iCloud email Junk filter does not work!
For several months now, starting sometime in December or January, I have been receiving 10-50 Junk emails each day that show up in my inbox. I right-click and move them to Junk folder in the hopes that the Junk filter will learn to move them, and being careful to NOT open the message. I reviewed all the Apple support articles that pertain to Junk mail filter. As a last resort, I reset the Junk filter about 2 months ago with no changes in the Junk filter behavior.
I have contacted Apple support. The first time, the suggestion was to block the senders. I tried this and it does stop some of the mail from going to my inbox, for a time. However, the blocked messages end up in my Trash folder and are shown as 'Read'. A large number (1--50) still appear in my inbox each day.
My second contact with Apple support is still open. I have a scheduled call back later this week (Wednesday, March 8, 2023). They have collected data/files from my Mac and are looking into why the filter is not working.
Other notes:
- It is happening on only one of my four iCloud email addresses. This is the address I have used for ecommerce and is obviously the one that has been picked up on the internet.
- All the Junk mails have similar characteristics including graphics and obvious misspellings, although the messages are broad spectrum and the subjects include sex, computer virus protection, CBD Gummies, toenail fungus, shipment pending notices, credit card offers, etc. All are from unknown "companies".
- My wife's email is also getting these Junk mails, but her Junk filter is moving them in the Junk folder. She has only had occasional junk in her inbox, about 1-3 per month.
- This shows up on all my devices, which include iPhone, iPad, iMac, and MacBook Air. All devices are up-to-date with latest versions of iOS and MacOS. It also appears on my iCloud account.
- It also shows up on my iCloud account - it is obviously something happening with Mail at the server level.
- I rules set up on my iCloud account to sort my incoming email. My wife does not use rules to sort her email. One of the support calls with Apple looked at my rules and confirmed that there were no issues about my use of rules.
The latest Apple callback was scheduled for March 21 at 8am. They did not call back. However, I have been on the phone with them 3 times since my first post here (March 6, 2023). Up until March 21, they always made the scheduled call back.
Based on one of the support calls, I made one change in the Mail settings on my iMac. The change I made was to uncheck the "Filter junk mail before applying my rules" checkbox in Mail Settings on my iMac. Here is what it looks like:
This box was checked when the problem began several months ago. I had checked it because I had set up rules for my mail messages on my iCloud account, so that my mail would be sorted identically on all my devices. So immediately after the 'uncheck', junk mail began filtering directly into the Junk folder! I then removed all the blocked sender addresses from the earlier attempts. Junk mail began to show up again, but it was mostly filtered into the Junk folder. A few did enter my inbox which I moved to Junk.
Another side issue is the different settings that are presented to the user on each device. Specifically, iOS and MacOS devices do not have the same junk mail settings.
Note that it does not make sense that this check box would have this effect. The Apple representative agreed with me and told me he would provide all my input back to the engineering team. And the callback scheduled for March 21 never came.
The problem is back! Here is a table that shows the numbers of junk mails received and where they appeared in my mail folders:
Note that today, so far, none of the junk mail was filtered to the junk folder. They were all delivered between 1-10 am.
There is clearly some problem happening with the junk mail filter on the Apple mail server(s). I was unable to reach any conclusion, or obtain a solution, from Apple as of this morning. I would encourage anyone with this same issue to indicate here on this thread, and to call Apple support.
There was no easy way to identify that this was a device independent problem, so it is posted on the iCloud forum.
