Wondering if any brave souls that use the MailSuite plug-ins (specifically Mail Act-On) upgraded to Sonoma and tried out the Mail app.
How is it? Does the new Mail app allow to easily move messages and create mailboxes/groups via keyboard shortcut?
Any other thoughts on the new Mail app that could help a Mailsuite user?
Thanks!
any “older than Sonoma” mail plugin won’t work at all; Apple has switched to mail extensions, which have a much weaker API (set of instructions programmers use to integrate into the operating system) than plugins did.
The creators of MailSuite have determined they have to make an entire email client with the capabilities of their former plugins to continue operating as a company. No ETA for completion of the mail client.
I plan to upgrade to Sonoma soon, and not wait for SmallCubed to come out with its mail client to replace MailSuite. If the app is release later, then I’ll consider using it instead of Sonoma Mail. Most of my use of MailSuite is now limited to projects and smart groups along with local on-my-Mac mailboxes will cover that for me. Knowing that MailSuite would not work in SonomaMail, I curtailed my use of MailSuite tags and color coding several months ago. I’ve used MailSuite for years, and I’m sad to let it go, but keeping the OS current is always a higher priority for me than keeping a specific app current.
Katie
That’s a monumental task, I would say SmallCubed have been seriously damaged by Apple’s direction around mail extensions. Similar case to what happened with the old SIMBL plugins.
I can’t think of a harder task, save writing your own internet browser. So many edge cases to consider. In fact, I think that’s the main reason it’s so hard.
Unfortunately Mail still does not have a good keyboard shortcut to move messages to a specific folder.
BUT, I recently came across a very good work around if you use Alfred: the “Menu Bar Search” Workflow (by Benzi Ahmed).
This workflow allows you to trigger a popup that gives you type-ahead access to any menu command in the active app. In Mail, this includes the ability to move messages to specific folders. The trigger defaults to be a double-tap on the command key. So, for example:
I suspect the scripts that the Alfred workflow uses could also be adapted for Raycast or BTT or some other tool.
Unfortunately, there’s no menu access for navigating to a folder. But it this fills a big hole in Mail’s feature set for me. (That said, I use MailMate because it has much better keyboard support).
You can use the keyboard shortcut to open the Help menu, too, and then start typing the name of your folder, and it will give you “copy to” and “move to” options for that folder. I’m sitting here on my iPad right now, but I have started using that with some frequency.
That is fantastic. I use Alfred as well so moving messages via Alfred works. Navigating to/opening a specific folder is also something that. I guess part of the equation has been solved!
Creating a new folder via shortcuts is another issue.
You can do that too by choosing the “New Mailbox…” Menu item. The resulting dialog box allows you to pick a location and give the mailbox a name.
Personally, I’m not creating new folders very frequently—and nothing compared to the dozens of emails I’m filing away every day.
That’s a good one! thanks for this!
Downloaded and installed the workflow. Doesn’t seem to work for me because (I think) the folders I want to move the messages to are in my gmail account. Even though it is one of the mailboxes shown in the left pane of Mail - the folders are not listed within my Alfred window. I’ve tried to restart both Mail and Alred.
I don’t have gmail, so I cannot confirm whether gmail is the cause of the problem. It does work with both Exchange and iCloud accounts.
Can you see the mailboxes in the menu item Message > Move to > [mailbox list]?
Yes, I can see all my gmail folders in Message>Move to>[mailboxes]
Hmm, then the Alfred menu selection tool ought to be able to find those commands when you invoke it. Are you able to access other menu commands with the Alfred tool?
Yes, I can but just no options within Alfred. (Sorry for the delay!)
Yes, I can access a bunch of other menu items though Alfred but it doesn’t go “as deep” as gmail folders.
@ciaran I’ve been really struggling all the time sine i updated to Sonoma not having Mail-Act-On email moving shortcut. Today, I came across this thread and your post and this really gave me a hope! I tried to follow your steps, typed “m” + “space”, while start writing the “Client Name” but it finds another “Folder” with a command to move, yet not finding the right folder.
Are there any additional settings that has to be tweaked or adjusted to improve how Alfred & Menu Bar Search finds all the folders. Mail-Act-On always had a really good options. May be my Alfred settings and file indexing has to be somehow changed in the settings?
I would really appreciate if you could help with your advice.
@sonofy, I can only report that this continues to work well for me. In case you want to double-check settings, I have:
Menu Bar Search set up to use a double tap of the option key as the Hotkey trigger
After that, the following works every time:
option twice to invoke Aflred’s find menu commandThis works for me with both an Exchange account and with an iCloud account, including going at least two folder-levels deep.
@MacDependent reported having issues getting this to work with gmail. But I cannot confirm.
Hi everyone! I am a new member. I have not updated to Sonoma because I don’t want to lose Mail ActOn. But now I am having font issues.
I need to file and send to the appropriate folder in one movement —as Mail ActOn allows—because I have repetitive stress injury and need to reduce keystrokes as much as possible.
Any help and suggestions are greatly appreciated!
Does Alfred provide file and send?
Many thanks!