Use Smart Mailboxes in Mail on Mac
A Smart Mailbox displays email messages that are stored in other mailboxes and that meet certain criteria you specify. For example, a Smart Mailbox could include all the messages you receive about a specific project, regardless of which mailboxes the messages are stored in.
Tip: Mail provides a default Smart Mailbox named Today, which shows messages viewed during the current day. If you don’t see it in the Mail sidebar, move the pointer over the Smart Mailboxes section, then click Show.
Create Smart Mailboxes
In the Mail app
on your Mac, choose Mailbox > New Smart Mailbox.Use the pop-up menus and text fields to define the criteria for the mailbox, then click OK.
You can also copy an existing Smart Mailbox. Select it in the Mail sidebar, then choose Mailbox > Duplicate Smart Mailbox.
Edit Smart Mailboxes
In the Mail app
on your Mac, select a Smart Mailbox in the Mail sidebar.Choose Mailbox > Edit Smart Mailbox, then change the criteria.
Delete Smart Mailboxes
In the Mail app
on your Mac, select a Smart Mailbox in the Mail sidebar.Choose Mailbox > Delete Smart Mailbox.
The messages displayed in the Smart Mailbox remain in their original locations.
Create Smart Mailbox folders
If you have Smart Mailboxes, you can organize them into Smart Mailbox folders.
In the Mail app
on your Mac, choose Mailbox > New Smart Mailbox Folder. Enter a name, then click OK.
Drag one or more Smart Mailboxes into the folder.
When you view the folder, messages in all of the Smart Mailboxes the folder contains are shown.
If you change a message in a Smart Mailbox—such as marking the message as read or unread, or moving or deleting the message—the change is reflected in the mailbox where the message is stored.
If you use iCloud Drive, your Smart Mailboxes are available on your other Mac computers that have iCloud Drive turned on. See Use iCloud Drive to store documents.