86

If I have multiple filters that match the same email do they all get processed? If so, in what order are they processed? What if the first filter matched modifies the email to make it match (or no longer match) a different filter?

Improve this question

7 Answers 7

Reset to default
41

I just tried it, and it seems that they happen in the order they are defined in the list:

If you have:

  1. Star email message from:foo
  2. Apply label to is:starred

... then it will apply the label to the message. If you reverse the order, it won't.

Improve this answer
1
  • 7
    The caveat is that when you have multiple filters that skip the inbox, filters are processed in order but each mail is subject to all the filters before it is processed.
    – blee
    Aug 28, 2012 at 17:19
18

I have two filters, A and B, and two labels, A and B. If filter A is applicable to an email then I wanted label A to be applied to the email and for that email to skip the inbox and be archived.

I also want to do the same thing with filter B, but I don't want label B to be applied if label A has been applied.

It turns out this can be done.

  1. In filter B adjust the filter so it reads -label:[FilterA] AND [ rest of filter B ]. This will cause filter B to by bypassed if label A has been applied.

  2. Make sure filter B is listed AFTER filter A in the list. If this is not the case just open filter B and re-save it.

Note that Gmail may throw up a message about using "label" as a filter is not recommended because it cause the filter to not be applied to any incoming messages. I just ignored it, this seemed to work.

Improve this answer
2
  • 2
    Awesome, this is what I wanted to know!
    – Hiro2k
    Mar 20, 2016 at 9:51
  • 1
    If there are multiple possible labels that could be applied and you only want one of them, a generalization of this is to do has:nouserlabels AND <whatever else>. E.g. I filter emails from my school into many categories and then have a catch-all for anything else from:(school.edu) AND has:nouserlabels. Just make sure that any labels that should take higher priority occur earlier in the list.
    – Nathan
    Mar 19, 2019 at 17:25
7

The only exception to bbodiens comment (I was just about to post almost exactly the same answer!!) is that one would expect a 'marked as read' and 'archived' message to essentially skip further filtering, but this is not the case.

To test this i set up two test filters, one that labels incoming mail with the subject 'testing' as test1 and archives it, and a second filter on 'testing' that labels test2.

The mail was archived AND labeled twice, so it appears that filters are concurrent.

Improve this answer
5
  • 2
    Bad test and incorrect conclusion -1
    – Dan Rosenstark
    Nov 29, 2010 at 20:58
  • 2
    I find that my filters are concurrent as well .. @Yar, can you explain how to avoid this?
    – farinspace
    Aug 19, 2013 at 14:56
  • @farinspace isn't there a thing on the filters to "not process further filters" or something?
    – Dan Rosenstark
    Sep 18, 2013 at 16:21
  • @Yar I would love to know where I can find that setting.
    – sxu
    Feb 20, 2014 at 17:27
  • @sxu there's no way to do that, unfortunately, it turns out. The filters all apply, sequentially, unless something moves to the trash.
    – Dan Rosenstark
    Mar 17, 2015 at 21:59
4

Any and all GMail filter rules that match will run and do their thing.

I'm not sure it's possible to create rules that potentially conflict. The filter criteria available are:

  • From
  • To
  • Subject
  • Containing words
  • Doesn't contain words
  • Has attachment

You can't affect any of these with the filter actions that are available, so I don't see how one rule could run and then affect the message in a way that would stop it matching another filter that it would have previously matched.

Improve this answer
2
  • 2
    you can add a label to a message and have a filter which uses label:, see this question.
    – Senseful
    Jul 7, 2010 at 22:25
  • See also my answer which shows an example of this.
    – Senseful
    Aug 3, 2010 at 0:00
1

From Gmail help:

Fun fact: these actions will take place in the order they're listed -- for example, you could choose to Forward matching messages to a specific email address, then Delete the messages.

Improve this answer
2
  • 6
    This "fun fact" is not about the order of multiple filters, but about the order of multiple actions within the same filter. It does appear that the filters are processed in the order listed, but the documentation does not say that.
    – user79865
    Aug 2, 2015 at 17:26
  • -1. As @NormalHuman noted, this "answer" doesn't answer the question.
    – Rubén ♦
    Aug 4, 2015 at 2:26
1

I think these two filters in this order will cause the email to remain in the inbox:

  1. If From:[email protected] then "Skip the Inbox".
  2. If From:@bar.com then "Never send it to Spam".
Improve this answer
2
  • Even though this answer is a bit off-topic, thanks for putting it here. I ran into this exact non-intuitive behavior.
    – dpb
    Dec 12, 2014 at 18:16
  • Anyone know a workaround to this? Is it just a matter of reversing the order of the filters?
    – Simon East
    Aug 8 at 7:35
0

If you have several filters, which each have as action to apply a label, then all the labels for all the matching filters will be applied to the email.

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.