Creating rules to organize your mail

Use mail rules to label incoming invoices, archive routine updates, or mark familiar notifications as read. A rule describes which messages to match and what Cedros should do when they arrive.

Rules affect newly processed incoming mail. Saving, editing, or deleting a rule does not reorganize messages already in your mailbox. To change existing messages, use Finding and organizing messages.

You need permission to edit site settings and an available address. The personal settings page also needs the site's mail service to be ready. A rule for a shared address affects mail for everyone using that address, so agree on folder changes with your team.

Create a rule for your address

1. Open Email → Inbox → Settings. The page is titled Your mail.
2. In Your mail rules, select Add rule.
3. Enter a condition in From, or use + Add a condition to add Subject contains… or Body contains…. You can leave From empty when matching only the subject or body.
4. Under Then, choose Keep it in the Inbox, Skip the Inbox, or Move to Trash. See the action explanations below before choosing.
5. Enter a Label, turn on Mark as read, or both if needed. A rule that keeps the message in Inbox must do at least one of these to have an effect.
6. If Runs on mail to appears, select the receiving address. Check the complete address, especially when you can use both personal and shared mailboxes.
7. Read the summary and recent-message preview at the top of the dialog. Check that the conditions and action describe what you intended.
8. Select Save rule. Wait for Inbox rules saved., then check the saved row's conditions, action, and Applies to address.

For example, to label invoices without hiding them, add Subject contains with invoice, leave Keep it in the Inbox selected, and set Label to Billing. Leave Mark as read off if invoices should still appear unread. Save and test with new mail before adding more conditions or changing the folder.

Cancel discards an unsaved rule. If you are prompted about discarding changes, choose whether to keep editing or discard them.

Choose conditions that match the right mail

The three content conditions look for text inside these parts of a message:

• From: the sender's displayed name or email address. Use a distinctive address or part of an address to avoid matching unrelated senders with similar names.
• Subject contains: text anywhere in the subject. For example, invoice also matches Your invoice is ready.
• Body contains: text in the message body, not text inside an attachment.

When you fill in more than one condition, every filled condition must match. From plus Subject means the message must match both. To handle either of two different subjects, create separate rules.

Enter the text you want to find. These fields do not interpret * as a wildcard or accept search expressions such as from: or OR. Ordinary English letter casing does not matter, so INVOICE and invoice match the same text. If matching text with accented or non-English letters, check the preview and test the exact wording you expect.

An address-specific rule also checks the receiving address in To or Cc. Selecting an address does not replace the need for at least one From, Subject, or Body condition. Do not assume a rule for one address also covers a different alias; test the address your senders actually use.

Choose what happens to matching messages

• Keep it in the Inbox: leaves the folder unchanged while applying your label or Mark as read action. It does not bring a message back to Inbox if another rule moved it out.
• Skip the Inbox: moves matching mail to Archive. It remains available to find and read.
• Move to Trash: moves matching mail to Trash. Start with a narrow condition and check the preview carefully before using this for mail you might need.
• Label: adds a custom label such as Billing or Newsletters. A label alone does not move the message out of Inbox. Reuse a suggestion under Used before to keep naming consistent.
• Mark as read: removes the unread state. It does not send a reply or confirm to the sender that you read the message.

Labels can be up to 80 characters. Folder names such as Inbox, Archive, Trash, Junk, Sent, and Drafts cannot be used as custom labels; select the appropriate folder action instead.

The dialog also offers Send to Junk and Never send to Junk. These are sender-only rules: they require a full sender address or an @example.com domain and cannot combine subject or body conditions, a label, or Mark as read. Switching to one clears the label and read action. Use the content actions above when your decision depends on a message's subject or body. Follow Blocking or allowing a sender for those sender-only controls.

If you use an out-of-office reply, remember that mail moved out of Inbox on arrival is not eligible for that reply. Check both outcomes when testing a new folder rule.

Preview and test before relying on a rule

The dialog checks a sample of up to 200 recent messages available to you. It shows how many match and may show example senders and subjects. This is a preview only: it does not change those messages, scan your complete history, or prove where future mail will land after other rules act.

No match can mean the wording or receiving address is wrong, but it can also mean the sample contains no relevant mail. If the preview says Couldn't check your recent mail, review the conditions and test with a new message after saving.

1. Save the rule for the intended receiving address.
2. Send a new message from an outside account you control that meets every condition. If the rule names a particular sender, use that sender for the test or wait for a genuine new message from them.
3. Find the message in Cedros. Check its receiving address, label, folder, and read state against the saved rule.
4. Send a second message that deliberately fails one condition. Confirm that it is not changed by this rule, allowing for any other rules that apply.
5. If the rule affects a shared address, confirm the result with the team before relying on it for routine mail.

A successful save confirms that the setting was stored; it does not prove that an incoming message matched. If the message itself is missing, follow Why aren't my emails arriving?.

Understand rule order and business-wide rules

Cedros applies every matching content rule, rather than stopping after the first match. Labels from different rules accumulate. If multiple matching rules move a message to Archive or Trash, the later folder-moving rule determines the final folder. A later Keep it in the Inbox rule does not undo an earlier move.

In Your mail rules, open a row's Rule actions menu and choose Move up or Move down to change the order of the content rules shown there. The change saves immediately; wait for the save confirmation and check the order again. Sender-only Junk rules do not have these order controls.

Business-wide rules can also affect your mail. The personal card shows a notice when these apply, but their rows are managed separately. An administrator can open Settings → Site → Mail → Rules for every address, select Add rule, and use the same content conditions and actions. After Save rule, wait for Site-wide mail rules saved.

Use that business-wide card only when the rule should apply across the site's receiving addresses. For a single address, use Your mail rules and check Applies to. If a business-wide rule and an address-specific rule both move the same mail, test the combined result; reordering the rows in one card does not give you a complete view of the other card's rules.

Edit or remove a rule

To change a rule, open its Rule actions menu, select Edit rule…, update the conditions or actions, and select Save rule. Check the saved row and test with new mail.

To stop a rule, choose Delete rule…, review Delete this rule?, and confirm Delete rule. Wait for the save confirmation and check that the row is gone. This stops that rule from acting on new mail; it does not disable other matching rules.

Deleting or editing a rule does not undo its earlier work. Use Finding and organizing messages to restore moved messages or change their read state. The message actions described there do not remove custom rule labels; ask support if an incorrect label needs correction. If you want to recreate a rule later, record its conditions, action, and receiving address before deleting it.

If a rule is unavailable or behaves unexpectedly

• The controls are missing. If you see Mail isn't running yet, ask the administrator to check mail setup. A Google connection alone may not expose these settings; do not change your mail hosting simply to remove the notice. If the service state is unavailable, use Try again.
• Add rule is unavailable or an address is missing. Check site-settings permission and that the address is active and available to your account. See Creating personal and shared email addresses.
• Save asks for a condition or action. Add at least one From, Subject, or Body condition. For Keep it in the Inbox, add a label or turn on Mark as read. Use a custom label rather than a folder name.
• Too many messages match. Use more distinctive text or add another condition. Every condition must match, so adding a subject condition can narrow a broad sender match.
• A matching message stayed unchanged. Check the saved receiving address, every condition, and whether the message arrived before the rule was saved. The preview does not apply rules to old mail.
• The label is right but the folder is wrong. Review other matching content rules, their order, and business-wide rules. Keep it in the Inbox does not reverse a folder move. Check any separate provider filters too.
• A save fails. Read the error and check your permission or connection. Confirm the saved row before assuming the change took effect; refresh the settings and retry if needed.

If you still need help, contact support with the receiving address, rule conditions and action, approximate arrival time, expected result, actual folder, and any error text. Avoid sending passwords or unnecessary private message content.