Email sorting...

[cowman]

Back in the pre-smartphone days I used to set up folders in my email client and have rules for them. Basically dumped all the notification emails that I don't need to read but might want to refer to later in folders.... stuff like UPS tracking numbers, order confirmations, bill paid notifications, etc, etc.

These days 98% of the time when I check my email it's on my iphone which doesn't support folders/rules. As far as I can tell, gmail doesn't let you do this either... they have some category/labels thing but it doesn't seem to let me manually create folders and sorting rules and it doesn't do much good on my phone.

Anyone know an app or some hidden button to hit in gmail to get it to do what I want? I can't believe we've come so far and lost this basic email feature. I'm sick of manually deleting dozens of useless emails every day or having a cluttered inbox all the time.

 

[Initial Fix]

You didn’t say what phone. But I switched to Outlook on my iPhone as is provides folders, filters and more.

 

[Justin M]

How about leaving outlook open on the home computer with client rules to move the emails?

 

[FoCoJayco]

You can achieve what you’re trying to do with Gmail and the Gmail client. But the mental model is a bit different. I had to get used to this when switching from Outlook at work to Workspace. The key is that unless you archive the emails, they all stay in your Inbox. But you can apply labels, and even mark them as read so they don’t clutter your Inbox when they match your rules (e.g. UPS tracking).

When you setup your filter, create a label as part of creating the filter, and then you pick the desired outcome:

For those you want to keep but may never read them, tick the Mark as read, and then pick your desired label.
For those you intend to read, only apply the label.

Then on your phone, tap the menu, scroll towards the bottom and pick your desired label. Looks and feels a lot like folders. The difference for me is that my Inbox still had all the messages, just with labels applied so it is different.

 

[cowman]

Yeah I've seen that stuff. I think the problem is my personality/workflow isn't compatible with the "new way" apple and google seem to want us to do it. I can't not look at the whole inbox. If I'm filtering to only see certain things I'll have to look at the whole thing in case I missed something. Moving known quantities off to specific folders just works better for how I think and like to work. *sigh*

 

[mandm]

You can with Google move emails to certain folders, mark as read or unread, skip the inbox, or create a label to find the emails that meet your criteria (UPS tracking etc).

 

[cowman]

You can with Google move emails to certain folders, mark as read or unread, skip the inbox, or create a label to find the emails that meet your criteria (UPS tracking etc).

You mean move it manually? I know about the label and read/unread stuff.
What I really want to do is create a rule that runs automatically
IF sender == "UPS" THEN MOVE email TO upsfolder

 

[mandm]

You mean move it manually? I know about the label and read/unread stuff.
What I really want to do is create a rule that runs automatically
IF sender == "UPS" THEN MOVE email TO upsfolder

Yes you can create a rule in gmail that runs automatically. Sorry don’t have the details and steps in front of me right now but you can do it.