You sent me mail? The perils of Gmail’s Labels and Filters
Imagine the scenario: a contact sends you mail, resends it and you still haven’t got it. You doubt them, they doubt you. For the umpteenth time you check Gmail’s Inbox, the Priority Inbox, and the Everything Else section. Nothing. So if it hasn’t gone into Spam, then your contact hasn’t sent it, right? Wrong. Here’s what can happen if you use Labels and Filters.
Labels are a great idea, no question. A “soft” from of folder that doesn’t actually exist but is a list of mail that’s had a name tagged to it. Makes sorting your mail easier, simpler, and theoretically visually quicker to access. And to take advantage of a Label, you apply a Filter to it, so that emails from yournicefriend@wotever.com conveniently all pile up in one place where they can be seen instantly. Now this works fine, but occasionally you’ll want to rearrange the way you have your personal system organized and may well delete a Label, thinking (wrongly!) that mail that would previously have been directed to a specific Label location would then simply appear in Gmail’s Inbox.
Sadly, this won’t occur unless the Filter that was originally applied to the Label (are you still with me?) is deleted, too. Failure to do this will see mail from your beloved contact appear to be undelivered. Oh it’s there. Hasn’t gone missing — and Gmail can’t be blamed for losing anything — but it’s routed directly to the All Mail section. Not in your Inbox (logical), not in Priority Inbox (reasonably logical if mail has regularly come from a particular address), and as All Mail is hidden by default you’d be unlikely to check it, surely?
This is what I experienced with two people, who swore they sent me mail and I swore I hadn’t received it. So if you’re using Gmail and have Labels and Filters organised, do make sure that when you delete a Label that any corresponding Filter associated with it is deleted as well. Mail will then be put in your Inbox as expected and your cyber-world will be as it should be, rather than being cast into mail-hell.
Posted via email from Greg Wallis | Comment »
