Flags not sorting in Mac Mail under El Capitan

[AZRob]

Ever since I upgraded to El Capitan, my Mail app will not allow me to sort my Inbox by Flag Color. You can choose that option but nothing happens. This is kind of essential for me, because I use all 7 colors of flags to sort my Inbox by category (Outlook does this even better, but I like sticking with the native app).

I have a case logged with Apple Support - it sounds like no one has seen this happen yet. Anyone out there experiencing this?

It also appears that existing Conversations are not Organized - they are viewed as separate. New ones, however, appear to group themselves correctly.

Thanks in advance,

AZRob

 

[dianeoforegon]

I've never tried sorting my Inbox by flags but I just tried and it does not sort flags by flag group. I suspect that this is by design. It does show all flagged messages at the top of the list.

BTW, do you know that you can rename the flags to reflect the category you want assigned.

You can create a smart mailbox to show flags, but you would need to do this for each flag.

Create a new smart mailbox.

Message has flag > Red
You can add additional criteria like Date Received > Today etc.

My favorite smart mailbox is Date Received is Today, Message is Unread. My goal is at the end of the day to have no messages in this smart mailbox (Inbox Zero)

Apple's default Smart Mailbox "Today" shows the messages you have viewed today. This is handy to find that email you viewed earlier but can't remember where the message is located. Personally, I think it should be named "Viewed Today".

Hope this helps!

 

[AZRob]

I've never tried sorting my Inbox by flags but I just tried and it does not sort flags by flag group. I suspect that this is by design. It does show all flagged messages at the top of the list.

BTW, do you know that you can rename the flags to reflect the category you want assigned.

You can create a smart mailbox to show flags, but you would need to do this for each flag.

Create a new smart mailbox.

Message has flag > Red
You can add additional criteria like Date Received > Today etc.

My favorite smart mailbox is Date Received is Today, Message is Unread. My goal is at the end of the day to have no messages in this smart mailbox (Inbox Zero)

Apple's default Smart Mailbox "Today" shows the messages you have viewed today. This is handy to find that email you viewed earlier but can't remember where the message is located. Personally, I think it should be named "Viewed Today".

Hope this helps!

May I assume you are using El Capitan? If so, that would tend to confirm that this function was taken away, because it works on Yosemite. I doubt this is by design, because they are still offering it as a functionality (i.e. under View, you can still choose "Sort By Flags").

In my setup, I have named the flags to "To Do" , "Waiting on Reply", "Read later" and so on. The color of the flags makes this a very easy way to spot what I need "To Do", "Read later" and so on. Without sorting by flag groups the whole way I organize my inbox falls apart.

If anyone else has a way to group messages by a certain value, I'm all ears.

Rob

 

[AZRob]

May I assume you are using El Capitan? If so, that would tend to confirm that this function was taken away, because it works on Yosemite. I doubt this is by design, because they are still offering it as a functionality (i.e. under View, you can still choose "Sort By Flags").

In my setup, I have named the flags to "To Do" , "Waiting on Reply", "Read later" and so on. The color of the flags makes this a very easy way to spot what I need "To Do", "Read later" and so on. Without sorting by flag groups the whole way I organize my inbox falls apart.

If anyone else has a way to group messages by a certain value, I'm all ears.

Rob

 

[AZRob]

Okay, after a month of going back and forth with Apple Support, I finally got the word: this is simply not working in El Capitan. Specifically, the sorting of Flags by COLOR is not recognized. The only sort you get is between Flagged and Non-Flagged. This defeats the whole purpose of having colored flags for organizing. This is obviously a bug. When I first posted this, I didn't see anyone else complaining, but now I see at least two other posts in the Apple Forums about it:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/29205638#29205638

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7270503

Taking this away is a big deal - I organize my life around my Inbox and if I can't sort my Inbox by the categories I've flagged, then there is no way I can use Mac Mail.

Apple - PLEASE FIX THIS BUG.

Rob from AZ

 

[twiceblessed]

Okay, after a month of going back and forth with Apple Support, I finally got the word: this is simply not working in El Capitan. Specifically, the sorting of Flags by COLOR is not recognized. The only sort you get is between Flagged and Non-Flagged. This defeats the whole purpose of having colored flags for organizing. This is obviously a bug. When I first posted this, I didn't see anyone else complaining, but now I see at least two other posts in the Apple Forums about it:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/29205638#29205638

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7270503

Taking this away is a big deal - I organize my life around my Inbox and if I can't sort my Inbox by the categories I've flagged, then there is no way I can use Mac Mail.

Apple - PLEASE FIX THIS BUG.

Rob from AZ

 

[twiceblessed]

You are definitely not alone. I have been experiencing the same problem. It's very frustrating and I hope Apple corrects it soon.

 

[AZRob]

Okay, I have some potentially good news. I called Apple back and asked them again why my case was closed. This time the Support person called up an Engineer and he reported that Apple is aware of the issue, is treating it as a break-fix that needs to be corrected and is working on a solution. They said that eventually there will be an update that will fix this.

So maybe we will see a successful resolution on this....though I wouldn't expect it right away.

 

[twiceblessed]

Thanks for the update!

 

[shalbleib]

Okay, after a month of going back and forth with Apple Support, I finally got the word: this is simply not working in El Capitan. Specifically, the sorting of Flags by COLOR is not recognized. The only sort you get is between Flagged and Non-Flagged. This defeats the whole purpose of having colored flags for organizing. This is obviously a bug. When I first posted this, I didn't see anyone else complaining, but now I see at least two other posts in the Apple Forums about it:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/29205638#29205638

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7270503

Taking this away is a big deal - I organize my life around my Inbox and if I can't sort my Inbox by the categories I've flagged, then there is no way I can use Mac Mail.

Apple - PLEASE FIX THIS BUG.

Rob from AZ

It's ridiculous the amount of issues with Mac OS's these days, and this is a big one. If they aren't going to bother fixing (Apple seems to give 2 *****) then I may just use a different email program altogether. If issues continue, I'll switch to PC and start saving money on hardware and software! Get an android and tell Apple to f_ck off completely! Sad, I've been on Macs for 20 years but there's just no support anymore.

 

[AZRob]

It's ridiculous the amount of issues with Mac OS's these days, and this is a big one. If they aren't going to bother fixing (Apple seems to give 2 *****) then I may just use a different email program altogether. If issues continue, I'll switch to PC and start saving money on hardware and software! Get an android and tell Apple to f_ck off completely! Sad, I've been on Macs for 20 years but there's just no support anymore.

As a follow-up (it's been a few years), Apple did fix this bug. I'm not sure what version the fix came in, but I am using Sierra and it's working.

With one exception - there is still one issue. I sort my emails using the maximum number of flags, which is 7. What I find is that the 7th flag sometimes disappears and my 7th-flagged emails are assigned to the 1st flag. This is annoying....though not to the point that I've reported it to Apple. Perhaps I should...has anyone else experienced this?

Rob from AZ

 

[shalbleib]

As a follow-up (it's been a few years), Apple did fix this bug. I'm not sure what version the fix came in, but I am using Sierra and it's working.

With one exception - there is still one issue. I sort my emails using the maximum number of flags, which is 7. What I find is that the 7th flag sometimes disappears and my 7th-flagged emails are assigned to the 1st flag. This is annoying....though not to the point that I've reported it to Apple. Perhaps I should...has anyone else experienced this?

Rob from AZ

It still doesn't work on Yosemite and I'm not upgrading anymore OS's and bogging down my system