Filtering Junk

I find with mail.app that more seems to get through the junk mail filter than say with Entourage. The filter is the preset. I've looked at it and really can't see how I'd improve it. Does anyone have any ideas on how to make the filter more effective at capturing junk mail.

So I can keep it in automatic mode and just mark those messages
that are junk as junk and it will be trained but automatically
put the messages in the junk folder - which is what I want.
Exactly.
I just decided to try the custom option for advanced which has
the filter rules. I'll see if that works any better.
Bad idea. It won’t.
You should consider cleaning up the Window > Previous Recipients list and resetting the junk filter (Preferences > Junk Mail > Reset). Although this may initially increase the number of junk messages that Mail fails to identify as such (false negatives), and may also slightly increase the number of legit messages that are incorrectly treated as junk (false positives), it may significantly improve the accuracy of the junk filter after some training.
Note that every time you mistakenly mark as not junk a message that Mail had previously marked as junk (because you clicked the wrong button when you wanted to do something else, for example), you're storing wrong information in the junk database, as well as adding the sender to the Previous Recipients list, which has a negative impact on the accuracy of the junk filter. And it could also be that the junk database has some corruption.

Similar Messages

  • Mail has stopped filtering junk

    Mail has stopped filtering messages as junk in all my mailboxes. It happened a couple weeks ago, and I have been continuing to mark junk messages as Junk in order to re-train it, but without success.
    I thought my mailboxes may be too big, so I moved 3 year's worth of messages from the Inbox to an archive folder. I deleted the Mail Envelope Index file and re-started mail to have it re-built, but that didn't work either.
    I have 2 other macs - one on Tiger and one on Leopard - that both still are filtering just fine.
    Any ideas?
    Message was edited by: LowKep

    You've misposted in the iPhone forum

  • IMail not filtering Junk anymore

    Ok so heres the deal....abotu a week ago I accidentally delted a folder on my computer that had my fullname on it not knowing that all my mail, music, files, etc were going to be deleted. So when I restarted my computer later i had to setup my mail account again. I dont have a .mac account instead I use my University's POP account and use iMail to view it and compose my mail. So i had to setup my account again. Previously it use to filter all my junk mail for me but for some reason now it doesn't do it anymore. I have done some research and I tried doing the "training" mode for abotu a week and even when I select an email and label it junk it wont recognize it as junk. I can get the same Viagra spam mail 2 minutes later that i jsut marked as junk and iMail won't mark it as junk. Then if i click on the setting that moves my junk mail automatically to the junk box it still misses every piece of junk mail. Does anybody know what the deal is. I am so sick of looking through 50 junk emails a day just to read the 5 important ones. Please Help!

    Does it mark any mail as junk mail on it's own or have you been telling everything is junk to this point?  BTW, if you have "Sender of message is in my Previous Recipients" selected and your previous recipients includes those addresses, junk mail will treat it as valid mail.  Go through your previous recipients in mail (Mail > Previous Recipients) and remove those addresses you don't want.  Removing them all isn't fatal, it's not removing them from your contacts or anything, it just means you will have to make sure they don't get marked as junk mail later.  This is just list is of all incoming mail addresses that have been considered not junk in the past.
    Also, are you getting a lot of what you consider junk mail?  If your email address has been added to a spammer's mailing list and you're seeing lots and lots of unwanted emails, your only real option is to delete your existing email address and create a new one.  The Junk Mail filter will never be able to stop a sea of unwanted messages, it wasn't designed to.  Only you can be the judge of whether the unwanted email traffic has been increasing.  Creating a new email address is done through your service provider.  Keep in mind that you will need to let everyone who you trust know the new email address, so the process isn't painless or easy... it just is the only 100% sure way of getting the spammers off your back if you are being inundated.
    Short of creating a bunch of custom filters, the only other option (assuming the mail app is indeed not doing anything with junk mail) would be to reinstall the OS to ensure the mail application is not corrupted in any way.  This means you would have to set up your email accounts again.  If the junk mail filter refuses to mark anything as junk, I would go with this option.

  • SpamAssassin not filtering junk

    I have configured SpamAssassin according to the rules (best I can tell) and I can get it to learn from the junkmail and notjunkmail accounts but it does not seem to do any filtering. I have tried several different settings to no avail. I have tried both with and without "en" in the accepted languages and locales (currently both are empty. I have tried "Delivered" with "* JUNK MAIL *" attached to the subject and by redirecting it to a specially created account. I believe the virus scanning is working because I am getting the notifications.
    This one box, running 10.4.7 server, has several legacy domains attched and answers to and receives mail for these domains. This one box with all its domains is behind a DSL modem that fowards all ports. I know I had trouble configuring the zones using the Apple software and had to do them manually to get them all to work. It is an address at one of the legacy domains that gets the bulk of the SPAM. I have copied the SOA records for the main DOMAIN and LEGACY-DOMAIN below.
    $TTL 86400
    DOMAIN.com. SOA g4.DOMAIN.com. paul.DOMAIN.com. (
    2005050701 ; serial
    3h ; refresh
    1h ; retry
    1w ; expiry
    1h ) ; minimum
    DOMAIN.com. IN NS 192.168.1.254
    DOMAIN.com. IN M X 10 mail
    DOMAIN.com. IN A 192.168.1.254
    ls IN A 192.168.1.1
    g5 IN A 192.168.1.2
    x31 IN A 192.168.1.21
    dsl IN A 192.168.1.32
    g4 IN A 192.168.1.254
    ns IN CNAME g4
    www IN CNAME g4
    lists IN CNAME g4
    ftp IN CNAME g4
    mail IN CNAME g4
    $TTL 86400
    LEGACY-DOMAIN.org. SOA g4.DOMAIN.com. paul.DOMAIN.com. (
    2005070201 ; serial
    3h ; refresh
    1h ; retry
    1w ; expiry
    1h ) ; minimum
    LEGACY-DOMAIN.org. IN NS g4.DOMAIN.com
    DOMAIN.com. IN MX 10 mail
    LEGACY-DOMAIN.org. IN A 192.168.1.254
    g4 IN A 192.168.1.254
    mail IN CNAME g4
    ns IN CNAME g4
    pop IN CNAME g4
    www IN CNAME LEGACY-DOMAIN.org.
    ftp IN CNAME g4
    Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    I don't know what "rules" you followed, so you may have done the things I suggest below.
    First -- and this is from pterobyte's post http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1283449 -- you need to get SpamAssassin to check for spam in all of your domains:
    In a text editor (not Word) open /etc/amavisd.conf
    Search for the section that reads:
    @localdomainsacl = ( ".$mydomain" );
    below it add this line:
    @localdomainsmaps = ( 1 );
    Save.
    Stop and Start Mail Services
    Before you start with the instructions below, you can set the following in Server Admin. Check "Scan email for junk mail"; set the "Minimum junk mail score" to something conservative like "6"; don't worry about "Accepted languages" (it will become obsolete the moment you update SpamAssassin as described in the wiki below; "locals" can be set to "en" if you don't get mail from foreign countries; set "Junk mail messages should be:" to "Delivered"; check "Attach subject tag:". It sounds like the rest of your setup is working. Save this configuration, and then then leave Server Admin behind. You can't use it to do the rest of the steps you need to take.
    For a quick, concise guide to getting SpamAssassin up and running properly, visit http://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/SpamAssassinon_Mac_OS_XServer and review the directions (by Miles Muri) you find there.
    There are a lot of instructions at this link, but the most important things you can do are:
    (1) Properly link the amavisd and clamav .spamassassin bayes DBs (see "Bayesean Filtering" on the wiki link above). The instructions are easy and it makes all the difference.
    (2) Install spamtrainer (http://osx.topicdesk.com/downloads/). This is a brilliant little script that will make life easier for you when you start training the spamassassin filter. Then, begin training spamassassin as described in the wiki link above.
    (3) Set your tag2 and kill levels in your amavisd.conf (located at /etc/amavisd.conf) file to something reasonable. The default levels are too high. You can start with something conservative like:
    $satag_leveldeflt = -999; # add spam info headers if at, or above that level
    $satag2_leveldeflt = 6.0; # add 'spam detected' headers at that level
    $sakill_leveldeflt = 10.0;

  • AHHH! Mail has stopped filtering Junk mail! WHY!? How to fix?

    This actually strarted happening on our G5 about a year ago. I dealt with it because we were getting a new computer soon.
    I'm running OSX 10.8.2 and Mail Version 6.2 (1499)
    I've been getting a bunch of junk mail lately and I wasn't paying any attention really but yesterday I made a note to click on a specific email and hit the Junk button.
    This email in particular is some spam about Credit Ratings. The email is from "Scores Update <[email protected]>"
    The email yesterday was from "Scores Update <[email protected]>"
    Different email address but still, shouldnt it still filter to the junk anything that says "Scores Update" since I flagged that as spam?

    I've deleted all future appointments from the Hotmail calendar.
    I've left the iPad overnight "thinking" about removing Calendar from iCloud and gave up this morning.
    My son has school information on the iPad.
    Please help???
    Regards,
    Anthony

  • Filtering junk mail

    Several times a day I'm receiving unwanted messages from someone wanting to sell me stock. The entire email address (both sides of "@") changes on every email, as does the subject line. There is never any content in the email itself. The content comes as an attachment.
    I haven't been able to figure out a set of rules that will consign these straight to the trash can. Is there a way this can be done?
    iMac G4 + PowerBook G4   Mac OS X (10.4.6)  

    "many of these e-mails get through anyway"
    The email gets through to you, and then your rules process it. The rules won't stop the mail coming to your computer, but should help sort it. If you have a rule that checks to see if the sender of a message is in your address book, and if not mark it as junk, then what happens next depends on your junk mail settings. You would need to have "move it to the junk mailbox" selected in the junk preferences.
    If this is what you have, and it is not working, then start a new thread with more details in it.
    AK

  • All is "junk" to Yosemite mail filtering

    I have two computers (one at work, the other at home) running the same version of OS X Yosemite 10.10.2 and accessing the same (Microsoft Exchange) mail server. My computer at work does a pretty good job at filtering junk mail. My computer at home puts EVERY SINGLE MESSAGE in the junk mail.
    Anyone out there with the same problem? I have reset the junk mail settings several times, reinstalled the account. Nothing seems to help.
    Thanks in advance for any advise. This is driving me crazy!

    Hey there ahahmann,
    If your junk mail filter on your Home computer is still not working correctly, take a look at this info from the following article about junk mail filters named:
    Mail (Yosemite): If junk mail filters aren’t working correctly
    If messages are incorrectly marked as junk
    There are several ways you can prevent Mail from incorrectly marking legitimate messages as junk.
    Tell Mail that a message is legitimate by marking it as not junk. Click Not Junk in the banner of the message; or select the message, then click the Not Junk button  in the Mail toolbar. 
    Add the sender to the Contacts app. For more information, see Save addresses, events, passes, and more. 
    Review your junk mail settings in Mail preferences, as well as any rules you might have created to handle junk mail, and make changes as necessary. 
    Reduce junk mail in your inbox
    Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
    Regards,
    Sterling

  • Junk Mail: Now how do I deal with this one, 'No Subject' heading...

    Hello everyone.
    Well, they (Junk Mail) really keep "re-inventing" themselves...
    A while back I kept getting blank junk emails with no sender... so it was easy, someone from this Discussion thought me to create a rule whereby the 'Sender' field is lack of an "@", and that filters it to Junk.
    Now, I am getting junk mail with no subject heading...
    How can I filter this off directly as junk??
    Thanks and cheers

    Hi thanks for the reply. I have used SpamSieve before together with Entourage before I switched (back) to Mail; Then because Entourage has a "weaker ability" to do a better job in filtering Junk than Mail, which supposed to have a on-going learning experience in handling junk.
    I thought if properly "train" or configure, Mail will handle this on its own without "any external help", I hope this is still so, 'cause at this point I would not want to engage in another external spam filter.
    Thanks.

  • I am sick of receiving too many junk e-mails

    Hello?

    Hi pepe64
    This isn't a chat site; it's populated by users just like yourself, so you have to be patient. Even if no one responds, after a couple of days an Apple representative will likely see the lack of a response and post something helpful.
    Here are three that they would most likely suggest right away:
    iCloud: Manage junk mail
    iCloud: Identifying and filtering junk mail
    iCloud: Why am I getting junk mail (spam)?
    If you're getting too much spam sometimes you simply have to abandon that email address and create another. Keep your email addresses limited to those you trust, and never post them on a publicly searchable website (such as this one).
    What email client program are you using? Mail.app? If so use iCloud mail.
    iCloud mail spam filtering is very good. I have received three or four spam emails in total, in all the time I've been using iCloud mail. Even if you never divulge your email address to anyone, spammers will simply send to hundreds of millions of randomly generated addresses. For those that get through, set up Mail's junk mail filter.

  • Junk mail issues

    i have at least three email addresses that always end up in as junk mail, even after adding the addresses to my contacts list, my VIP list, and modifying junk mail settings. WTH?!!? Any suggestions?

    Hello ,
    Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.l
    You can train Mail to stop thinking those messages are junk mail.
    Filtering Junk Mail: Mail automatically detects junk mail messages (also called "spam") and visually identifies them by displaying them in brown text in your inbox.  If Mail mistakenly marks something as "junk", you can click the Not Junk button to help train Mail. If a message isn't marked as "junk" but should be, click the Junk button to help train Mail to better identify junk messages.
    Mac Basics: Mail (Mac OS X v10.6 and earlier)
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2500
    Take care,
    Alex H.

  • Junk filter doesn't work most of the time

    I might have asked for problems. By mistake I qualified about 20 messages in my junk folder as not junk ... Then I marked them as junk again after I noticed the mistake I have made. Ever since the filter seems to be confused and doesn't screen out junk the way it did. Regardless how many times I marked as junk the messages (usually from the same senders) that should be junk, they end up in my inbox.
    I am using the latest version of Mavericks with the latest version of Apple mail.
    Is there anything I can do to fix the problem? Thanks in advance.

    Try resetting the Junk Mail Filter in Mail Preferences.
    Junk Mail Filters
    Junk Mail Filters (2)
    Junk Mail Filters (3)
    Junk Mail Filter Change - Mavericks

  • How do I restore my junk folder?

    I am not quite sure what happened, whether I accidently deleted it or what but for some reason my Junk folder has disappeared.
    Any thoughts on the best way to restore it would be greatly appreciated.
    Many thanks

    @Jeffrey Jones2 - so simple when you know how. The option for filtering Junk mail in Preferences had become unticked.
    I hadn't been doing anything with the setting so have no idea how that got changed.
    I was further confused by 2 of the five Junk folders appearing in my own list of folders.
    @Eric Root - if mine starts to disappear like that then I won't panic but check  first.
    Thank you all for your contirbutions - really appreciated.

  • Dysfunctional junk filter in Tiger Mail

    I have three Macs (G5, G4, G3 iMac) all running the most recent, fully-patched version of OX X 10.4. All three machines are synchronized using .Mac sync, and I have the same account on all three machines.
    About a month ago, two of the machines' junk filters simultaneously stopped working entirely (IIRC, this was after I had to reset .mac syncing due to some inconsistency). In other words, Mail on both machines was failing to identify any mail as junk. I tried resetting the junk filters on both machines, put them in training mode, trained them over several hundred junk mail messages, to no avail. Neither machine was flagging any mail whatsoever as junk.
    Last night, as an experiment, I copied the file ~/library/com.apple.mail.plist from the machine (the G5) that was still filtering mail properly to the iMac (Mail wasn't running on either machine at the time I did the copy). Unfortunately, this fix seemed to have no effect, and worse, after the next sync, the one working machine no longer filtered mail properly! So now none of the three machines is filtering junk. But at least it seems clear that com.apple.mail.plist is in fact the file responsible for junk filtering, despite its small size (~16k). And all other filters (I use about 20 filters) seem to be working properly.
    And, to make matters even worse, I restored the aforementioned file from yesterday's backup (you have no idea how anal I am about backups; most days I get three complete backups of my home directory), but that didn't help either! It seems like whatever caused the problem in the first two machines has spread to the one remaining machine, and now I can't even restore things to the (sort of barely functional) state they were in yesterday, before I replaced the bad preference files with what I thought was a working version of the mail preferences file.
    Anyone have any ideas how to remedy this lamentable situation?
    Dual 2GHz G5   Mac OS X (10.4.3)   .mac synced to two other Macs

    cheetahkayak wrote:
    Dan you were right. I had a spam message from one gmail accounts and it did not have the Junk brown bar but then I trained as spam and it then put the junk brown bar on the email. So it is seeing the spamsieve the same as server-side spam.
    All that's going on here is that when you train a message as spam, SpamSieve tells Mail that it's spam. SpamSieve has always done this so that (a) Mail hides the images for spam messages to protect you, and (b) Mail's own junk filter stays up-to-date in case you ever want to use it. The difference with Mavericks is that Apple Mail now shows more of its own junk filter user interface when it's turned off. You should ignore this if you're using SpamSieve.
    --Michael (SpamSieve developer)

  • How to stop spam or junk mail

    How do you stop receiving spam , most of the time when i get spam i hit the unsubscribe button on the bottom but these recent ones are made to look like someon actually sent it to me like [email protected] any helpfull tips?

    Hi jaime979,
    Thanks for visiting Apple Support Communities.
    You may find the information in this article helpful with dealing with spam. Some of the tips are specific to using an iCloud email address:
    iCloud: Identifying and filtering junk mail
    http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4899
    Best Regards,
    Jeremy

  • IPhone, .Mac IMAP, and Junk Mail!

    I have seen lots of posts regarding this, but no definite answers. It seems like a lot of people are wondering if there is a way to deal with this issue...
    The .Mac email does a fine job of filtering junk mail. When I check it through the mac.com website or on my MBP everything is fine. However my iPhone constantly recieves the junk emails and they are not removed until checked by one of the previous two methods.
    Is there a way to prevent the junk mail from being sent to the iPhone besides leaving my computer on all day and forcing the hard drive to stay on which is the most asinine idea I have ever heard of?
    p.s. I'm not talking about junk mail getting sent to the "junk" folder under .Mac on the iPhone. I'm talking about it getting sent straight to the inbox. I know that you can uncheck the "keep junk mail stored on server" setting to stop it from but getting sent to the junk folder on the iphone but I don't care about that. I want messages that .Mac would filter out when I check them on the mac.com to not be sent to my iPhone only being deleted AFTER I log into mail.mac.com
    In other words are we stuck with .Mac only running junk filter when the website is connected?
    Thanks!
    Message was edited by: ryancousin

    I have a junk mail folder under my .Mac account on my iPhone. If you enable Junk mail filtering on your .mac account on the website and also have selected move it to the junk folder then .mac will create a junk folder which like any other folder is IMAP, meaning it will show up in your iphone.
    My problem is that junk mail that .mac on the website knows is junk gets sent to my inbox on my iphone. Once I go in and check my mail from the website it dumps all the junk mail. If I then go back to my iphone and refresh the inbox of course all of the junk mail will now be gone. But this is not how it should be. If .mac has a junk filter in place at the server it should run without having to open mail.mac.com.

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