Support
Contact
Email support@mailflarelabs.com. Please include your macOS version and, if relevant, the last lines of the diagnostic log (see where to find it).
Common questions
The alert didn't appear for a message.
Check that a rule matches the sender or subject (rules are case-insensitive; domains also match subdomains), and that alerts aren't paused and quiet hours aren't active. If you've added more than one Gmail account, check that the rule's Watch setting includes the account the mail arrived in, and that the menu doesn't ask you to Sign In Again. A rule set to "Only alert if the sender is verified" stays quiet when Gmail can't verify the sender. On its first launch MailFlare stays quiet about mail already in your inbox. After that, mail that arrived while it wasn't running alerts when it starts, if the mail is less than 24 hours old.
Check that a rule matches the sender or subject (rules are case-insensitive; domains also match subdomains), and that alerts aren't paused and quiet hours aren't active. If you've added more than one Gmail account, check that the rule's Watch setting includes the account the mail arrived in, and that the menu doesn't ask you to Sign In Again. A rule set to "Only alert if the sender is verified" stays quiet when Gmail can't verify the sender. On its first launch MailFlare stays quiet about mail already in your inbox. After that, mail that arrived while it wasn't running alerts when it starts, if the mail is less than 24 hours old.
What does "Sender not verified" mean?
Gmail checks whether mail really comes from the domain in its From address. When that check fails, the alert says the sender is not verified and the address may be forged. Open the message in Gmail before acting on it. To stop such mail from alerting at all, turn on "Only alert if the sender is verified" for the rule. Leave it off for rules about your own company: mail inside the same Google Workspace can't be verified.
Gmail checks whether mail really comes from the domain in its From address. When that check fails, the alert says the sender is not verified and the address may be forged. Open the message in Gmail before acting on it. To stop such mail from alerting at all, turn on "Only alert if the sender is verified" for the rule. Leave it off for rules about your own company: mail inside the same Google Workspace can't be verified.
Can it alert on every email?
No — a rule with no senders, domains, or keywords never matches. MailFlare is meant for the few messages you can't miss.
No — a rule with no senders, domains, or keywords never matches. MailFlare is meant for the few messages you can't miss.
Does it read my email?
Only what it needs to check your rules, and only on your Mac. To spot new mail it reads your mailbox's change history, which lists message identifiers and labels such as Unread, not what the messages say. For each new message it then reads the sender, subject, date, the short preview Gmail provides, and Gmail's check of whether the sender is genuine. It never downloads full messages or attachments, keeps message identifiers but not message content, and sends nothing to us or anyone else. The Privacy Policy has the details.
Only what it needs to check your rules, and only on your Mac. To spot new mail it reads your mailbox's change history, which lists message identifiers and labels such as Unread, not what the messages say. For each new message it then reads the sender, subject, date, the short preview Gmail provides, and Gmail's check of whether the sender is genuine. It never downloads full messages or attachments, keeps message identifiers but not message content, and sends nothing to us or anyone else. The Privacy Policy has the details.
What do the people suggestions look at?
While the setup assistant or Settings is open, MailFlare looks at the sender, subject, and date of up to 100 inbox messages from the last 30 days, and at who you sent up to 50 messages to in the last 90 days. It uses them only to suggest people for your rules and to show which recent mail a rule would match. They are held in memory on your Mac, never saved to disk, and discarded when you close the window or sign out. See Information MailFlare accesses in the Privacy Policy.
While the setup assistant or Settings is open, MailFlare looks at the sender, subject, and date of up to 100 inbox messages from the last 30 days, and at who you sent up to 50 messages to in the last 90 days. It uses them only to suggest people for your rules and to show which recent mail a rule would match. They are held in memory on your Mac, never saved to disk, and discarded when you close the window or sign out. See Information MailFlare accesses in the Privacy Policy.
Where is the diagnostic log?
Click the MailFlare icon in the menu bar, choose Settings…, and click Open config.json. Finder opens the folder with
Click the MailFlare icon in the menu bar, choose Settings…, and click Open config.json. Finder opens the folder with
config.json selected; the log is mailflare.log in the same folder, and older lines move to mailflare.old.log.What does the log record, and what is verbose logging?
The log records what MailFlare did: which messages matched a rule or were skipped, alerts shown and dismissed, sign-in changes, and errors. Messages appear only as Gmail identifiers; sender addresses, subjects, rule names, and your account address are written as
The log records what MailFlare did: which messages matched a rule or were skipped, alerts shown and dismissed, sign-in changes, and errors. Messages appear only as Gmail identifiers; sender addresses, subjects, rule names, and your account address are written as
[redacted]. Verbose logging is a troubleshooting switch, off unless you turn it on, that writes those details into the log too, so you can see why a message did or didn't alert. It never adds the preview or the message itself. Either way the log stays on your Mac and is never sent anywhere. To turn verbose logging on, run defaults write com.mailflarelabs.MailFlare verboseLogging -bool true in Terminal; to turn it off, run defaults delete com.mailflarelabs.MailFlare verboseLogging. You can delete mailflare.log at any time.Can it watch more than one Gmail account?
Yes. In Settings, choose Gmail Account and click Add Account…. Each rule watches every account unless you pick one in the rule's Watch setting.
Yes. In Settings, choose Gmail Account and click Add Account…. Each rule watches every account unless you pick one in the rule's Watch setting.
How do I disconnect a Google account?
In Settings, choose Gmail Account and click Sign Out next to the account. MailFlare revokes that account's access with Google and removes its token from your Keychain. You can also remove MailFlare's access at myaccount.google.com/permissions.
In Settings, choose Gmail Account and click Sign Out next to the account. MailFlare revokes that account's access with Google and removes its token from your Keychain. You can also remove MailFlare's access at myaccount.google.com/permissions.
How do I remove everything MailFlare stored?
Sign out of each account, quit MailFlare, and delete its folder in
Sign out of each account, quit MailFlare, and delete its folder in
~/Library/Containers/ (it is named com.mailflarelabs.MailFlare and may appear in Finder as MailFlare). That removes your rules, settings, the log, and the message identifiers MailFlare kept.