What Is a Smart Mailbox in Mac Mail? How to Use One

Short answer: A Smart Mailbox in Apple Mail is a saved search that lives in your sidebar. You give it conditions, such as From contains a name, or Contains attachments, and it shows every matching email from all your accounts and mailboxes, updating as new mail arrives. Nothing is moved or copied: the emails stay where they are. To make one on a Mac, choose Mailbox > New Smart Mailbox, name it, set the conditions and click OK. Some people call them smart folders; Apple's name is Smart Mailboxes.

Steps are for macOS 27 and match macOS Tahoe 26, Sequoia 15 and Sonoma 14. Condition names below are copied from Mail's menus in macOS 27, so you can find them exactly as written.

What is a Smart Mailbox?

A normal mailbox is a place: you move an email into it, and it stays there. A Smart Mailbox is a view. It asks a question ("show me unread mail from my clients this week") and lists whatever answers it, wherever those emails are stored. Apple's example is a Smart Mailbox that shows all the email about one project, regardless of which mailboxes it's in.

You probably use one already. Mail ships with a Smart Mailbox called Today, which shows emails you've viewed today, and the VIPs mailbox is a Smart Mailbox too: it collects inbox mail from people you've starred as VIPs. If you don't see the Smart Mailboxes section, move the pointer over it in the sidebar and click the button that appears.

	Regular mailbox (folder)	Smart Mailbox
What it is	A real location on your Mac or mail server	A saved search shown in the sidebar
How mail gets in	You or a rule moves it there	Any email that matches the conditions appears
Same email in several?	No, unless you copy it	Yes, in as many as it matches
Across accounts	Belongs to one account (or On My Mac)	Can cover all accounts at once
Deleting it	Deletes the mailbox and the emails in it	Removes the view; the emails stay
On iPhone and iPad	Yes, for server mailboxes	No, Mac only

Anything you do to an email inside a Smart Mailbox, such as marking it read, moving it or deleting it, happens to the email in its real mailbox.

How to create a Smart Mailbox on a Mac

In Mail, choose Mailbox > New Smart Mailbox.
Type a name, such as Clients or Receipts.
Set the first condition. Click the first pop-up menu and choose an option, such as From, Subject or Sender is member of group, then fill in the rest (for From, choose contains or begins with and type a name).
Click the add button (+) to add more conditions, or the remove button (-) to drop one.
With two or more conditions, choose whether a message must match any or all of them.
Select Include messages from Trash or Include messages from Sent if you want those mailboxes searched too.
Click OK. The Smart Mailbox appears under Smart Mailboxes in the sidebar.

Save a search as a Smart Mailbox

If you've just searched for something you'll want again, you don't have to rebuild it by hand. Before you clear the search field, click the Save button above the message list, adjust the name and conditions if you like, and click OK. Apple documents this for macOS Sequoia 15; macOS 27's Mail still has the Save Search button.

Conditions you can use

The full list is long. These are the ones that do the most work:

From, Any recipient, Subject and Entire message, with contains, does not contain, begins with, ends with or is.
Sender is VIP and Sender is member of group (a group from Contacts).
Message is unread or Message is read.
Message is flagged, or Message has flag with a specific color.
Message was not replied to or Message was replied to.
Contains attachments, and Attachment type (such as PDF, Image or Presentation).
Date received or Date last viewed: is today, is this week, is in the last so many days, weeks or months, and more.
Account, and Message is in mailbox or Message is not in mailbox.
Priority is high, normal or low.

Smart Mailbox ideas that are worth setting up

Smart Mailbox	Match	Conditions
VIPs waiting on me	all	Sender is VIP; Message was not replied to; Date received is in the last 14 days
Attachments this week	all	Contains attachments; Date received is this week
Invoices and receipts	any	Subject contains invoice; Subject contains receipt; Attachment type is PDF
Unread today	all	Message is unread; Date received is today
Red flags	all	Message has flag Red
Work only	all	Account is your work account; Message is unread

Combine these with flags and colors and you get a lot of control without moving a single email. Our guides to color coding in Mac Mail and flags in Mac Mail pair well with the Red flags idea.

Edit, duplicate, rename or delete a Smart Mailbox

Edit: double-click the Smart Mailbox in the sidebar, or select it and choose Mailbox > Edit Smart Mailbox. Change the conditions and click OK.
Duplicate: select it and choose Mailbox > Duplicate Smart Mailbox, then edit the copy. Handy for variations, such as the same client filter for two different accounts.
Rename: select it and choose Mailbox > Rename.
Delete: select it and choose Mailbox > Delete. Only the Smart Mailbox goes; the emails it showed stay in their original mailboxes.

To group several Smart Mailboxes, choose Mailbox > New Smart Mailbox Folder, name it and drag Smart Mailboxes into it. Selecting the folder shows the emails from all of them together.

Smart Mailboxes, rules or categories?

Smart Mailboxes leave mail where it is and give you a view. Best when one email belongs to several "piles" at once, or when you don't want to file anything.
Rules (Mail > Settings > Rules) act on mail as it arrives: move it, color it, flag it, forward it. Best when you want something to actually happen.
Categories (Primary, Transactions, Updates, Promotions) are Mail's automatic sorting, added in macOS Sequoia 15.4 and not available in every country or region. They need no setup, but you can only correct them sender by sender (Control-click a message and choose Categorize Sender).

For simple reordering of a mailbox by sender, date or size, you don't need any of these: see sorting messages in Mac Mail.

Do Smart Mailboxes sync to iPhone or other Macs?

Not to iPhone or iPad. Smart Mailboxes are a feature of Mail on the Mac, and Apple's iPhone guide has no equivalent; on iPhone the closest tools are the Filter button and built-in mailboxes such as VIP and Flagged. Between Macs it's different: Apple says that if you use iCloud Drive with Mail turned on in its options, your Smart Mailboxes are available on your other Macs.

When a Smart Mailbox shows the wrong emails, or none

Check any versus all. One wrong choice here turns a narrow filter into a huge one, or into an empty one.
Check Trash and Sent. Deleted emails show up if Include messages from Trash is selected; replies you sent are missing if Include messages from Sent isn't.
Rebuild the mailbox. If messages seem missing, select the mailbox the emails are really in and choose Mailbox > Rebuild. Apple suggests this when search doesn't find messages you know are there.
Fix search first. If ordinary searches miss emails too, the problem is the index, not your Smart Mailbox. Our guide to Mac Mail search not working covers the fixes.

If you want more than Mail offers

Disclosure: we make Canary Mail. Smart Mailboxes do a lot, but you have to think up every condition and keep them current as your work changes. Canary's AI inbox sorting does that first pass for you, on every device you use. Canary Mail is an email app for Mac, iPhone, iPad, Windows and Android that works with Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, Yahoo, Exchange and other IMAP accounts. The free plan covers unlimited accounts on 2 devices with AI inbox sorting. The Growth plan ($36 a year) adds AI writing and summaries, read receipts, send later and a calendar on up to 5 devices. Tracker blocking is on by default, and your email isn't used to train AI. More than 2 million people use it, and Apple has featured it on the App Store and the Mac App Store.

Frequently asked questions

What is a Smart Mailbox in Apple Mail?

It's a saved search that appears in the Mail sidebar. It lists every email that matches the conditions you set, from all your mailboxes and accounts, without moving or copying anything.

What is the difference between a mailbox and a Smart Mailbox in Mac Mail?

A mailbox stores emails; a Smart Mailbox only shows them. Deleting a mailbox deletes its emails, while deleting a Smart Mailbox leaves every email where it was.

How do I get rid of a Smart Mailbox on my Mac?

Select it in the sidebar and choose Mailbox > Delete. The emails it displayed aren't deleted.

Are Smart Mailboxes the same as smart folders?

Yes, in Mail. Smart folders is the Finder's name for the same idea (a saved search). In Mail, Apple calls them Smart Mailboxes, and a Smart Mailbox Folder is a group of Smart Mailboxes.

Do Smart Mailboxes work with Gmail and Outlook accounts?

Yes. A Smart Mailbox looks at the mail stored in Mail on your Mac, whatever the account, so one Smart Mailbox can cover Gmail, Outlook and iCloud together.

Can I see my Smart Mailboxes on iPhone?

No. They only exist in Mail on the Mac. Apple says they can sync to your other Macs through iCloud Drive.

Smart Mailboxes in Mac Mail: What They Are and How to Use Them (2026)