How do I get rid of a phantom filter in gmail?

August 5, 2015 6:26 PM

Some time ago, I took the misguided step of setting up a filter in gmail to send all emails from Sierra Trading Post straight to trash. Then I'd still be able to access the discount codes if I wanted to buy something, but I wouldn't be tempted by/inundated with emails during non-shopping periods. I've since deleted the filter, but gmail still sends all emails from STP--including order confirmations--to trash. Even weirder, I cannot seem to undelete the messages. What is going on? Does Sergey Brin have some evil scheme to be the only person with cool outerwear?

Some more details:

• I've checked my gmail filters and until I created one just yesterday (more on that in a bit) there was nothing for STP.
• Messages go straight to trash. I can search for "Sierra in:anywhere" and pull them up, but I cannot undelete them either by removing the "trash" label or hitting the "move to inbox" button. After a split second, it adds the "trash" label back on.
• I can forward the messages to myself (at the same gmail address). gmail warns that I'm trying to forward a deleted message and asks if I want to move it to inbox. I say yes. The message that I send myself will appear in and stay in my inbox, but the original email from STP is severed from the conversation and moved to trash (my previous filter was set up to handle messages from [e-mail]).
• I've set up a new filter on that STP email address. The filter settings are never send to spam, mark as important. This does bupkis. Nothing is going to spam anyway--it all goes to trash.
• I usually access gmail on my laptop with Firefox and on my Android phone using the native app. I have two-step verification set up, with an access code to use the Android app.

posted by mama casserole to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Best answer: This happens to my wife as well. Do you use unroll.me possibly? We got it to stop happening, but it started again and we haven't figured out for certain what the problem is.
posted by mkb at 8:05 PM on August 5, 2015

One step to fix it was removing access to third party apps.
posted by mkb at 8:06 PM on August 5, 2015

I have had a similar problem, but not exact. I first unsubscribed to the email subscription I was having the problem with. Then, about a week later, I subscribed again, but this time I slightly altered the email address by putting in a period. GMail does not care, but I thought it was slightly different. Then, when I got my first new email, I set up a filter that moved it to a label called, "Subscriptions", checked the skip the inbox (so I would not see it unless I looked in the label), checked never send it to spam or trash. This seemed to work.

If you have more than one GMail address or want to create a second one that you could use for signing up for subscriptions and solicitations, you could set up a filter in the 2nd address that forwards all to your main email or some subset you choose.

I agree with mkb that this could be happening from some setting on your phone or tablet or elsewhere. Try logging out of every place you are logged in, then log in via the web and setup whatever filter you wish. Then log back in to your phone or other devices.
posted by AugustWest at 8:28 PM on August 5, 2015

Response by poster: Oh jeez. It looks like it was unroll.me. I don't remember setting it up, but when I clicked mkb's link to third-party apps, there it was with an authorization date from last year. I removed access, and now I can undelete the STP emails.

Thank you both!
posted by mama casserole at 4:25 AM on August 6, 2015

Thanks for the confirmation. Now I can tell my wife the sad news.
posted by mkb at 6:10 AM on August 6, 2015

I'm not familiar with their coupon-code-sending patterns, but if they are not the single-use kind, just bouncing into retailmenot's STP section as needed could be easier?
posted by kmennie at 10:10 AM on August 6, 2015

Response by poster: They are usually the triple-use kind. Which, unfortunately, makes retailmenot somewhat useless for STP because you have to sift through a lot of spent codes to get to one that works (and usually that's just 20-35% off whereas the emailed codes often are 50-65% or so, depending on the item).
posted by mama casserole at 10:26 AM on August 6, 2015