Junk Mail filter on iPhone?

you don't. Junk mail filtering happens at the level of your email server or a spam filter you install on your computer. There is no such product for the iPhone.

With my iCloud account, I have the account's junk mailbox stored on the server so it is available when accessing the account with my iPhone and iPad. I leave the Mail app on my Mac launched and running 24/7 which serves as the junk mail filter for my iPhone and iPad remotely. All server stored mailboxes with an IMAP account are kept synchronized with the server automatically with each email client used to access the account.

The same is not possible with an antiquated POP account which is designed to be accessed with a single email client only.

I was doing the very same with my MobileMe account prior to switching to iCloud.

Good responses to filtering. Couple of comments. Filtering on server side but a close cousin is rules which is client side on Mac OS X mail app. It has a default Junk folder which many aren't aware of. See Rules under Preferences. This IS missing from the iOS mail app. Also rules performs actions that can bounce mail, forward mail, move messages, etc. again not in iOS today. Filtering is first line of defense for Spam but not the complete cure for spam that understands filtering metrics. I keep my Mac and unix clients clean with both server side and client side rules but definitely have spam on my phone until I login with a full service mail client. If your mail is setup as IMAP, once you client deletes the offending message that gets through filtering, it will remove it from the server or move it, your phone will update the mailbox.

Finally not everyone uses iCloud or public web solutions. You may connect to a personal or corporate server that doesn't allow you to adjust your individual filter strength or have server side rules. That is the majority for those of us in business and the requirement for rules on the iOS is essential. Good catch on important missing piece. For those with jail broken phones, there is a solution available for Mail app.

I am being driven crazy by spam on my ios devices too. I keep Mail running on my iMac 24/7, but it doesn't check mail while it's asleep. Powernap might do the trick if it were available for iMac. I can't see preventing my computer from sleeping all the time just for this convenience but...I do get a lot of spam!

What can't you see preventing your Mac from sleeping all the time? What do you think you are saving or accomplishing?

My MacBook Pro's hard drive never sleeps. I have a screen saver selected to run after a period of non-use time and the screen set to turn off after a designated period of time of non-use, but the hard drive never sleeps.

The Mail.app's junk mail filter on my Mac serves as the junk mail filter for my iPhone and iPad since my iCloud account is an IMAP account and I don't have my MBP's hard drive set to sleep. OS X is designed to run 24/7 and the amount of energy saved with the hard drive set to sleep is beyond minuscule.

"What can't you see preventing your Mac from sleeping all the time? What do you think you are saving or accomplishing? ... the amount of energy saved with the hard drive set to sleep is beyond minuscule."

Well, I know that what I am accomplishing is saving some energy, and even is it is miniscule it certainly adds up as millions of us use our electronic equipment all the time. I have many energy- and planet-conscious friends and relatives. That said, perhaps it is worth it in this case. Thanks for the suggestion.

Hi Allan,

On my iPhone I have Yahoo and GMail accounts as well as an iCloud account. Do you know why I do not receive any spam in the inbox on my phone from the Yahoo and GMail accounts, but I get a TON of spam in my iCloud inbox on my phone? Are Yahoo and GMail just better at this? I'm a die-hard Mac fan and I don't want to believe that Apple can't figure out a better system other than leaving a computer running 24/7 as a personal mail filter.

All I have is a MBP and I travel a lot and it cannot be on on 24/7 (while flying etc..)

Thank you (or anyone) for any insight.

Spam doesn't get directed to your email address out of thin air.

When a spammer uses HTML that must be rendered from a remote server and you allow the HTML to be rendered, you are notifiying the spammer that your email address is "known good" causing more spam to be received.

Selecting a "remove me" link included with spam does no such thing and alerts the spammer that your email address is "known good" causing more spam to be received.

Using an email address in a public internet forum or providing it out in the open in any public manner on the internet will cause that email address to receive spam.

The email address used for online shopping is suspectible to spam depending on the merchant's privacy policies. Some state they take your privacy seriously when they do not.

Are any of these email addresses used for online shopping - namely with your iCloud account?

HTML included with spam rendered with any of these addresses - namely with your iCloud account?

Google has an excellent spam filter at the server level, but I can't say the same about Yahoo.

If someone is a regular Mail app user on a Mac with the included junk mail filter trained well along with accessing an IMAP account, it is a viable option to leave the Mail app on their Mac launched and running for junk mail to be filtered by the Mail app on their Mac. This will be reflected with accessing the account on a mobile device as well that doesn't have a junk mail filter.

I gotta say that this is a pretty inelegant solution - particularly coming from Apple. I am finding a sizable number of non-junk mails ending up in my junk mail folder in my iCloud account. And vice versa, it isn't doing a terribly good job of keeping junk mail away from my inbox. No matter how I move them around on my computer, it's still comes down to luck of the draw to which device I am looking at email first. On the run, it is certainly cumbersome to be hopping constantly to the junk mail folder on my iPhone or iPad.

They need a better tool set for working with mail.

Bob

MacJabber,

How do I configure to Bounce the SPAM...

I do remember this was an option in Mail, but it has now dissappeared, I think...

Robert

This is particularly crazy making to me, who had to sell her Imac and is now using an old pc, ugh. I thought marking it junk in iCloud would work, but no such luck. So now that I dont have a Mac, my .mac email acct on my IOS devices are flooded with email. I am gonna try to use rules to clean out some of it, but really! Only Iphone users that own a mac can filter their email? Redick.

Lisa