Does Mail remember reported Junk messages?

Hi mandymoozy.

Yes and No.

Unwanted junk mail that is sent from businesses or spammers that keep to the same originator address are remembered and will always be moved to the junk mail folder, the database is independent of the past contents of the junk mail folder. IOW there is a separate database maintained inside Apple Mail that remembers emails sent from those address and are known to be junk.

The problem is that bulk spammers can get around junk mail filtering by spoofing the originator address to some random value, as far as Apple Mail is concerned this is from a new sender and will not be in the database, therefore it will inspect the contents and try to decide for itself if this is junk mail or not, and so it may end up in your inbox or in the junk folder, this is not an exact process.

The internal database of spam senders will be updated as soon as any spam mail is deleted from the spam folder.

If you move the message out of the junk folder to any other folder its senders address is removed from the database.

If you open a spam email that is in the junk folder then as long as you leave it there, or delete it, then the database will maintain its senders address in the junk database.

Finally, if you find that email that is not junk keeps being put in the junk folder despite you telling Mail that it is not, then go to Mail > Preferences > Junk Mail, and click the "Reset" button to clear the database and start again.

Apple Mail has a built-in, easy to use, help guide, with a much better description of all of Mails special functions and Junk filtering, than I can give. When the Apple Mail App is open, on the Mail ribbon-menu at the top of the desktop, click Help > Mail Help, then either browse the entire contents by clicking the link "Table of Contents" or type into the Search box "Junk Mail" to see list of suggested entries in the Mail user guide.

HTH

Will.