automatic erasing of spam messages??

[PC]

It says on my g mail that all spam older than 30 days will be
automatically erased. But my spam is still there from February!!!
How can I get it to automatically erase???

[Nick Chirchirillo]

It's 30 days from when it was marked as spam, not when you received the email.  Also, the 30 days is more of an estimate, not an exact time.  I would suggest simply ignoring it as they will be deleted.  You could also delete them yourself since you took the time to see how old some of your messages were :D

--
-Nick

[Andy]

> How can I get it to automatically erase???

Every once in a while things have remained in my Spam or Trash for more than
30 days, I think it once reached close to 60 days, before Gmail caught up
again. It's not a big deal.

Don't worry; it *will* automatically erase.

Andy

[tphall]

Next to the spam button is the EMPTY link. That should do it. And the
same for trash.

[Sean Murphy]

    I don't have an empty link next to either, although my Yahoo account did. I go in periodically to look for false positives, and sue the Delete all spam link at the top once I have scanned for any that should not have been marked spam (I do this only because that way I don't have to scan through the same messages the next time I check).

-"Cogito ergo spud. I think therefore I yam."-Popeye

[tphall]

Sorry, I had yahoo in mind at the time. In gmail, if you click on the
spam button, in the spam window you'll see the delete forever choice
in the bar.

> > How can I get it to automatically erase???- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[canfish]

You have TWO options:

First: (If you still want to keep the spam mails and examine them
later)
1.Log into Gmail
2.Go to Settings
3.Go to Filters
4.Click on "Create a new filter"
5.in the "Has the words:" text field type "in:spam" without the
quotation marks
6.Click Next Step
7.Click "OK"
8.Check teh "Mark as read" checkbox
9.Click "Create filter"

Second: (You are sick tired of having spam, just want to GO AWAY
without examineing any spam mails~~~)
1.Log into Gmail
2.Go to Settings
3.Go to Filters
4.Click on "Create a new filter"
5.in the "Has the words:" text field type "in:spam" without the
quotation marks
6.Click Next Step
7.Click "OK"
8.Check the "Delete It" checkbox
9.Click "Create filter"

[Nick Chirchirillo]

While this is helpful for messages you already have that have been marked as spam (though it's a lot easier to just go into spam, and click the select all link), it does not work for incoming mail.  Whenever you try to create a filter using "in, label, is" GMail tells you that new incoming messages will never be caught by the filter.  This is because ALL filters in GMail hit a message at the same time, so when a new message comes in, it will be checked to see if it's labeled spam (which it isn't when it is first sent), and label it as spam at the same time.

--
-Nick

[Zack (Doc)]

Actually Nick, that's not entirely true. While GMail will warn you
that those filters won't work, I have personal experience that using a
filter "is:spam" works on messages marked by the automatic filters. I
have a filter "from:me in:spam" to mark as read cause I don't send
myself anything that's labeled as spam, and all those spam messages
are marked as read so I don't have to check them for false-positives.
(I use a Quick Link "in:spam is:unread" to check my false-positives).

His filter does have a problem as using "delete it" doesn't perform
the same function as removing things from spam directly. What it does
is removes the spam label and applies a trash label. This still keeps
it for 30 days, but now performs the function "Not Spam" on them
automatically, making the built-in filters less effective.

--

Edgard Varese - "Everyone is born with genius, but most people
only keep it a few minutes." -
http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/276.html

[Nick Chirchirillo]

Hmm, interesting.  You learn something new every day :D


--
-Nick

[MarkB.]

Actually gmail catches that - just try it with any other label. It
doesn't work if you manually assign labels, but you can create filters
based on automatically assigned labels.

[Andy]

> First: (If you still want to keep the spam mails and examine them
> later)
> 1.Log into Gmail
> 2.Go to Settings
> 3.Go to Filters
> 4.Click on "Create a new filter"
> 5.in the "Has the words:" text field type "in:spam" without the
> quotation marks
> 6.Click Next Step
> 7.Click "OK"
> 8.Check teh "Mark as read" checkbox
> 9.Click "Create filter"

Why bother doing the above? The only thing it does is mark your Spam as no
longer "unread". Big deal.

If you want to keep it and check it, you can leave it "unread"; in fact it
may help to do that so you can keep track of which ones you have checked and
which ones you haven't yet.

If all you want to do is get rid of the "unread" message count on your main
email folders, there is a Gmail Labs feature to do that.

> Second: (You are sick tired of having spam, just want to GO AWAY
> without examineing any spam mails~~~)
> 1.Log into Gmail
> 2.Go to Settings
> 3.Go to Filters
> 4.Click on "Create a new filter"
> 5.in the "Has the words:" text field type "in:spam" without the
> quotation marks
> 6.Click Next Step
> 7.Click "OK"
> 8.Check the "Delete It" checkbox
> 9.Click "Create filter"

While this moves it from "Spam" to "Trash", it doesn't get rid of it, so why
bother? It will sit in your Trash until either you delete it, or until 30
days have passed ... both of which are also true if you just left it in
"Spam" anyway! So again, why bother?

Andy

[Zack (Doc)]

> Why bother doing the above? The only thing it does is mark your Spam as no
> longer "unread". Big deal.

In my case it marks ones that I know, unequivocally, are SPAM (I do
more than just "in:spam") so I don't have to check them. And leaves
ones that are potentially false-positives as Unread.

> If you want to keep it and check it, you can leave it "unread"; in fact it
> may help to do that so you can keep track of which ones you have checked and
> which ones you haven't yet.

That's exactly why I do it, if there is an unread count, it means
there are ones I need to check. Once I confirm, I mark-as-read. The
rule takes care of ones I know I don't need to check.

> If all you want to do is get rid of the "unread" message count on your main
> email folders, there is a Gmail Labs feature to do that.

Actually, the lab blocks all unread, not a feature I liked. If I
could just block certain unread counts, THAT would be a lab I'd
appreciate more.

--

Ellen DeGeneres - "Stuffed deer heads on walls are bad enough,
but it's worse when they are wearing dark glasse... -
http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/33898.html