Junk Mail Fix (Rules)

I check several accounts using Mail, one of which gets at least 20 pure junk messages per day. After upgrading to Tiger, the junk mail filter stopped working, completely. It would catch 0, no matter how long I trained it. The most annoying thing was how obvious most of the junk mail messages were. They weren't addressed to any name usually, let alone my name, and many of the headers looked very similar to messages I had been marking as junk every day, even if the reply-to addresses varied.
The usual fixes did not work. I tried resetting junk in preferences, deleting LSMMap2, and even reinstalling everything.
The one fix that did work was removing all my rules by deleting MessageRules.plist. (Thanks to the person who posted this. I would have replied to that thread, but it's closed.)
The only problem was that as soon as I put my rules back, manually, junk stopped working again. That's how I figured out the problem though. I have certain messages automatically redirected into different local folders.
This bypasses the junk filter apparently. To fix this, I created my own junk rule and put it above all other rules. I simply used the same rule attributes that you see if you click "Advanced..." in the Junk Mail preference pane, with one addition. I added "Stop evaluating rules." (This may not be necessary. I will test.)
Sorry for the long-winded explanation, but I thought it was important to be clear what the symptoms were before I discovered a fairly simple work-around. I'm sure this won't solve everyone's junk problems, but I know many others have been complaining about this and had probably just given up and decided that the junk mail filter just was no longer effective in the face of more advanced spamming techniques.
Lastly, the Junk rule used to be automatically listed as a rule when Junk Mail filtering was turned on (pre-Tiger). It's a shame they tried to make it separate, thus breaking it, since it really is just a sophisticated rule.
PowerBook G4 1.67 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Try resetting the Junk Mail filter and try again.
You can also set advanced rules in the preferences.
Are you able to mark those messages as Not Junk, or is that not available?

Similar Messages

Junk Mail: applying custom rules disables junk database

Using default settings my junk mail filter works most of the time. But there are several persistent streams of spam that never get recognized as junk, and custom rules would identify them easily. But everytime I try, suddenly all the other junk that was being flagged comes through to my in box. I've selected "Trust junk mail headers in messages" and "Filter junk mail before applying my rules" but it has no effect.
Also, the minute I add custom rules, "Erase Junk Mail" greys out and cannot be selected anymore. I have to first send my junk box to trash, then erase my trash.
I've read the help files and they don't address this at all. (Same problem in 10.6)

Don't have 3.0 on my computer but go to the Mail menu and choose Preferences.
The click on Junk Mail then on Advanced and see what color is chosen in the setting and the conditions under which it is set.

More junk mail since I've made and applied rules...why?

I was getting 6-8 junk emails a day. It was recommended that I use rules to delete them and prevent them from re-occuring. Now that I have applied the rules I am getting two to three times more junk mail. Why is this happening?

iSki123 wrote:
I was getting 6-8 junk emails a day. It was recommended that I use rules to delete them and prevent them from re-occuring. Now that I have applied the rules I am getting two to three times more junk mail. Why is this happening?
Because your email address has made the spammer's top ten list.
The rules won't prevent spam. They just move the spam to the trash.
Do you have the Junk mail filtering turned on in Mail's preferences?
It will attempt to identify incoming spam and move it into the Junk folder. If it doesn't catch a message, you can mark that message as junk and it might start learning that messages like that are junk. Also, it may catch some messages that are not junk. So, you have to periodically peruse the Junk mail folder to see if it has caught anything legitimate. You can mark those as Not Junk so that it will learn not to catch those.
"Thumbs Down" button marks it as Junk
The button turns to a "Thumbs Up" to mark it as "Not Junk". Also, there will be a banner across the top of the message where you can mark it as "Not Junk."
It is also advisable to set Mail so that it doesn't show remote images. When those images are loaded, the spammer can tell that you opened them because they are retrieved from their servers. That validates you email to them and they now have a more valuable email address they can sell to other spammers.

Mail doesn't keep junk mail filtering and rules

I noticed that all over sudden whenever I close mail the rules and junk mail setting in mails prefs are not kept anymore so that
I have to enable each rule and junk mail filtering whenever I open mail again.
Used to work fine.
Any idea / remedy ?

Open Disk Utility and Repair disk permissions on the First Aid tab.
Then, Restart and boot into Recovery Mode by holding down cmd-r on restart until you see a gray screen. When the Mac boots, you will be presented with some options. Choose Disk Utility and select your Hard drive volume (Macintosh HD is the default name). Then, on the First Aid tab, click Repair Disk (not permissions).
If that doesn't help, you could try installing the 10.8.2 combo updater from the Apple Downloads site:
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1581

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

Various E Mail problems: Junk Mail, Log Off, etc

I am having various and frustrating problems that are intermittant.
I have two incoming e mail accounts, one is IMAP and one is POP.
1. Junk Mail. After having reset my junk mail settings as advised on this site just a few days ago, I am continuing to experience this problem. Messages that the systems "knows" is Junk Mail do NOT go to Junk Mail folder, but to the regular In box. It knows they are Junk Mail because the Tab for changing the message at top of screen says "Not Junk", which means it thinks it is JUNK. They why won't it go into Junk Mail folder?
2. When I try to delete these messages one by one in In box, the computer "freezes" and takes forever to delete the messages. The In box counter on left hand side of the screen does not decrease as I delete messages, but takes a long time (minutes) to catch up with the deletions.
3. When receiving certain e mail from specific recipients, the system intermittantly says "message not dowloaded from server, you need to take this account on line". Well. it IS online! Again, this does not happen all the time, but often enough and from the same e mail recipients) that it is very frustrating.
4. Oftentimes when I try to shut down, I get the dreaded spinning color wheel, only to have to force quit. This is a lengthy process, and then I lose all of the deletions that I have tried to make to my Inbox.
Are all of these problems somehow related? Cumulatively, they are very frustrating. I never had these kinds of issues with Windows Mail apps. Uuughh!
Thanks for reading and any assistance.

There appears to be a problem with the index.
Verify/repair the startup disk (not just permissions), as described here:
The Repair functions of Disk Utility: what's it all about?
After having fixed all the filesystem issues, if any, and ensuring that there’s enough space available on the startup disk (a few GB, plus the space needed to make a backup copy of the Mail folder), try this:
1. Quit Mail if it’s running.
2. In the Finder, go to ~/Library/Mail/. Make a backup copy of this folder, just in case something goes wrong, e.g. by dragging it to the Desktop while holding the Option (Alt) key down. This is where all your mail is locally stored.
3. Locate Envelope Index and move it to the Trash. If you see any other “Envelope Index”-named file there, delete it as well.
4. Move the “IMAP-” account folder to the Trash. Note that you can do this with IMAP-type accounts because they store mail on the server and Mail can easily re-create them. DON’T trash any “POP-” account folders, as that would cause all mail stored there to be lost.
5. Open Mail. It will tell you that your mail needs to be “imported”. Click Continue and Mail will proceed to re-create Envelope Index — Mail says it’s “importing”, but it just re-creates the index if the mailboxes are already in Mail 2.x format.
6. As a side effect of having removed the IMAP account folder, that accounts may be in an “offline” state now. Do Mailbox > Go Online to bring it back online.
Note: For those not familiarized with the ~/ notation, it refers to the user’s home folder. That is, ~/Library is the Library folder within the user’s home folder, i.e. /Users/username/Library.
<hr>
If the problem persists, what are your Preferences > Accounts > Mailbox Behaviors > Junk settings, particularly for the IMAP account?
Also, what have you done to “reset [your] junk mail settings as advised on this site”? This is what I’d suggest:
1. Go to Preferences > Junk Mail, disable junk mail filtering, then enable it again. This resets the rule that governs what the junk filter does.
2. Choose either Training or Automatic mode (it doesn’t matter) and leave the other options checked. Click Advanced to see how the junk filter rule is defined now if you want, but don’t touch anything there.
3. Reset the junk filter database (Preferences > Junk Mail > Reset).
4. Open Window > Previous Recipients and get rid of any addresses that you don’t want Mail to treat as legit.

How can I delete ALL of my junk mail at the same time?

Hello I need some help!
I could not check my e-mail for a week and now I have nearly 600 junk mail on my mail box.
I am too busy to delete the junk mail one by one.
Mac wizard, please tell me how to delete all the junk mail at once!

Not certain, but this can fix myriad Mail problems...
Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), it will try to repair your Disk Directory while the spinning radian is happening, so let it go, run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, then move this folder & file to the Desktop.
Move this Folder to the Desktop...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Caches/Mail/
Move this file to the Desktop...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail/Envelope Index
Reboot.
If that doesn't do it and you can afford to redo all your Rules, try these & reboot...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail/MessageRules.plist
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail/MessageRules.plist.backup
Note, in 10.5 & up /Users/YourUserName/Library/Caches/Mail/ may or may not exist.

Junk mail exceptions for domains

I've searched the forums and cannot find an answer to my question.
Leopard Mail marks a lot of my good mail from school as junk. Is there anyway to keep Mail from marking all emails from "@school.edu" as junk? The school email system already has a pretty good spam filter on it, and so 99.99% of the emails from "@school.edu" are legitimate.
Might a rule fix this? I can't figure out how I would structure it.

I was just hoping to give this thread a bump, see if there was an answer, even a "No, it's not possible."
I have the same issue, a lot of school e-mails get marked as junk, and it makes me cautious to enable junk mail filtering so that I don't lose important e-mails. I was surprised that "Mark" as "Not Junk" wasn't an available option for the filtering rules.
Any help is appreciated!

What's up with the Junk Mail Filter (all messages in Sent)??

Hi,
I've seen this question asked in a few different threads, but many of them seem to be dated back to September or October. Was wondering if there was any new light someone could shed on this:
I have a client who reported that all of her Sent Mail was going into the Junk Mail folder - and that she needs to "unmark" it before she can send it.
She is getting really frustrated by this, but I can see she's not the only one.
I reset her Junk Mail database a couple of days ago, but that did not help - now everything she sends is getting labeled as such.
I haven't seen a definitive workaround or fix for this - does one exist? Or does a rule have to be created in mail that says "any mail from <user@domain> is not junk"?
She is running an iMac G5 with 10.4.3.
Thanks!

The fix was: Turn off Junk Mail filter
quit mail
turn on junk mail filter
(and reset database for good measure)

Eliminating Junk Mail on Iphone using an IMAP mail server

Hello!
Doesn't sound like there is a fix for this, but its always worth asking...,
I currently have my own IMAP email server with my company on an XServe. When I receive mail on my Iphone it bypasses all my post-server junk mail rules on my powerbook Apple Mail app, and loads up my inbox. I don't keep my powerbook on all the time to filter it before I open it on my Iphone, although I do use Apple Mail as my mail client.
Is there any way to echo the junk mail rules from my Laptop to my Iphone. The volume of junk I receive after makes the Iphone's mail app cumbersome. I also need to filter out web order confirmations for my business, which normally go right to a selected folder using a mail rule.
Thanks!

Is there any way to echo the junk mail rules from my Laptop to my Iphone.
Yes, by leaving the Mail.app on your PowerBook launched and running actively accessing your account for new messages where a junk mail filter and any rules are available. With an IMAP account, all server stored mailboxes are kept synchronized with the server automatically with each email client used to access the account. In order for your account accessed with the iPhone's Mail client to have access to the junk mail filter and the rules with the Mail.app on your PowerBook by proxy, you need to leave the Mail.app on your PowerBook launched and running actively accessing the account for new messages while the Mail client on your iPhone is doing the same.
If you receive that much junk mail with this account, more than likely you have inadvertently added to the problem. Do you have display remote images in HTML messages selected with the Mail.app on your Mac? If so, when a junk message that is not marked as junk when received includes images that must be rendered from a remote server to be viewed and any images are rendered, this confirms to the spammer that your email address is "known good" causing even more spam to be received. Selecting any links included with a junk message will do the same. Selecting a "remove me" link to remove your email address from the spammer's circulation list also does the same.
Providing your email address publicly for any reason - when making an online purchase, for website access is required, provided when filling out customer information, etc., etc., can cause more spam to be received.
My primary personal email address is used to exchange email with family and friends only. I never provide this email address publicly for any reason.
I use a free account with webmail access only for an online purchase and/or to be provided publicly.

Returned Junk mail-How to delete for ever

I use to bounce junk mail and there was never a problem except from one sender 'iflorist. When I deleted those they just reurned back to the in folder. I tried dragging them into trash and they soon appear again in the in folder. I opened a seperate file for undelivered mail, dragged them into that file but after a few minutes they reappear in the original in folder.
This is POP mail
Someone suggested that somehow a loop has been created but can't say how to get out of it.
Any suggestions please as ther are about 30 of them taking up space.

Hi Dick, and a warm welcome to the forums!
Most of the time "bouncing" junk mail just lets them know they have a valid eMail address.
Not certain, but this can fix myriad Mail problems...
Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), it will try to repair your Disk Directory while the spinning radian is happening, so let it go, run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, then move these folder & file to the Desktop.
Move this Folder to the Desktop...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Caches/Mail/
Move this file to the Desktop...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail/Envelope Index
Reboot.
If that doesn't do it and you can afford to redo all your Rules, try these & reboot...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail/MessageRules.plist
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail/MessageRules.plist.backup

Junk mail handling seems broken in Mail

I had a rather frustrating experience with Mail this morning, and I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this. The closest thing I've seen thus far is another topic in this forum about messages being read but being marked as unread when you later go and view the contents of an INBOX. (Incidentally, I've experienced this behavior as well, though seldom.)
I went through my Mac.com account's inbox and noticed a bunch of messages which I could have sworn I had marked as Junk already. I'd say there were 4 or 5 junk messages. After I marked them as junk, they appeared to be moved to the Junk mail folder. At least, they apparently disappeared from that inbox.
I then checked my junk mail folders, and noticed a message (not one of the 4 or 5 that I had just identified as junk) that shouldn't have been marked as junk, so I marked it as Not Junk, and then manually dragged it back to my Mac.com inbox. Now, I know that occasionally the junk mail filter gives false positives for mail messages that it shouldn't, and I'm not complaining about that. What I'm complaining about is coming up next.
See, apparently, the Mail application lied to me when it indicated (visually) that the messages had been moved. After I had convinced myself that I saw only the mail messages in the Junk folder that should be there, I went and did an Erase Junk Mail operation -- which is not reversible.
Imagine my shock when I discovered the following:
* The 4 or 5 messages that I marked as junk were back in the inbox. They were still marked as junk, which I confirmed by selecting each of those messages individually; the little "You marked this message as Junk" indicator bar appeared at the top of the view pane. But the junk messages apparently didn't actually get moved into the junk mail folder.
* The 1 message which I marked as Not Junk and manually removed from the junk mail folder apparently is gone. It would seem that this message was not actually moved back to the inbox as the application visually indicated.
The first bullet point above is easy enough to take care of: Highlight the messages and do an Apply Rules (or manually move them). The second bullet point, I can't fix, because that message apparently is now gone. I wouldn't be quite so upset about it, except that the message in question was a confirmation message from Pay1040.com and would have been useful to keep around, especially if I needed to provide proof-of-payment to the IRS.
After this incident, I repaired permissions on my drive and restarted the Mail application; I haven't seen any misbehavior since, but I'm now very nervous about cleaning out my junk folders.
Dual 2.0 GHz G5 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

LionMage,
Actually, you hit-the-nail-on-the-head when you said - '...but my guess is, some kind of synchronization between the Mac.com IMAP server and my Mail application needed to occur.' Mail gives you the option of how often it checks for new messages. And, since the original message stays on the Apple server, if there are any permission problems or lag in the system, its quit possible that you will receive a message twice because you receive new messages first, then sync your mail boxes last. You can see this in the status messages at the top of the Mail main window when you press 'Get Mail'.
Hence, they showed up again unexpectantly. And you were right, there may have been a simple problem with your system that you fixed by repairing the permissions and restarting your Mac.
Its only happened to me once or twice before, but I now let mail delete the Junk mail every 7 days no matter how full it gets (unless of course you get a lot of mail!). That way I've checked the Junk 3 to 4 times before it trashes them and I know that the server is sync'd properly at Apple before they disappear forever.
PowerMac G5 Dual 1.8ghz Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Junk Mail working on Mac but not iPhone

Hi,
Using Mail on Yosemite, I keep getting annoying spam which I add to my Junk mail rules. It automatically goes to junk on my Mac but always goes to my Inbox on Mail on my iPhone.
Any reason why? It's quite annoying!

OK. Since this started happening after installing the Mac OS X 10.4.7 Update, let's make sure that the update is installed properly before proceeding any further.
Verify/repair your disk first (not just permissions), as described here:
The Repair functions of Disk Utility: what's it all about?
After having fixed all filesystem issues, if any, reinstall the update using the Combo installer:
Mac OS X 10.4.7 Combo Update for PPC
Mac OS X 10.4.7 Combo Update for Intel
Take a look at the following articles for guidelines on how to properly install system updates:
Troubleshooting installation and software updates
Installing software updates
Basically, you should verify/repair the startup disk before installing the update, and no applications should be running while installing it.

Junk mail filter has suddenly stopped working properly

I have reset it twice, and put it in training mode. While training, it works just fine...catches the things it's supposed to and let's the safe stuff through. But when I switch it back to have it auto-filter the junk mail into the junk mailbox, it starts misidentifying everything again. Tons of junk gets through, it doesn't filter out the junk it does catch (leaves it in the inbox), and identifies things as junk that aren't - especially annoying for regular items that I receive.
Any ideas on why this has suddenly stopped? I haven't changed or adjusted any of the rules. I tried going in and changing up the identification colors just to see if that would help, but no luck.
I have three email addresses where I receive mail. Two are set up as POP accounts, and one is an IMAP account. It doesn't seem to matter which account is receiving the junk mail, and it actually gets worse with time rather than better.
Thanks for the help.

Are you really using Mac OS X 10.4.2, as your profile indicates?
There is probably some corruption in one or more of the files used by the junk filter. The following procedure should fix the problem:
1. Quit Mail.
2. In the Finder, go to ~/Library/Mail/.
3. Locate LSMMap2 and move it to the Trash -- deleting this file is what clicking the Reset button in Preferences > Junk Mail does. If you see an LSMMap file there, move it to the Trash too.
4. Locate DefaultCounts and move it to the Trash. This file keeps statistics about the number of messages that have been marked as junk, either automatically by the junk filter or manually by the user.
5. Locate MessageRules.plist and move it to the Desktop. This is where Mail 2.x stores all rules, including those used by the junk filter. If there is a file called MessageRules.plist.backup, move it to the Desktop too. You may also see MessageSorting.plist files there; this is where Mail 1.x stored the rules, and they are no longer used by Mail 2.x, so just move them to the Trash if you see them.
6. Look for the account folders. The name of each account folder starts with the account type (POP, IMAP, Mac), followed by the account username and the incoming mail server. Open each of the account folders, locate the Junk.mbox or Junk.imapmbox folder within it, and move it to the Trash if present.
7. Go to ~/Library/Mail/Mailboxes/. Locate any Junk.mbox folders there (their name may include the account name in parenthesis), and move them to the Trash.
Note: Messages in Junk folders with an .mbox suffix are stored locally, and will be lost forever as a result of doing steps 6 and 7. If there is a chance that you have legit messages there and you want to preserve them, move them to another mailbox in Mail first. Messages in Junk folders with an .imapmbox suffix are stored on the server and can be ignored (Mail will rebuild those mailboxes automatically).
8. Open Mail. As a result of removing the rules file, the junk filter will be disabled now. You may want to either tell Mail to go offline immediately after opening it, or shut down the Internet connection before opening Mail, to prevent it from downloading anything until the junk mail filter has been enabled again.
9. Go to Mail > Preferences > Junk Mail, enable junk filtering, and configure it however you wish.
10. Go online again if you went offline in step 8.
If the above solves the problem and you don't have any rules you'd like to preserve or recreating them is not a daunting task, just delete the MessageRules.plist files that were moved to the Desktop and be done with it.
Note: For those not familiarized with the ~/ notation, it refers to the user's home folder. You can easily locate any of the folders referred to in this post by copying the file path here, doing Go > Go to Folder in the Finder, and pasting the file path there.

Why isn't junk mail going into its folder

I get a lot of spam and a few weeks ago, it went into my junk folder which pulled if off my iphone and ipad. Now the junk mail just stays in the inbox.
What is causing that or this?
Can I fix it?

Try rebuilding your mailboxes ...
Instructions > Mail (Mavericks): Rebuild mailboxes

Junk Mail Fix (Rules)

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