Filters and sorting don't work for me...
 

I know it may well be my fault but I have tried every change I know and stilll my rules don't seem to do what I ask them to do. Example: I want to send mail from a specific sender to a bespoke folder. I write rules identifying the sender by (1) complete email address, (2) @ plus domain name (3) just domain name (4) just one word in domain name. I don't do this all at once but these are the changes I've tried. I direct the messages to be sent to a folder with a simple 1 word name, and that word doesn't appear in any other folders. I write the rules and click "Save" after which each in turn appears in the list of rules for distribution. Yet when these messages come from the sender they invariably end up in either my inbox or my spam folder, not in the folder I'm trying to direct them to. Either I have gremlins or a bad technique; any suggestions?

For the ones going into spam, do you have those senders in your contacts?

For the others we would have to know what matching condition(s) you are using (for example, from email address is exactly foo@bar.com). Also is there some earlier rule in your rules list that may be matching first?

Per xyzzy's comment - you might have a pre-existing rule acting first.

Use the search feature in Rules to see if you have another rule that is hitting any part of your rule criteria first.

Yes... in fact I copied and pasted the email address of two of the domains I'm having trouble with from contacts to create the first set of distribution rules.

As I wrote earlier, I have tried "exactly" when matching both the entire email address and just the domain names. I have tried "contains" with the entire domain name and with key words in the domain. No, that was the first thing I thought of. I began this whole process by deleting every pre-existing rule pertaining to any of these domains and started fresh as I described above. I have been extremely careful with punctuation and syntax in matches etc. The worst part of this is that some of my delete and/or distribution rules work while others don't.

That was easier before FM decided to just toss all the rules into one bunch instead of having them separated clearly into "delete", "distribute" and "send copy".

Try reverting to the "old" rules code as a test?

One other point is that the new rules action has a checkbox to allow testing of additional rules. Make sure that isn't checked.

I don't understand... how do I do this? And then how do I return to the new format if I choose to?

I don't know how long it will be before I receive any messages from the domains in question to be able to report anything.

If you are currently using the new rules stuff then at the bottom of the Filters & Rules page you will see,

Click Return to the old rules and then Turn off new rules.

If you are currently using the old rules you will see at the top of the Rules page,

Click the Learn more and upgrade at the top and then Activate New Rules. When activating the new rules you also get an email from FastMail with the subject "Your rules have been updated".

If those rules you created are behaving differently between old and new then maybe you stumbled into some deficiency in the new code.

Update and caution for those with their own sieve code additions:
If you have to revert from the new rules back to the old rules for some reason the sieve code is reverted back to what it was at the time you switched from old to new. So any changes you make while in the new sieve code will be lost when you switch back to the old. Similarly for the rules set.

Thanks very much...