e65-242a-5555-e086-0e38d911b94a@mail.local.eml
02/02/2021 02:16 PM 468 db40c286-d87f-18de-61c4-a1aa47583309@mail.local.eml
02/02/2021 01:51 PM 522 e5252beb-1783-4b23-1d87-4ea92f7c5389@mail.local.eml

Directory of F:\Users\bullwinkle\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\bf9d5uv7.default\ImapMail\mail.local\Sent-1\tmp

*****************************************

This is the biggest email in my IMAP inbox example.
It is a combo vanilla text + HTML email, a dual representation.
The vanilla text could be searched as the message body. The nine line portion.
Some emails might be HTML-only I suppose.

From - Tue Feb 2 11:31:33 2021
X-Mozilla-Status: 0001
X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000
Return-Path: bullwinkle@mail.local
Received: from [127.0.0.1] (mail.local [127.0.0.1])
by mail.local with ESMTPA
; Sat, 18 Apr 2020 03:17:57 -0400
Subject: Re: My third try didn't go through
To: bullwinkle <bullwinkle@mail.local>
References: <3E0566F2-1532-48C0-84F2-51498994CE2B@mail.local>
From: Bull Winkle <bullwinkle@mail.local>
Message-ID: <2238c858-5991-91b4-2235-5350c67dfe89@mail.local>
Date: Sat, 18 Apr 2020 03:17:42 -0400
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; rv:60.0) Gecko/20100101
Thunderbird/60.9.1
MIME-Version: 1.0
In-Reply-To: <3E0566F2-1532-48C0-84F2-51498994CE2B@mail.local>
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="------------10C4FB16DE05B2B7F47798D5"
Content-Language: en-US

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
--------------10C4FB16DE05B2B7F47798D5
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

On 5/28/2019 5:29 PM, bullwinkle wrote:
>
> Just when you thought the email
>
> Works, it doesn’t work.
>
> Sent from my ipad I don’t got.
>
You're not trying hard enough.

--------------10C4FB16DE05B2B7F47798D5
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 5/28/2019 5:29 PM, bullwinkle wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:3E0566F2-1532-48C0-84F2-51498994CE2B@mail.local">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered
medium)">
<style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:#954F72;
text-decoration:underline;}
..MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style>
<div class="WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal">Just when you thought the email </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Works, it doesn’t work.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Sent from my ipad I don’t got.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p>You're not trying hard enough.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
</body>
</html>

On 4/6/2024 3:27 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
> VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:
>
>> Saucer Man <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote:
>>
>>> What setting in the Accounts section am I looking for to see how the
>>> bodies are stored?
>>
>> https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/configuration-options-accounts#w_synchronization-storage-panel
>
> Look at the "Synchronization & Storage panel" section.

I don't have that selected at the top level but I do have that selected
at the folder in question level. I have rules on the email server that
move these emails to that folder. When Thunderbird gets the email, it's
already in the folder, not the inbox.

Saucer Man <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote:

> VanguardLH wrote:
>
>> VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:
>>
>>> Saucer Man <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>> What setting in the Accounts section am I looking for to see how the
>>>> bodies are stored?
>>>
>>> https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/configuration-options-accounts#w_synchronization-storage-panel
>>
>> Look at the "Synchronization & Storage panel" section.
>
> I don't have that selected at the top level but I do have that
> selected at the folder in question level. I have rules on the email
> server that move these emails to that folder. When Thunderbird gets
> the email, it's already in the folder, not the inbox.

Rules are only exercised against new messages that show up in the Inbox
folder. If the IMAP client retrieves a message from a different folder,
it was already moved into that folder up on the server in your account.

You may have server-side filters defined in your e-mail account, or spam
filtering is enabled at the server, and those can move messages from
Inbox to a different folder. When your client gets messages, those
server-side moves already happened, so the client sees the messages in
the non-Inbox folders.

The settings above reflect whether a local copy of a message is stored
in Tbird, or not, not in which folder a message is assigned. Regardless
of which server-side folder in which a message is assigned, and the IMAP
client retrieving it from that folder, the sync option decides whether
the message is locally saved.

On 4/10/2024 4:31 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
> Saucer Man <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote:
>
>> VanguardLH wrote:
>>
>>> VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Saucer Man <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> What setting in the Accounts section am I looking for to see how the
>>>>> bodies are stored?
>>>>
>>>> https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/configuration-options-accounts#w_synchronization-storage-panel
>>>
>>> Look at the "Synchronization & Storage panel" section.
>>
>> I don't have that selected at the top level but I do have that
>> selected at the folder in question level. I have rules on the email
>> server that move these emails to that folder. When Thunderbird gets
>> the email, it's already in the folder, not the inbox.
>
>
> The settings above reflect whether a local copy of a message is stored
> in Tbird, or not, not in which folder a message is assigned. Regardless
> of which server-side folder in which a message is assigned, and the IMAP
> client retrieving it from that folder, the sync option decides whether
> the message is locally saved.

I meant, I have "Select this folder for offline use" checked for the
folder I am interested in filtering. Even with that, BODY is not an
option in the drop-down and manually running the rule on that folder
still doesn't work (with BODY added custom).

Saucer Man <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote:

> On 4/10/2024 4:31 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
>> Saucer Man <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote:
>>
>>> VanguardLH wrote:
>>>
>>>> VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Saucer Man <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> What setting in the Accounts section am I looking for to see how the
>>>>>> bodies are stored?
>>>>>
>>>>> https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/configuration-options-accounts#w_synchronization-storage-panel
>>>>
>>>> Look at the "Synchronization & Storage panel" section.
>>>
>>> I don't have that selected at the top level but I do have that
>>> selected at the folder in question level. I have rules on the email
>>> server that move these emails to that folder. When Thunderbird gets
>>> the email, it's already in the folder, not the inbox.
>>
>> The settings above reflect whether a local copy of a message is stored
>> in Tbird, or not, not in which folder a message is assigned. Regardless
>> of which server-side folder in which a message is assigned, and the IMAP
>> client retrieving it from that folder, the sync option decides whether
>> the message is locally saved.
>
> I meant, I have "Select this folder for offline use" checked for the
> folder I am interested in filtering. Even with that, BODY is not an
> option in the drop-down and manually running the rule on that folder
> still doesn't work (with BODY added custom).

As alluded to in my first reply, have you looked at the raw source of
the messages the filters don't apply to check just what is in those
messages? What you see rendered may not be in the message.

I couldn't find a bugzilla ticket showing Jorg, or anyone else, had
fixed the body search within base64 or quoted-printable messages.

On 4/12/2024 3:38 PM, Saucer Man wrote:
> On 4/10/2024 4:31 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
>> Saucer Man <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote:
>>
>>> VanguardLH wrote:
>>>
>>>> VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Saucer Man <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> What setting in the Accounts section am I looking for to see how the
>>>>>> bodies are stored?
>>>>>
>>>>> https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/configuration-options-accounts#w_synchronization-storage-panel
>>>>
>>>> Look at the "Synchronization & Storage panel" section.
>>>
>>> I don't have that selected at the top level but I do have that
>>> selected at the folder in question level.  I have rules on the email
>>> server that move these emails to that folder.  When Thunderbird gets
>>> the email, it's already in the folder, not the inbox.
>>
>>
>> The settings above reflect whether a local copy of a message is stored
>> in Tbird, or not, not in which folder a message is assigned.  Regardless
>> of which server-side folder in which a message is assigned, and the IMAP
>> client retrieving it from that folder, the sync option decides whether
>> the message is locally saved.
>
> I meant, I have "Select this folder for offline use" checked for the folder I am interested in filtering.  Even with that, BODY is not an option in the drop-down and manually running the rule on that folder still doesn't work (with BODY added custom).

But we have some idea of the ingredients, right ?

The presence of bodies, in ImapMail, is in my case, separate EML files.
That's a feature Thunderbird had some time ago, as an experiment, but
it was hard to get it into this mode, rather than an MBOX such as "Inbox" file.

To search the bodies, "you need bodies". I don't know what's in your ImapMail
folder. I only know what's in my sample from the virtual machine that has
its own email server inside.

Directory of C:\Users\bullwinkle\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\bf9d5uv7.default\ImapMail\mail.local\INBOX\cur

02/02/2021 01:50 PM 779 1d061a31-3183-37d2-49fe-7b1a42f5b277@mail.local.eml
03/27/2023 02:04 AM 772 1e9d2cce-8465-e34f-1dbb-77c9d364de31@mail.local.eml
02/02/2021 12:31 PM 3,045 2238c858-5991-91b4-2235-5350c67dfe89@mail.local.eml
02/25/2023 10:11 AM 2,369 3E5959F6-06E4-42A5-8CF9-084FCECAF474@mail.local.eml
03/26/2023 10:58 PM 821 53eb7e65-242a-5555-e086-0e38d911b94a@mail.local.eml
12/16/2023 03:46 AM 2,315 7630EB8A-9917-4551-B46C-A6A765C9CCD6@mail.local.eml
02/02/2021 12:31 PM 1,003 7af58627-eda4-90e8-804a-4f165a59a299@mail.local.eml
02/02/2021 02:16 PM 764 db40c286-d87f-18de-61c4-a1aa47583309@mail.local.eml
02/02/2021 01:51 PM 818 e5252beb-1783-4b23-1d87-4ea92f7c5389@mail.local.eml
02/25/2023 10:14 AM 2,332 E7901B33-2F87-4683-A843-8B7EF4DDB90D@mail.local.eml

Look in your ImapMail folder in the profile, and see if you have anything that
has a message body in it.

*******

The other idea, is the contents of a filter file (ending in .dat).

Yours could look one of two ways.

body,contains,logic

\"body\",contains,logic

It's possible the first form would work better than the second.
I expect part of the reason for the second form, has something
to do with the character set used for the search item on the end.
Which in my made-up example is ASCII. The reason I made a filter
with an ASCII test string of "logic", was to "get at least one filter to work".

As an action, I had my filter copy the message to my Archive/2023 folder.
So that the source would not be damaged by a single filter run.

Paul

On 4/3/2024 2:04 PM, Saucer Man wrote:
> I'm trying to run a filter with Body Contains but it is not working. I
> have the latest version of Thunderbird.  The account is IMAP and I am
> running the filter on a sub-folder.  The folder is set to download all
> messages.  What am I missing here?

VanguardLH... I checked the raw source. I am now working with a message
where the text is readable but as I mentioned, it still doesn't work,
even a manual run.

Paul... I will check that folder for those files during the week.

Thanks all.

On 13-04-2024 16:27, Saucer Man wrote:
> On 4/3/2024 2:04 PM, Saucer Man wrote:
>> I'm trying to run a filter with Body Contains but it is not working. I
>> have the latest version of Thunderbird.  The account is IMAP and I am
>> running the filter on a sub-folder.  The folder is set to download all
>> messages.  What am I missing here?
>
> VanguardLH... I checked the raw source.  I am now working with a message
> where the text is readable but as I mentioned, it still doesn't work,
> even a manual run.
>
> Paul... I will check that folder for those files during the week.
>
> Thanks all.
Like explained before in the other thread about this, it's a bug.
Go into your filterfile and replace (\"body\",contains,whatever) with
(body,contains,whatever)
You'll end end up with an uneditable filter (from within TB) but it will
work.
This has nothing to do with encoding, TB decodes everything before the
filters are run.

Saucer Man <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote:

> On 4/3/2024 2:04 PM, Saucer Man wrote:
>> I'm trying to run a filter with Body Contains but it is not working. I
>> have the latest version of Thunderbird.  The account is IMAP and I am
>> running the filter on a sub-folder.  The folder is set to download all
>> messages.  What am I missing here?
>
> VanguardLH... I checked the raw source. I am now working with a message
> where the text is readable but as I mentioned, it still doesn't work,
> even a manual run.
>
> Paul... I will check that folder for those files during the week.
>
> Thanks all.

Been a while since I last used Thunderbird, but recall you could define
custom filters. An e-mail has no header named Body. That is, there is
no message having:

<otherheaders>
Body: <body>

The body of a message is delineated from the headers by a blank line:

<headers>

<body>

The Body criterion won't work unless the messages are stored locally.
For IMAP, that means you have to configure Thunderbird to keep messages
on your computer under the Synchronization & Storage settings for an
IMAP account. Paule already covered that, I gave a link to show where
was the setting. That is a per-account setting, not a per-folder
setting.

From the mozillazine article Paul linked to, not all IMAP servers
support an offline folder in which to submit IMAP commands to do a
server-side IMAP search. Doing searchs up on the server consumes more
resources on the server, so I can see why they won't support those.
They've got enough of a load just doing the basic e-mail service. Did
you configure Tbird to keep messages locally in the Sync settings for
the account?

Since you have rules on the server in your account to move matching
messages into a folder other than Inbox, and also mentioned, your
client-side rules only operate on the Inbox folder on newly received
message, not on other folders. Rules you define in Thunderbird get
exercised against new messages that appear in the Inbox. The message
already got moved into a different folder, the IMAP sync retrieve that
message in the other folder, and your local Tbird rules won't see the
message in the Inbox folder.

When you define rules in Thunderbird, you get to pick the account where
they are exercised (on new Inbox messages). There is no option to
specify a rule in Thunderbird operates on a particular folder. That's
for automatic execution of filters. You can select a folder on which to
/manually/ exercise a folder. The latter is what you do?

dillinger says the body filter has a bug, but didn't mention a ticket
number at bugzilla.mozilla.org. As a guess, maybe 1850267 or 1844996.
He says to use body instead of /body/. Paul mentioned the defect.

Does your filter on the body try to move the message to a different
folder in the same account, to a different folder in a different
account, or from an account into the Local Folders?

I don't recall seeing you mention whose IMAP service you are using. If
Gmail, they don't do 100% compatible e-mail protocols. They started as
a webmail client, and then did a Frankenjob on their web service to
allow e-mail clients to poll for messages. For example, they really
don't have folders. They have tags. When connecting to an IMAP client,
they lie that the tags are folders. However, it is possible for a
message on their server to have multiple tags, but IMAP expects a
message to be in just one folder. The client should decide if and when
to delete messages on the server, but Gmail has you select a setting on
how to handle a DEL after RETR. There is gPOP and gIMAP by Google, and
then there is POP and IMAP that everyone else uses.

Most server-side filtering sucks. Not much for on what you can filter,
or few actions. If the e-mail provider's ruleset is robust enough, you
could use server-side filters to do what Thunderbird cannot. Gmail
sucks for filtering since their "rules" are actually searches which are
too greedy, and their actions are minimal, plus you cannot add a
stop-clause to their rules to prevent side effects, like a rule that
fires should prevent other rules from exercising on the same message. I
use Microsoft's Hotmail (and Outlook.com), and their ruleset lets me
define a filter on "Message body contains". Maybe you can do what you
want in Thunderbird by using a server-side rule. I try to move as many
client-side rules up to my account on the server. Easier to have the
server do the work than my local e-mail client. If you use MS Exchange
and your client supports it (Thunderbird does not), qualifying rules you
define in the client get moved up to the Exchange server, but some may
end up local-only rules.

If you cannot get Thunderbird to behave, you may need to use an addon
that gives you more robust filters, like FiltaQuilla.

https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/filtaquilla/
https://quickfilters.quickfolders.org/filtaquilla.html

However, I could not see mention of filter criteria on the body. I
don't have it to see if Body is in the drop-down list on what to test
against. I did find:

https://minghuasweblog.wordpress.com/2011/04/20/thunderbird-filters-accessing-message-content/
https://quickfilters.quickfolders.org/filtaquilla.html#javascript_action

but that is cumbersome, and not for use by the average user.

On 2024-04-06 18:33, Paul wrote:
> On 4/6/2024 12:18 PM, Saucer Man wrote:
>> On 4/3/2024 2:04 PM, Saucer Man wrote:
>>> I'm trying to run a filter with Body Contains but it is not working. I have the latest version of Thunderbird.  The account is IMAP and I am running the filter on a sub-folder.  The folder is set to download all messages.  What am I missing here?
>>
>> Thanks Jorg and Paul.
>>
>> I tried repairing the folder but that doesn't help.  I also tried a different email which when I view the source, I can see the body text. This email won't filter either.  For me, I had to add the custom header body or Body as it doesn't appear in the list of options.  I thought that if the folder messages are downloaded for offline use, Body will appear in the drop-down.  Also, other options in the drop-down, such as Subject, are visible in the source.  I can see the header "Subject:". But, there is no header "Body:" in the source.  The body text is just there.
>
> It checks your settings for the IMAP account,
> and if the IMAP account is not configured to store
> bodies locally, the Filter dialog removed Body
> from the list.
>
> That's what I was reading on the topic.
>
> If you're doing a filter for USENET, the Body
> should be there in that case.

Body may not be; it is not in my case, I have it configured that way
because I use a local nntp proxy server.

--
Cheers, Carlos.