You can use Mail rules to keep your inbox organized. The Settings → Mail rules screen is organized into three sections: Blocked senders, Spam protection, and Rules.
Blocked senders
If you receive unwanted messages from the same senders, you can block them. You can also block entire domains, so you don't receive mail from any address sent from a specific domain.
Mail sent from blocked senders and domains will automatically be moved to your Trash folder, so these messages won’t appear in your Inbox anymore. Senders in your Contacts cannot be blocked.
Block sender from a message
When viewing a message, click the Actions menu at the top right hand side of the email, then click Block [sender].
The person who sent this message will now be added to your blocked senders, which can be viewed and edited on your Settings → Mail rules → Blocked senders screen.
Block sender from Settings
To block senders from your Settings screen, go to Settings → Mail rules screen. Next to Blocked senders, click on View and edit. On the next screen, you'll see a list of any senders you currently have blocked. If you'd like to add a new sender to this list, type their email address or domain in the appropriate field, and click Block. To block any address from an entire domain, enter the domain: domain.tld.
Spam protection
Fastmail uses many tools that help catch and stop as much spam as possible. If you're receiving too much spam, you can adjust your spam filtering.
For ease of use, we provide three levels of spam filtering: Basic, Standard, and Aggressive, which adjust how we treat spam. This controls whether spam is moved to the Spam folder, or deleted, and whether mail from known spam hosts is blocked. If you'd like greater control, you can use the Custom settings to refine further.
More detailed information about spam protection can be found on our spam protection help page.
Rules
Rules can be used to automatically perform actions on messages that are sent to your mailbox, like moving them into a folder, or forwarding them to another account. Rules are created from our web interface, but they still function even if you use a mail client to read your mail.
A rule has two parts: conditions that a message must have for a rule to take place, and the actions to take when a message matches the condition(s).
When you create a rule, you also have the option to apply it to any messages currently in your mailbox that match the conditions you've set up, so rules can be handy tools to organize your mail in one swoop.
Creating a new rule
There are three ways to create a new rule:
- Create a new rule based on the current message
- Create a new rule from the Settings → Mail rules screen
- Create a new rule from a search.
Creating rules from the current message
When viewing a message, click the Actions menu at the top right hand side of the email, then click the Add rule from message... option. A popup appears that lets you quickly build a rule based on the sender, recipient, subject, or mailing list ID of the current message.
At the top of the popup, you can set the conditions that the message must meet for the rule to take effect. We automatically fill in some matching conditions, such as the From and To addresses of the message, but you can remove or add conditions as you'd like.
You can then choose what will happen to a message if it meets the rule conditions. If you'd like more rules to run on the message after this rule, tick off the option to Continue to apply other rules. This option can't be ticked off if you're creating a rule to move or delete a message, though.
If you'd like, you can enter a name for the rule in the Name section, so you can write yourself a note about the rule's purpose.
If the rule looks good, click Save.
Once the rule is created and saved, you can find the rule in the Settings → Mail rules screen, where it can be edited. Rules are applied from top to bottom, so if you'd like to reorder your rules so that certain ones run first, drag and drop your rules.
Creating rules in the Settings screen
To edit rules or create a new rule from scratch, open the Settings → Mail rules screen, and click on Create rule. On the following screen, you can input conditions for your rule, such as the From or To address, or the subject of the message. If you want to add multiple conditions, click on Add condition.
If you're building a rule with more complex needs, click Switch to no-preview rules (regular expressions supported). Rules can't be previewed when using this option, and this option is recommended for more advanced users.
Once you've added the conditions you need, click Continue. You'll be brought to a preview screen in your mailbox. If any messages in your mailbox match your rule conditions, you'll see them here.
If everything looks OK, then click Create rule. On the popup that appears, you can choose what will happen to a message if it meets the rule conditions, and whether the rule should apply to current matching messages now, to new incoming messages, or both.
If you'd like more rules to run on the message after this rule, tick off the option to Continue to apply other rules. This option can't be ticked off if you're creating a rule to move or delete a message, though.
If you'd like, you can enter a name for the rule in the Name section, so you can write yourself a note about the rule's purpose.
Once the rule looks good, click Save. You'll be brought back to your Settings → Mail rules screen where you can view the rule.
Creating rules from a search
When searching your mailbox, you can create a rule from your search query by clicking the Create rule button that appears in the search bar.
On the popup that appears, you can choose what will happen to a message if it meets the rule conditions, and whether the rule should apply to current matching messages now, to new incoming messages, or both.
If you'd like more rules to run on the message after this rule, tick off the option to Continue to apply other rules. This option can't be ticked off if you're creating a rule to move or delete a message, though.
If you'd like, you can enter a name for the rule in the Name section, so you can write yourself a note about the rule's purpose.
Rule conditions
When you take an action on messages, you create a rule that only applies to messages which match a set of conditions.
Conditions can be combined within a single rule. Either:
-
all conditions must be met:
condition1andcondition2andcondition3 -
any condition must be met:
condition1orcondition2orcondition3
Each condition can examine a different part of a message. For ease, we allow you to set up a rule with some common conditions, such as:
- From
- To/Cc/Bcc
- Subject
- Body
- Anywhere
A full list of conditions can be seen when creating a rule.
If you're building a rule with more complex needs, click switch to no-preview rules (regular expressions supported). Rules can't be previewed when using this option, and this option is recommended for more advanced users.
Rule actions
Once the rule condition has been met, the rule action is applied to the message.
The following actions can be taken on a message:
- Mark read — any messages that match your condition(s) will be marked read
- Pin — any messages that match your condition(s) will be pinned
- Notify me — if you have notifications, you'll be notified if any message that matches your condition(s) is received
- Send a copy to — with this option, a copy of messages that match your condition(s) can be sent to one or more external email address(es)
- Move to — any messages that match your condition(s) will be moved to another folder of your choosing
- Delete to Trash — any messages that match your condition(s) will automatically move to your Trash folder. This is a good option if you'd like to block messages from a certain sender.
Importing and exporting rules
If you'd like to import rules from a Fastmail or Gmail account, you can do so on the Settings → Mail rules screen. To import your rules from another account, click the Import button. On the following page, click Choose a file and then select the JSON or XML file containing the rules you'd like to import.
You can export your account's rules as a JSON file, and later import them into any account that accepts importing rules in JSON format. To download your account's rules into a JSON file, go to the the Settings → Mail rules screen and click Export. Your file will automatically begin downloading.