Mail Going to Junk Folder that is Not Junk

I have mail that is going to my junk folder that is not junk. When I look at the "thumb" symbol for the mail, the thumb is down, meaning that it doesn't think it is junk either. Even when I turn my "Enable Junk Mail Filtering" off in Preferences, the mail still goes to junk. No idea how to fix this. It seems like a glitch!

Posted on Dec 11, 2014 6:05 PM

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10 replies

Sep 14, 2017 10:13 PM in response to scmighty

Gmail is also consistently marking valid (and important!) notification emails from Apple as spam. Gmail adds this note:

Why is this message in Spam? It has a from address in id.apple.com but has failed id.apple.com's required tests for authentication.

It sounds like Apple's email servers have nonstandard configuration that's confusing mail clients. Seems like a critical issue Apple needs to address.

Dec 13, 2014 2:21 PM in response to scmighty

Hi scmighty,


With my Mail, the thumbs down implies the mail is junk mail, but if it isn't filtering correctly, you can try resetting it to start fresh with the filtering.


Lion Mail: Change the junk mail filter

Choose Mail > Preferences, and then click Junk Mail.

To reset the junk mail database to its original information and remove everything Mail learned from you about what is junk or not junk, click Reset.

Best,

Nubz

Dec 13, 2014 3:06 PM in response to scmighty

My Mom started using Junk as the delete key, and eventually everything was junk.


My point is that if you mark enough mail as junk, eventually it will start to view more and more things as junk. You have to go into Junk, review the stuff, and unmark any false positives so that Mail junk filter can learn that too.


Or use a better email service that does a better job of filtering out the common junk to begin with. In my Mom's case, I switched her to gmail.

Dec 15, 2014 7:26 AM in response to Nubz N.

Thank you Nubz N. and BobHarris for your feedback on the issue. I had actually already tried resetting my junk settings in Apple Mail and had no success, and trust me BobHarris, I was not using the Junk key as the delete key.


It turned out that I had to go directly to the email source's website, which in this case was Gmail, and change my junk settings there. Apple Mail was perceiving the incoming mail as "Not Junk", but because Gmail was viewing it as junk, it was still going to my Apple Mail junk folder. I'm not sure why Gmail was viewing it as junk, as I had never clicked junk before. Anyway, after changing the junk settings there at Gmail, the filter has now been working properly again.

Oct 30, 2016 12:23 PM in response to scmighty

None of the fixes below resolved my problem. I've reset the junk filter and send hundreds of email to inbox. USATODAY email is but one of many. I've even setup a rule to move these to inbox but it won't resolve. It happens on both my Macbook Pro and Mac Mini.

ALSO, you no longer have the option of viewing an email in the Junk folder, "attempting" to mark it as "Not Junk" and deleting. You must read it (of course you read it to know it's not Junk", then move it to the Inbox, then go to Inbox, find it and delete it. This seems a bit ridiculous.

Oct 31, 2016 6:55 AM in response to WBG3

Everything was working fine until I upgraded to Sierra. Now it's all screwed up, things that used to come into my inbox are going to junk, even though I added the address to my contacts. There is something wrong with Mail after the update. Does anyone know what to do? I've tried all the "fixes," and none of them work.

Nov 3, 2016 5:47 PM in response to xxpdc

I had this problem as well, also starting around the time that I upgraded to Sierra (although I can't recall exactly when). I am not using an IMAP-based email service, so it had nothing to do with headers being marked as junk. I reset the Junk filters, and even disabled junk email filtering, and valid mail still got sent to the Junk folder. It got so bad the other day that when I tried to move them from the Junk folder to the inbox, they immediately were moved back in. I looked at my mail rules, and there was a Built-In Junk Filter rule present (I had already deleted the Junk rule). When I removed that rule, the behavior stopped. I enabled filtering again and reset the filters. It's been two days, and I haven't seen the problem yet. Deleting the Built-In Junk Filter rule seems to have fixed the problem for me.

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Mail Going to Junk Folder that is Not Junk

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