Download Bouce Message.workflow and place the file in ~/Library/Services/.
The “Bounce” functionality was one of my most used features of Mail, and it was particiarly handy in removing yourself from non-spam, non-automated mailing lists (such as recruiters and people you no longer want to hear from). This feature was removed in Lion/Mail 5! While this feature probably won’t ever be coming back, you can restore the functionality yourself in about 30 seconds using AppleScript and Automator.
1. Open Automator.
2. Create a new service.
3. Configure the service so that it has “no input” in “Mail”
4. Drag “Get Selected Mail Messages” into the workflow
5. Drag “Run Applescript” into the workflow
6. Use the following AppleScript, then save the workflow with a name like “Bounce Message”.
on run {input, parameters}
tell application "Mail"
repeat with eachMessage in input
bounce eachMessage
delete eachMessage # added as a suggestion to be more like the Apple functionality
end repeat
end tell
end run
7. In Mail, select the message you would like to bounce. Then from the “Mail” menu, choose “Services”, then click on your new service. The message will bounce.
« 7 Quick Tips Learned While Creating WeddingWare BackTrack 5 R1 and Older Wireless Dongles »
Cheers mate and thanks for this fresh point of view, I really enjoed it.
Yes, I too want the bounce mail feature back.
I’m happy you’re supplying the Apple Community with a work-around and that you care enough to share.
However, the script doesn’t work for me. I select the message, I select my new ‘Bounce Message’ service and nothing happens. And yes, I’ve already tried turning it off and on.
Any help would be appreciated.
Akiko
The script does work – you just don’t receive any feedback as you did previously. Try sending mail to yourself and bouncing it. I promise you it works.
Added:
delete eachMessage
to delete the message like Bounce did. :)
Thanks for the workflow!
its runs a little slower than bounce but it works. thanks
Nice! Thanks!!
Definitely works–definitely a little sluggish, but works perfectly.
Thanks for this!
Fucken useless
Nice comment… scumbag!
I sent a message to myself and tried bouncing it after applying the instructions 1 – 6 above. It did delete the message but it didn’t send a reply to myself confirming it had been bounced.
I’m still not sure whether an original sender would receive a bounced message.
Many thanks!
Great job
Thanks for the know how.
I’ve restored the Bounce feature
I am grateful
It works. Instructions a little hard to follow if you’ve never used Automator though. 1. Leave “Actions” selected on left side. On upper right side, choose “no input” from “Service receives”, then choose “Mail” from “in” Choose “Mail”. , then drag “Get Selected Messages” to the right side. Then choose “Utilities” from left side and drag “Run Applescript” to right side. Cut and paste the text from above into the open space for the script. Start exactly with “on” and end with, well… “end”. No extra spaces or anything else. Choose File, Save, and name it appropriately. Their final instructions work just fine.
Anyway, that is how I got it to work.
just fantastic, thanks for heads up !!
TB
Thank you so much! The first time I tried it, no luck, but when I tried again to bounce a message from one of my email accounts to another, it worked like a dream.
I tested this by sending myself a message from my yahoo account. I found it VERY fast and it did send a mail returned message to my yahoo account once I had “bounced” it.
Many thanks for spelling out the steps one by one for those of us who aren’t good at programming. It’s a great workaround.
Now can anyone tell me if Apple generates or sends “Read Receipts”?
I do not see the Run Applescript in the side bar. Should I see it somewhere else?
Bev,
Make sure you followed all the directions in the post. Then, in Mail.app, look under menu “Mail” then go down to “Services”. Whatever you named your Automator workflow will be the name of the service.
There is an app available for bouncing email. Called BounceMyX on iTunes store
Thanks for sharing David.
It works!
But in my experience only messages sent to my mac.com/me.com address bounces successfully back to sender
Messages to third party accounts does not bounce.
BTW
If you do not want to delete the message you bounce
there is an easy and nondestructive way to verify that your script is running, simply by adding an extra line
beep 2
Which provides (yup) a wee sound – twice.
Terje,
Interesting – I have had it work with my Gmail account. I would be curious to see what happens when you say it doesn’t work with your other accounts – there is no technical reason I could think of this wouldn’t work.
-d
The first time I needed to bounce a message in Lion, I couldn’t believe it was missing. Your solution was simple and elegant. Works great! Gave me a nice intro to Automator, something I’ve ignored thus far.
Love it, thanks!
Apple are jerks to remove stuff like this…….
Omg… thank you, thank you, thank you!!! & thank u to “Imbigulator” for extra clarification. Here’s more for the truly Applescript for Dummies folk (myself included). Automator is under the Launchpad icon in your bar (Lion)… or do a search under Macintosh HD. That’s right, I didn’t know what or where it was. Also, when you drag Run Applescript over it opens w. a few written lines. Clear it (delete) and then cut & paste the text from above instruction. I initially cut&paste above text in the “script goes here” parenthesis, it did not work until I deleted all other written text around it.
ok, i’m bamboozled. how do i save this in Automator…? do i save it as a Workflow or Application? and where do i save it?
the instructions say to “save the workflow”, but don’t say where – so i saved it as a workflow under Library/Services, restarted Mail, selected a message and looked under the Services menu: there’s nothing there.
pls would you clarify? many thanks!
Thank-you, Im am not techie person. Just a girl with a computer and I could follow your steps.
So happy to have bounce back and sent a message to apple as well.
Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you
thanks for this info. unfortunately i am not adept at programming. at least I know that what had been there is missing and i am not the only one upset.
This still works — but read the comments for more details. I followed Imbigulator’s notes and it worked perfectly – including deleting the message and sending a bounce notice to sender. Thanks to all who contributed!
ONLY works with @mac.com accounts. I bounced my own email and got an email from “postoffice@mac.com” but tried to bounce an email i sent from my Yahoo account and it didn’t send the Yahoo account an email.
I WANT TO BE ABLE TO BOUNCE EMAILSSSSSS!!! AHHHHH! LOL Please apple, this is a helpful tool!
the only problem with it is if you use the script the mail gets bounce with a header created and not the original header.
for example. I get most of my spam to my .Mac address, but my main email address that I use now is .me , as configured in mail. This bounce will return the mail to sender as if it was sent to my .me address. defeating to point.
what’s really needed , not sure if its possible . Is for someone to build a proper app or plugin that parses the selected emails header and truly build a convincing bounce. There are lots of circumstances that the current scripting will not work.
totally awesome!!
thank you!
works like a charm….
apple needs to leave well enough alone, i.e. fix the wireless problem with retina MBP’s
suhWEET! Thanks guys.
A couple of notes: In automator, drag “Get selected mail items”, it doesn’t say messages until it’s in the workflow window. And you can edit the script in place, no need to put anything anywhere now!
Finally, I took the liberty of adjusting the script. Instead of deleting the messages, I change their color. I still have to delete them, but I know they were bounced.
set background color of eachMessage to red
Thanks!