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I'm looking for an email client for my phone that can do filtering. I belong to a number of mailing lists and I get hundreds of emails a day, which get automatically moved to folders on my PC. But I don't need these messages on my phone, and the email app that came with the phone doesn't seem to have any way to filter them out. So I'm looking for a solution to this problem. Thanks.

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Anyone ever figure out a solution to this? I simply want to filter out SPAM from my mailbox. I really, really do not want to use Gmail to do this because of the issue with checking the box only every hour or so. If there was simply a way to add one more folder (for junk/spam) in the stock Android Mail program - life would be GREAT! I'd certainly move to another client if I have to, but t would need to be immediate and capable of providing a seamless experience. – user3540 Mar 18 '11 at 21:36
Do you have the server access you'd need to set up ProcMail and filter messages straight to folders before they get to your mail client? Some mail hosts offer tools that can help with this -- I'm on Dreamhost which offers a "Mailbox Manager" where I can define filters right on the mail server (for the precise reasons you describe) – Amanda Mar 21 '11 at 20:31
This particular account is with a very lame web host with virtually no control. I do plan to migrate to a better host, but meanwhile I don't have any real options of this kind. – Joshua Frank Jan 2 '12 at 22:11

closed as off topic by Al Everett, Izzy, roxan, t0mm13b, GAThrawn Apr 19 at 16:29

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3 Answers

up vote 8 down vote

If you are using Gmail, the filters you set up on your Gmail account carry over to the Gmail app. Gmail uses labels instead of folders and the Gmail app allows you to even choose which labels you want to sync. If you have a filter set up for a particular sender to skip the inbox and apply a label those messages will not end up in your inbox, plus you can tell your phone not to sync with that label so you won't even process them on your phone.

If you aren't using Gmail, you can set up Gmail to check POP3 accounts and this shouldn't affect your desktop downloading of emails. I was a dedicated Outlook user and very resistant to Gmail for years but now I'm all Gmail (or Google apps mail) all the time.

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(To answer your question, apparently no, matt doesn't know of any app that filters e-mail for you.) – Mufasa Sep 22 '10 at 23:15
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Yes, I no of no app that filters email... except for the Gmail app that I explained in my answer that DOES FILTER EMAIL. Thanks for clearing that up. – Matt Sep 22 '10 at 23:19
I don't use gmail at all, although I do have an account because I needed one to buy an Android in the first place. Are you saying that you can set up gmail to read from another POP3 account, apply filtering, and pull from that account to accomplish my goal? – Joshua Frank Sep 23 '10 at 12:57
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Yes you can do that with Gmail. The one downside is you cannot get new mail alerts if you auto-Archive (what Google calls moving stuff out of the Inbox). But it sounds like that's what you want anyway. – Gus Paul Sep 23 '10 at 22:07
The only other drawback is that gmail only checks external pop3 accounts at certain intervals, I believe it is roughly once an hour so it may not be immediate enough for your needs. If you are checking an email hosted on your own domain you could consider signing up for google apps mail and having your domains email hosted as a google account. – Matt Sep 23 '10 at 22:18
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up vote 0 down vote

I have the same issue (lots of mailing lists), and I found the solution.

Profimail has a very good filtering system, but the problem is that it's a commercial application, and at $24.99 it's expensive! You can try it for free for 30 days, and then... cough up the 25 bucks to continue using.

I'm trying to find a less expensive alternative (the sum of all the programs I bought so far are cheaper than $24.99!), but I'm loosing hope.

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up vote 0 down vote

Have you tried using K9Mail yet? I'm not so sure if has filtering capabilities, but it's ability to flag messages could be some other way around.

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I use (and love) K9 mail but it doesn't offer filtering as far as I've been able to deduce. – Amanda Mar 21 '11 at 20:29

protected by Al Everett Dec 31 '11 at 23:55

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