My "Not Junk" button is missing

Move the Thumbs down icon to the menubar, it'll change to thumbs up when you're on a junk mail.

Looks to me like what happens is if *Mail* does not mark the message as junk, but it winds up in the junk mail folder somehow because something else -- Gmail in my case -- puts it there, then the "not junk" button is missing. Also the message does not have apple's little junk icon next to it. Therefore the thumbs up/down icon in the menubar shows as "down". If the message is then selected, and then you click the thumbsdown icon, the icon changes to thumbsup, the message is marked with the junk icon, AND the "not junk" button appears. This is a bit of an ugly workaround which apple should fix if they can -- say by marking every message that ends up in the junk folder as junk, no matter how it got there. One more "Mail doesn't really play nice with Gmail" issue.

The Not Junk button only tells Mail's Junk filter to adjust its parameters so that it is less likely in the future to flag messages like the selected message. If the selected message is not flagged by Mail, there is no reason to use the Not Junk button.

Exactly. I strongly suspect that earlier questioners on this thread had managed to messages into the junk mailbox in a way that circumvented Mail having put it there. Therefore Mail had not marked it as junk. Therefore, like you say, there was seemingly nothing for Mail to learn by telling Mail that the message was "not junk", so no button. This is where coordinating Mail with Gmail gets tricky. In my case I have things set up so that what Gmail thinks is spam ends up in my junk mailbox. Could I just pass everything through from Gmail to Mail and let Mail alone do the junk/spam filtration?

I am having the same problem. I am receiving junk mail that bypasses Apple's junk mail filtering and goes directly to my inbox. I cannot select "Mark As Junk" because the only icon available is "Mark As Not Junk" and you cannot add the Thumbs Down "Mark As Junk" button from the options menu. This is really irritating as I have to manually move all of these to my junk mail folder and it will not train Apple's junk mail filtering to catch them. This is some nasty spam that is getting through the spam headers AND tripping up Apple mail's junk mail tagging. And forwarding these as attachments to spam@me.com does nothing. I have done that for years and Apple doesn't do anything about treating spam seriously like they claim. Really frustrated with Apple mail and spam.

Do you have Mail's preferences set to move junk mail to the Junk folder?

Mail Prefs, Junk Mail tab, When junk mail arrives: Move it to the Junk mailbox.

Try control - clicking the message, then select mark.

You also might check Gmail's web site and see how their spam filter is set.

Yes, mail prefs set to Move to Junk folder when junk mails arrives.

Control Clicking only gives the option to view as text, icon or select Customize Toolbar settings which again, will not let me add the Mark As Junk icon to the toolbar.

Is the Junk button on the Toolbar at all? There is only one button.

As previously stated, unless Mail identifies the message as junk, the Not Junk button won't be available.

Is the "junk" email identified as junk by Mail? If not, you need to teach it by marking it as Junk.

Hi Janice2247,

If you mean this folder:-

Then it is not On your Mac and not subject to the Mail app's Junk Filter.

For this you will have to visit Google Mail web Login page and check how to "Unjunk" a Sender permanently as well as seeing if it can be "taught' about the Spam you want to filter.

9:14 PM Sunday; July 14, 2013

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.4)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

ONCE AGAIN:

I cannot teach it by marking as junk because it only allows you to mark it as "Not Junk." You cannot add the "Mark As Junk" button in toolbar options.

What I am saying is that this is some kind of "Smart Spam" that is using some kind of coding to circumvent Apple's spam mail headers and makes it so you cannot mark it as junk by ANY means. You can only drag it manually to your junk folder. It will NOT teach. THAT'S the entire point. It's malicious spam. Apple should be looking into this but they won't. I've been forwarding this stuff to them as attachments for months.

I have even tried setting up rules to catch the spam and apply them and that doesn't work either. They keep randomizing the e-mail domains so it will circumvent any "Rules" you set up. Again, this is some sneaky and malicious spam. Apple should be looking into this.

Opps.

I should have said this is the IMAP server I am using at GoogleMail and not their POP service.

And for that reason the Spam is NOT local and is not put through the Mail app's Junk Filters.

10:19 PM Sunday; July 14, 2013

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.4)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

If it only allows you to mark it as "Not Junk," then it is already marked as Junk. There is only one button. If the selected message isn't marked as Junk, then you can mark it as junk with that one, single button.

If it is marked as junk, the name and action of the button changes to allow you to mark the selected message as Not Junk.

Here is the button when a message that is not junk is selected:

Here is the exact, same button as shown with a message selected that has been marked as junk:

The only way the button will toggle to "Mark selected message as Not Junk" is if the message is already marked as junk.

Whether it is moving the messages to the Junk folder or not, something is actually catching and marking the email as spam. You might try resetting the junk mail filter in the Mail preferences, Junk Mail tab.

No. You are NOT listening to what I am saying! It is NOT already marked as junk. It is going directly to my iCloud Inbox. I can only mark it as "Not Junk." There is no way to mark it as junk! I have been getting about 20 spam messages per day like this and it is annoying. Thing is not all junk mail is affected. Some are caught by Apple's filtering and marked as junk and go directly to my junk mail folder but the rest I have to manually move them to my junk mail folder. They are circumventing Apple's junk mail filtering or any rules I try to apply. I'll say it again, you CANNOT mark them as junk nor are they already marked as junk. It's some kind of malicious spam that is evading Apple's mail and changing the attributes in Apple mail. I have even deleted my mailboxes and rebuilt them, doesn't help.