Title: Discard “Automatic reply:”
Last modified: December 14, 2016
---
# Discard “Automatic reply:”
* Resolved [gizmomol](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gizmomol/)
* (@gizmomol)
* [9 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/discard-automatic-reply/)
* Thanks for continuing to develop Postie, a very useful plugin.
* I would like Postie to ignore any email received with “Automatic reply:” in the
subject.
* I have tried various postieFilter functions but all my attempts have resulted
in two posts, “tmpFile” and “tmptitle”.
* Is there a Postie option or filter to ignore a post based on subject?
Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
* Plugin Author [Wayne Allen](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wayneallen-1/)
* (@wayneallen-1)
* [9 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/discard-automatic-reply/#post-8554124)
* There is nothing built in. It shouldn’t be too difficult in a filter. Can you
post what you tried?
* Thread Starter [gizmomol](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gizmomol/)
* (@gizmomol)
* [9 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/discard-automatic-reply/#post-8554506)
* I have a ‘postie_post_before’ filter like the code below:
* ```
add_filter('postie_post_before', 'filter_title');
function filter_title($post) {
if (substr($post['post_title'], 0, 16) == 'Automatic reply:') {
return null;
}
return $post;
}
```
* Plugin Author [Wayne Allen](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wayneallen-1/)
* (@wayneallen-1)
* [9 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/discard-automatic-reply/#post-8557689)
* It is possible the category logic is altering the post title before postie_post_before
sees it. Try setting “Use colon to match category” to no.
* See [http://postieplugin.com/faq/override-post-categories/](http://postieplugin.com/faq/override-post-categories/)
for background.
* Thread Starter [gizmomol](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gizmomol/)
* (@gizmomol)
* [9 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/discard-automatic-reply/#post-8558140)
* Thanks, I checked and see all the Postie category options are already set to “
No”.
* Thread Starter [gizmomol](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gizmomol/)
* (@gizmomol)
* [9 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/discard-automatic-reply/#post-8558166)
* The ‘postie_post_before’ filter, as above, did cause a result, just not the ignore
result I hoped for.
* Instead of completely ignoring the email, it left the two temporary Postie files“
tmpFile” and “tmptitle”.
* Plugin Author [Wayne Allen](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wayneallen-1/)
* (@wayneallen-1)
* [9 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/discard-automatic-reply/#post-8558438)
* It shouldn’t. That should only happen if there problem. Can you click the debug
button when one of those emails in waiting and email the output to [help@postieplugin.com](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/discard-automatic-reply/help@postieplugin.com?output_format=md)
* Thread Starter [gizmomol](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gizmomol/)
* (@gizmomol)
* [9 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/discard-automatic-reply/#post-8558550)
* I just sent it.
* Thanks
* Thread Starter [gizmomol](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gizmomol/)
* (@gizmomol)
* [9 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/discard-automatic-reply/#post-8558622)
* I have three “postie_post_before” filters enabled. I discovered that when I moved
the above “filter_title” function last, it discards the “Automatic reply” email.
* So when a filter makes the $POST null, it can cause any following filters to
misbehave.
* Is it wrong to return null? I suppose all filters should check if $POST is null
first before doing anything.
* Plugin Author [Wayne Allen](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wayneallen-1/)
* (@wayneallen-1)
* [9 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/discard-automatic-reply/#post-8564534)
* Returning null is the correct thing to do. However, I do see this in the log:
* ```
Post postie_post filter
Array
(
[post_content] =>
[post_category] => Array
(
)
)
```
* This shows what is in $post after the postie_post_before filter, as you can see
it is not null. I suspect you have another Postie addon installed, is that true?
* Thread Starter [gizmomol](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gizmomol/)
* (@gizmomol)
* [9 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/discard-automatic-reply/#post-8566200)
* I have three “postie_post_before” filters in filterPostie.php.
* Today, I added a test for an empty $post array at the beginning of all three
filters which return null if empty.
* There were some conditions where I added the ‘
’ tag at the end of the content
in two of these filters. Updated to only add the tag if content is not empty.
* For the specific problem of “Automated reply:”, the debug output for “Post postie_post
filter” is:
Post postie_post filter postie_post filter cleared the post, not
saving. Done
* I believe this solved my support question.
* Thanks for your support
* Plugin Author [Wayne Allen](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wayneallen-1/)
* (@wayneallen-1)
* [9 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/discard-automatic-reply/#post-8566391)
* Glad you got it sorted!
Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
The topic ‘Discard “Automatic reply:”’ is closed to new replies.
* 
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* 11 replies
* 2 participants
* Last reply from: [Wayne Allen](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wayneallen-1/)
* Last activity: [9 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/discard-automatic-reply/#post-8566391)
* Status: resolved