Apple/Mac Mail: How to un-junk a wanted sender

Question

Apple/Mac Mail: How to un-junk a wanted sender

Since Mail does not have an un-junk feature, the best ways to stop welcome senders from ending up persistently in the All Junk folder, are these:

Add the eMail address as new contact in your Contacts app. And set Mail > Settings > Junk Mail. Set The following types of messages are exempt from junk mail filtering to:

✅ Sender of messages is in my Contacts

Or just send the sender an eMail, and mark

✅ Sender of message is in my Previous Recipients.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Apr 4, 2024 9:59 PM

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Answer 1

Barney-15E

Level 10

124,836 points

Apr 6, 2024 10:20 AM in response to siliconbreath

Since Mail does not have an un-junk feature,

It does. “Move to Inbox.”

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Answer 2

Barney-15E

Level 10

124,836 points

Apr 7, 2024 4:29 PM in response to siliconbreath

siliconbreath wrote:

Sure, Barney, understood.

Example, I inadvertently Moved to Junk a daily newsletter, but Move to Inbox only landed the next newsletter back into Junk. Then I Moved to Inbox all other newsletters—same result. Only the posted routines worked for me.

Who is your email provider? That sounds like Gmail behaviors.

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Answer 3

Apr 7, 2024 2:53 PM in response to Barney-15E

Sure, Barney, understood.

Example, I inadvertently Moved to Junk a daily newsletter, but Move to Inbox only landed the next newsletter back into Junk. Then I Moved to Inbox all other newsletters—same result. Only the posted routines worked for me.

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Answer 4

Apr 7, 2024 7:10 PM in response to siliconbreath

After my dialog with Barney I should clarify that the Move to Inbox feature stopped un-junking, meaning it would not delete the filter that Mail puts internally for an user-designated Junk address. For years and years I was able to use Move to Junk, and when I made a mistake reverse it by designating Move to Inbox. This does not work for me any longer, neither for Gmail accounts nor for other account I use, such as a provider account in Central America.

If Mail works for you without this irregularity, just be happy. If not, my sidesteps work quite well.

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Answer 5

Barney-15E

Level 10

124,836 points

Apr 7, 2024 5:23 PM in response to siliconbreath

You got that right.

You should only use Gmail on their web portal. That's how it was designed.

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Answer 6

Apr 7, 2024 5:48 PM in response to Barney-15E

Oh no!

Now I must wonder why Mail even offers Google presets for additional Gmail accounts.

I am managing four Gmail accounts quite successfully with Mail since 2004. I have hundreds of folder in Mail and have successfully transferred all archived eMails to ever new Apple computers over the years. No complaints here.

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Answer 7

Barney-15E

Level 10

124,836 points

Apr 7, 2024 6:00 PM in response to siliconbreath

siliconbreath wrote:

Oh no!

Now I must wonder why Mail even offers Google presets for additional Gmail accounts.

I am managing four Gmail accounts quite successfully with Mail since 2004. I have hundreds of folder in Mail and have successfully transferred all archived eMails to ever new Apple computers over the years. No complaints here.

It pretends to be IMAP (or POP), but it is not.

Why are the folders in Mail? They should be on the server, but then they are called "Labels" which is the problem. A message can have many labels but in IMAP a message can only be in one folder. When Gmail gets an IMAP request to move a message it must remove the label corresponding to the old folder and add a label for the new folder. It doesn't seem to handle that very well as you noticed.

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Answer 8

Apr 7, 2024 6:19 PM in response to Barney-15E

If one wants to manage many accounts from different platforms with a single app, it's hard to beat Apple Mail. It feels like a Mac or iOS app, while Web Gmail feels like an Android app stuck on a Mac.

I do not use Labels, hardly ever visit Gmail on the Web. As stated, I successfully use Folders in Mail with no ill results from the Label hitch that you find important.

At this point I am struggling to understand how we are actually helping each other.

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