SmallCubed MailSuite

I used (and loved) Mail Act-On for many years when it was available as a separate tool. Then I used Mail Act-On from MailSuite 2019 (as the only part of the total package) when MailSuite 2019 was available for a one-time payment. Now I have upgraded to macOS 12 (Monterey) and MailSuite 2019 no longer works. I would have had to subscribe to MailSuite 2021 instead for an initial one-time $80 and then $45 annually (or whatever the developer would have charged in a year or so). That is too much for just Mail Act-On. I switched to MsgFiler instead for a one-time payment of $10. MsgFiler does for me exactly what Mail Act-On did - moving emails into folders. It looks a little less elegant than Mail Act-On and has to be set up and configured in a fairly roundabout way, but it now works just as well for me as Mail Act-On. Unlike Mail Act-On, MsgFiler is not a mail plugin, but a separate application. However, it is possible to hide it from the Dock and use it in exactly the same way as Mail Act-On (call it with keyboard shortcut - start typing a folder name - move the selected mail to that folder with Return). Too bad Mail Act-On is no longer available separately and for a reasonable one-time payment. Good that I found an alternative that works for me.

I cannot begin to say how utterly upset I am with this software and its company. I shelled out a considerable amount of money a few years ago for a product I thought that I would be able to continue using indefinitely. This was not a cheap piece of software as I bought the entire suite of tools. Come to find, like everyone else, the company got greedy and imposed a subscription that essentially made the purchased software inoperable. In order to continue using the software, I have to pay a "maintenance fee" which is essentially a rental. Absolutely avoid this software at all costs!

I've always been impressed with these guys. Always responsive to me with questions and they did not seem unfair at all. I am having trouble understanding their new rollout and pricing scheme so I will look for clarification there. Furthermore, they have some nice functionality in syncing with omnifocus projects and I'd LOVE to see that finally build out more.

I paid $60 for something 10 months ago that no longer works and requires me to pay for an upgrade every year. Avoid this company.

For the past 2 years the experience was ok, some functionality quite useful. But now I got their notice, that they will move to a software rental system. With the exception of VPN and antivirus, I don't rent software, ever, not from anyone, and I deleted all things SmallCubed from my Mac.

So far, terrible out of the box experience. Launching MailSuite from the disk image tells you that you have to move it to the Applications folder... OK. Why didn't they put an alias to the Applications folder right there on the disk image like other products do? Moving to the Applications folder and launching then offers registration. Ok, I registered with the right button. The left button offers "install" so I clicked, then clicked "Install Full Suite". The app confirmed with "Installation Complete" and "Ok". Pressing OK and then the list of components still show "Not Installed". Pressing "Remove Full Suite" quit mail... but beyond that, did nothing other than flicker. Trying 'Install Full Suite' again just did the same thing. NO JOY. Note that "Install Full Suite" does not offer to relaunch Mail... sigh, not impressed. Looking at the directions, it seems that you have to drag this into the Security preferences for "Full Disk Access". Can't fathom why the app did not indicate that it needs to be there before proceeding. Manually drug the MailSuite app into the "Full Disk Access" list and started over. NO JOY Further looking at the directions, they expect a button in Mail preferences under the "General" tab of "Manage Plug-ins…" which is not there. Googling this problem it seems that a hidden Mail preference of 'EnableBundles' has to be set to true or '1'. Note that MailSuite's installer was not smart enough to look in the Mail preferences and see that it was not set and offer to set it. I had to quit Mail, open Terminal and issue the command line: sudo defaults write "/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail" EnableBundles 1 to enable the bundles and have the "Manage Plug-ins…" button show in Mail preferences. Using Google to fix installation problems is by definition a poor out of the box experience. After doing all this, then launching MailSuite, it still fails to install anything. The 'Install Full Suite' button remains impotent. So now I have a support ticket in to just get this installed. I should have downloaded the time-bomb version and gone through this before dropping my money on the product, silly me. If you buy this product similarly, silly you!

It works ok, but their business practices are really shady. When you buy a license it never states what version of software it is for, and then the software auto-upgrades to a new version and stops working unless you buy a new license (less than 10 months after the previous one was released). They are essentially implementing a subscription model without ever telling you up front what the terms are. You cannot download previous versions that, allegedly match the license you bought, from the developer's site either.