turning off junk mail filter for iCloud mail

I've dealt with this for some time now, and happened to find this thread only because I was looking for an answer to the same question. I haven't found a definite answer that works...however, on my own I have just tried something but it will be a few days before I will have an idea whether it "worked" because it will depend on more "junk" mail coming in, and I haven't really received much of it (or much mail going to that junk folder - I only get a piece here or there every few days). However, what i have done for now is:

1) Open Mail

2) In the title bar, click on Mail, Preferences

3) Click on the "Junk Mail" icon

4) CHECK (select) the "Enable Junk mail filtering" box (this seems counterintuitive but there is a method to my madness; bear with me!)

5) Under "when junk mail arrives" select "perform custom actions (click advanced to configure)

6) Click the Advanced...button at the bottom of the box

7) A Junk mail "rule" will open. You can leave the description as "Junk"

8) A default rule will start "if message is junk mail."

9) Under "perform the following actions," if necessary click the drop-down menu and select "move message" and then use the drop down menu to the right to move the message to (your inbox, if that's what you want, or a different folder of your choice if desired).

You could add other rules such as "mark as junk" or to change the color if you desired, by clicking the plus sign to the right of the move message rule. Like I said, it won't be until I get my next junk mail until I know this works, but logically to me it would seem to have the same effect as turning off filtering (which as many other users on many other discussions of this topic have consistently said doesn't work).

Alas - my iCloud junk mail folder has re-created itself and I have received junk mail in it.

Apparently this zombie folder is immortal. Anybody out there know whatever became of Carl Bugenhagen's daggers of Meggido? We need them!!!

(Update to my reply of yesterday): Sad to say, today I did receive more junk mail and the steps I attempted per my first reply did NOT solve the problem. The junk continued to go to the junk folder in total defiance of the rules I had set up.

So as of a couple of hours ago I took a more nuclear option. I right-clicked on the Junk folder, and DELETED it. It did indeed delete (I wasn't sure if it would). It's only been a couple of hours, but since then I have received several pieces of junk mail - definitely even more than I used to in the past - and it went directly to a special 'deferred' folder which my regular normal rules had previously identified for email not meeting certain criteria which I had established. I expect that if I had not had any other mail rules established, this junk email would have come directly into my inbox.

In any case, time will tell if this lasts, but for now, at least, I've accomplished the goal - I've now got junk mail being treated like regular ordinary mail so that I and I alone can make the judgement call as to what is and isn't actually "junk" rather than letting iCloud try to decide for me. If I experience another regression in the future I'll post back here and let you know - but so far, so good.

Forgot to say - after deleting the junk mail, I still left the new rule that I created per my original reply above in place - that is, kept junk filtering enabled along with the rule to put it where I wanted. Maybe that is why it continues to work. So if this continues to work, the complete sequence of steps required is: do the steps in my first reply AND then delete the junk folder.