How do you automatically apply filters for incoming emails?

Strange, they seems to be working fine with me. Perhaps you want to tell us what kind of filters you set and how?

Just to give you an example of a simple filter I have.

Edit->Message Filter
Set show filter for Mail: Incoming
Select Filters rule: ubuntu support
Edit

In Edit rule dialog:

Search name: ubuntu support filter

Find items: if all criteria are met
one rule: Subject contains [Question #

THEN

Move to folder ubuntu-support

I had the same problem recently. I think there's a difference between 'normal' Mail accounts (like POP for example) and other mail accounts (like IMAP, Exchange Server). For these accounts, the filters are not automatically applied upon receiving new Mail.

For IMAP and Exchange Server you need to set the option for the Mail Account. Just go to the 'Receiving Options' tab in the 'Account Editor'. Then you can choose the option 'Apply filters to new messages in INBOX on this server'.

Now newly received E-Mails will be filtered.

HTH

This doesn't seem to be working for me at all.

I originally had an account setup to access Exchange and all the filters were working properly. My company changed from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007 and I lost access to the email via Exchange. I set up an IMAP account and things to be working fine - except the filters don't get applied to any folder automatically - some of the time. I know it does work sometimes, but other times new mail will come in and be unfiltered. INBOX is selected to be filtered on the account.

On the off-chance that the filters created when the Exchange account was active were somehow 'tied' to the Exchange account, i deleted all my filters and recreated them. No change. Seems like the only time the filters really work may be when I first connect to the IMAP server.

My versions..

dpkg -l evolution\*
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Installed/Config-files/Unpacked/Failed-config/Half-installed
|/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Description
+++-==============-==============-============================================
ii evolution 2.8.1-0ubuntu4 The groupware suite
ii evolution-data 1.8.1-0ubuntu5 evolution database backend server
ii evolution-data 1.8.1-0ubuntu5 architecture independent files for Evolution
un evolution-data <none> (no description available)
un evolution-data <none> (no description available)
un evolution-dbg <none> (no description available)
ii evolution-exch 2.8.1-0ubuntu1 Exchange plugin for the Evolution groupware
ii evolution-plug 2.8.1-0ubuntu4 All bundled plugins for Evolution
un evolution-scal <none> (no description available)
ii evolution-webc 2.8.0-0ubuntu1 webcal: URL handler for GNOME and Evolution