Strange Junk Mail Behavior

I get a couple of thousand junk mails a day and have to empty the folder several times a day I have noticed at the bottom of the junk list is an email that has migrated from my inbox. i can move the file back into the correct mailbox. At first i thought is was a visual glitch But when i empty the junk folder the migrated email is deleted with it.
I have been going back and forth into my junk mailbox each time i go in, there is a single not junk email at the base of the list it can come from any mailbox including the sent folder.
Any thoughts.

Hi Tim.
This kind of problems are caused by some corruption in one or more of the files used by the junk filter. Try this first:
1. Go to Preferences > Junk Mail and disable junk mail filtering.
2. Quit Mail, then open it again.
3. Go to Preferences > Junk Mail, enable junk mail filtering, and configure it however you wish.
4. Reset the junk filter database (Preferences > Junk Mail > Reset).

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Odd Junk Mail Behavior

I've been experiencing odd Junk Mail behavior on my Mac; I've got the Mail app set so it puts the emails it thinks is Junk in the Junk folder. I do this because I've noticed that certain legitimate emails keep ending up in the Junk folder automatically.
I've also noticed that some of the emails in the Junk folder have not actually been flagged as Junk Mail, they were not colored brown by the Junk Mail rule and there is no button available to tell Mail it's not Junk. How do I stop Mail from flagging something as Junk when it doesn't seem to tag it as Junk but it still ends up in the Junk folder?
I see emails tagged as Junk in the Junk folder that are legit, so I click the "Not Junk" button and move them back to the proper mail folder. But the next time I get mail from the same source, it gets flagged and tagged as Junk again. I thought the Mail app learns from the training we give it. How do I resolve this situation?
I've already set the Junk filtering to not filter emails from recipients who are in my Address Book.

Either you’ve messed with the Preferences > Junk Mail > Advanced settings, or those settings have become corrupt, or you have one or more rules that have a bearing on this.
Assuming it isn’t the latter, try this:
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).

Strange e-mail Behavior

I have been experiencing a strange phenomenon with my Mail account, the nature of which is as follows. Whenever, I send an e-mail via my mail account using my Hotmail account the recipient gets the message, however, it states that the e-mail is coming from my wife’s Hotmail account instead of mine. It should be noted that the only similarity in both e-mail accounts is that they are Hotmail accounts. Any suggestion on what could be causing this strange phenomenon and how I can resolve same will be greatly appreciated.

Hello, do you & her share the same computer account?
Check Mail Preferences>Composing>Send messages from, & see if it's set to Send new messages from Last viewed account, or hers.

Strange new Mail behavior in Lion after iCloud implementation

I never use Apple Mail, I only use Gmail through my browser.
However, after getting an iPhone and installing iOS 5 on that, and enabling iCloud, the Apple Mail icon now bounces in the dock a few times a day, as if something is making it want to launch (even though I have never launched it on purpose).
Since the timing of this seemed iCloud-related, I searched through the settings I thought most likely to cause this, and none of them are enabled, but maybe I missed one. If so, can someone please tell me where that setting might be?
I looked in System Preferences->Mail, Contacts & Calendars and the 'iCloud' account syncs the following, which all have checkmarks: Contacts, Calendars, Bookmarks, Photostream, Documents & Dtaa, and Find My Mac. However, the one that might affect this, "Mail & Notes", is not checked.
Similarly, in System Preferences->iCloud, the same boxes are checked as listed above, and "Mail & Notes" is NOT checked.
What am I missing here?

If you want to download random stuff from anywhere, or if you need or want to let your patches fall behind, or if you're going load whatever a pop-up or advert or drive-by package or toolbar that somebody wants to load, clicking on stuff in random mail messages (including fake invites, fake shipping reciepts, lottery announcements, etc), yes, you might consider loading an add-on tool.
OS X ships with Xprotect support enabled, and this can and has been used to lock down components (such as the Java JVM plug-in) when something nasty is loose.
The OS X Server variant ships with anti-malware tools — ClamAV — that can scan mail and related storage, and which can mitigate malware for OS X as well as for other platforms.
But anti-malware and anti-virus add-ons? In general, not needed IMO.
Recent attacks have targeted Flash and Java, and these are easily mitigated.
To avoid any need for anti-malware tools, keep your patches current, keep the Java JVM plug-in disabled in your web browsers (or don't install Java) and use a Flash blocker (or deinstall Flash) in your browser, don't download any stuff you didn't go looking for, pick gonzo passwords, have good backups and preferably a copy that can be offsite and disconnected, use a gateway-firewall, use sftp and not ftp, and all the rest of the usual advice applies...
There's no panacea: an anti-malware tool probably won't protect you from a wholly new attack or from what's called an advanced persistent attack, nor from spearphishing, either. So you still have to watch what you're doing.
The cure can be a problem, too: anti-malware tools work by doing the same sorts of things as the malware wants to do, insinuating itself into low-level corners of the OS, but attempting to detect and block the malware. The act of connecting into the OS can potentially cause problems for the "host" OS, just as malware can corrupt and crash a system.

Strange mobileme mail behavior

Here's what's going on:
I can send mail from my ISP email on my iMac to my MobileMe email and receive it both on my iMac and iPhone, but I receive the email TWICE (as in duplicates) on my iPhone (once on my iMac).
I can send mail from my MobileMe email on my iMac to my ISP email and recieve it both on my iMac and iPhone, once each.
I can send mail from my MobileMe email on my iPhone to my ISP email and receive it both on my iMac and iPhone (once only).
I CANNOT send mail using MobileMe acct on my iMac at all. It gives me a "SMTP server unavailable..." error. I've checked and rechecked the acct settings (SMTP, ports, etc).
What the heck could cause this??

OOPS, had to clarify from above!
I can send mail from my ISP email on my iPhone to my MobileMe email and receive it both on my iMac and iPhone, but I receive the email TWICE (as in duplicates) on my iPhone (once on my iMac).
I can send mail from my ISP email on my iMac to my MobileMe email and recieve it both on my iMac and iPhone, once each.
I can send mail from my MobileMe email on my iPhone to my ISP email and receive it both on my iMac and iPhone (once only).
I CANNOT send mail using MobileMe acct on my iMac at all. It gives me a "SMTP server unavailable..." error. I've checked and rechecked the acct settings (SMTP, ports, etc).

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.

I have several imap accounts and want to click one button to empty all junk mail at once. How can I do this?

I currently run Apple Mail on Lion with several IMAP acocunts... I know that there is a right-click option to remove "all deleted" messages but what If I wanted to do the same for all messages marked at junk in all accounts. It's really a pain to have to click on each account, select all the junk in the junk folder, press delete over and over.. and then right-click and select "Erase Deleted Items" Why the heck can't they just have "Erase All Spam Items" also... ?? Or how about "Erase all SPAM and DELETED ITEMS from ALL accounts" ????

I found the solution and here's how to correct things:
Apple Mail
Mail has a feature, accessible from the Mailbox Behaviors (or Special Mailboxes) tab of the Accounts preferences, that can automatically delete old spam messages from the Junk mailbox. You can use this feature if you tell SpamSieve to put spam messages in the Junk mailbox instead of the Spam mailbox.
(Note: If you do this, be careful not to use the Junk and Not Junk buttons that will appear in Mail when the Junk mailbox is active; you should always use the SpamSieve - Train as Good and SpamSieve - Train as Spam commands instead. You can use the Customize Toolbar… command in Mail’s View menu to remove the Junk button from the toolbar. Also, if you select a message that SpamSieve has classified as spam, Mail will show a banner saying that you marked it as junk. Ignore this.)
Make sure that Mail knows which mailbox is your Junk mailbox by selecting it and choosing Mailbox ‣ Use This Mailbox For ‣ Junk.
To tell SpamSieve to use the Junk mailbox, open Mail’s Preferences window and click on Junk Mail. Make sure that Enable junk mail filtering is checked. Select Move it to the Junk mailbox. If Mail asks whether you want to move all the messages to the Junk mailbox, say No. Next, select Perform custom actions. Then click theAdvanced… button and edit the rule such that the conditions don’t match any messages. For example, use these two conditions:
Message is addressed to my Full Name
Message is not addressed to my Full Name
and set it to If all of the following conditions are met. Click OK to close the sheet. Do not make any further changes to the Junk Mail preferences.
Go to the Rules section of Mail’s preferences and change the SpamSieve rule to move the messages to the Junk mailbox instead of the Spam mailbox. Finally, chooseSpamSieve - Change Settings from Mail’s Message menu and, when prompted, say that the name of your spam mailbox is Junk.

How to unmark junk mail in mail 5.1?

I am unable to find a way to unmark mail as junk in Mail 5.1 (OS X Lion). In previous versions of Mail, there were obvious ways to do this.
Can someone tell me how to do this?

Aha.   I reset the junk mail under Mail->Preferences->Junk Mail, and the behavior changed. Now the menu item and toolbar button act as toggles, whereas they did not before the reset.
BUT: junk mail handling gives us a choice between a) moving junk mail to the junk mailbox or b) marking it as junk but leaving it in the inbox.   Now I don't see a way to make it do both, even through the custom handling option.
Why do I want it to do both?   I want to make sure the the filter is learning what I think is junk and what I think is is not, and I want the junk out of the way.

Apple's Mail program can't handle junk mail

I've had this machine for almost two months now and I'm STILL having problems with Apple's mail program:
1. It doesn't recognize junk mail. Although I've been in "train" mode for almost two months, it STILL doesn't recognize ANYTHING as junk mail, even things that are obviously junk, and even duplicates of messages already marked as junk.
2. Although I've set my preferences to delete junk mail on exit, the program doesn't delete junk mail. It doesn't matter whether I mark the messages manually as junk and leave them in my inbox, or if I mark the messages as junk and move them to my junk mailbox, or if I just move the messages to the junk mailbox without marking them as junk. The messages sit in the junk mailbox until I delete them manually.
I'm EXTREMELY disappointed with Apple and Apple software and the fact that almost NOTHING works as expected or advertised. I have problems with Mail, Safari and iCal to name just a few...

I am not understanding any of these problems, as Mail marks Junk quite reliably for me (and I think many others). Also, no problems with Safari nor iCal here.
If you have Junk in Training, as you report, then this would explain some of the behavior. While in Training vs Automatic Mail does not create a Junk mailbox in the the account folder, and thus the setting to delete messages from the Junk mailbox would not do anything. If you have yourself created a mailbox named Junk, Mail would not use it for its own purposes.
I think there are a number of misunderstandings on your part (Junk filtering with Mail's own procedure vs manually created Rules for one), and thus I cannot easily tell what may do the most good to correct things.
More info, please.
Ernie
Message was edited by: Ernie Stamper

How to get mail app to search junk mail?

Is it normal behavior for the search function in mail to exclude junk mail? One of the main reasons I might search for a message is to check whether something I was expecting got sent to junk or not.
Or to put it more simply: Is there a way to include the junk folder in searches?

Mail ▹ Preferences ▹ General ▹ When searching all mailboxes, include results from: Junk

Junk mail - automatic trash???

Apple mail junk filters seem to work fine (since I get virally no junk to my .me address), but mail I forward from other mail accounts (especially yahoo mail) is not filtering out all of the spam.
Is there a way to set up my spam folder in apple mail 7.3 to move all spam to trash? so I don't have to deal with it...
thanks
tom

Open Mail preferences and click on the Junk Mail icon in the toolbar. Use the option to automatically send junk mail to the Junk Mail folder - second option in the uppermost list.
Select Accounts in the toolbar and click on the Mailbox Behaviors tab. If needed adjust the options for what to do with junk mail and how often.

Junk mail filter not working properly

About two weeks ago mail started marking lots of messages as "Junk". Even messages (reminders) I send myself are marked as junk. This is entirely new and I don´t have a clue of what triggered the change in behavior.
I have turned off the junk mail filtering, but that is not my preferred solution.
Any hints on what might be going on?

I too have a problem with junk mail, but it is a little different. Every time I click junk mail for a mail message that is junk, nothing happens. What I mean by this is that the same emails from the same sources continue to come into my inbox without being filtered out. Is there some setting that I need to check to have mail filter out my junk?

Junk mail arrives in iPhone 5s mail app but not MBP mail app

This is a strange observation and I am wondering if others have experienced this...
My iPhone is a 5s running iOS v7.1. When I access my email accounts via my iPhone each day, I am greeted with a slew of junk mail on a daily basis (typically Monday thru Friday). Not a new thing right? However, when I access those same email accounts from my MacBook Pro I never receive any junk mail (typically Saturday and Sunday). In fact, junk mail never even appears in my Junk folder on the MBP. Now, during the week when I do receive the junk mail on my iPhone, I wait until I return home and open the mail app on my MBP whereupon all of the junk mail received on my iPhone NOW shows up in Mail on my MBP THEN automatically moves into the junk folder. So, my suspicion is that spammers have now determined how to identify mail access between devices (iPhone vs. MBP). I am guessing they may be capitalizing the the inability of the iPhone mail app to filter junk mail.
Am I imagining this or has anyone else experienced this scenario? Many thanks.

Hello rayalamx
If the Mail app is not opening, then I would remove the email accounts. Open mail to see if that resolves the issue and then start adding the accounts back in.
iOS: Troubleshooting Mail
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts3899
Regards,
-Norm G.

(Junk-)Mail and setting up a new computer

Hi all,
Naturally, I do not very often replace my computer, but every time I need to set up a new computer I run into this issue with Mail.app which annoys me.
I am a relatively heavy mail user (I have about 24.000 messages in my inbox on a gmail-account). I usually do not delete any mail, because I use my e-mail as my memory crutch for things past. However, if an e-mail is junk-mail, which I receive quite a bit, I delete it. To help me to sort the good from the bad, I use the Mail.app built-in junk mail control and generally, I am quite happy with it.
But every time I need to set up a computer from scratch, the following happens:
I set up Mail.app with my accounts.
Then I set the Junk Mail preferences to: "Enable junk mail filtering", "When junk mail arrives: Move it to the Junk mailbox". I have my Mailbox Behaviors set to: "Store junk messages on server".
Mail automatically moves tons of my legitimate old mail (this time more than 600 messages) to my gmail junk mail folder. That means I have to sift through the junk mail folder manually and pull out the legitimate mail while leaving the spam.
This is a big problem for me, because potentially I could lose important older e-mails. I have my accounts set up as IMAP, thus the new machine will screw up my older machines, the iPhone and even the native gmail web-interface.
My question: am I missing an "apply junk mail filter only to new incoming mail but leave my old mail alone"-button? Is there a work-around? Anyone else experiences this problem?
All the best.

Hi, Gustavo, and welcome to the Community,
I know it will sound ridiculous, but if the new account was created using your e-mail address, change that account's password to take control of the account! Remove any of your (or their) information - leave all profile settings as "blank" or "not specified." I would recommend changing the passwords of your Skype account and your e-mail account as well, as proactive measures.
Then, please report this incident to Skype Customer Service. Here is a link to the instruction on how to contact Skype Customer Service via their secure portal: Contact Customer Service
As you know you wish to contact Customer Service, skip past Step 2 of the instruction and proceed to Step 3, Continue Support Request.
Best regards,
Elaine
Was your question answered? Please click on the Accept as a Solution link so everyone can quickly find what works! Like a post or want to say, "Thank You" - ?? Click on the Kudos button!
Trustworthy information: Brian Krebs: 3 Basic Rules for Online Safety and Consumer Reports: Guide to Internet Security Online Safety Tip: Change your passwords often!

Invisible junk mail

when something goes in my junk mail folder, you can't see it. you open the folder and it says 0 messages, even though in next to the mailbox it says i have 20, or whatever.
this does not matter most of the time, of course, since it is junk mail. EXCEPT. occasionally i have accidentally clicked "junk", because the junk mail button is located next to the "get mail" button (a design flaw, in my opinion), and tagged something as junk that i don't want to.
then, because i can't see what's in my junk mail, i can't tag it as "not junk".
very frustrating. any help much appreciated, thanks.

This doesn’t make sense. Special Mailboxes is how the Mailbox Behaviors panel was called in Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther), but according to your system profile you’re running Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)...
So what version of Mac OS X are you running? Please, fill in the Computer Model and Operating System fields on your My Settings’s profile with the right information (and click Save). This is essential information that should always be accurately provided when asking for help...
Actually, if you’re running Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther), as appears to be the case, it would have been more appropriate to discuss this in the Mail & Address Book - Mac OS X 10.3 & earlier forum. If the discussion applies to both Mail 1.x and Mail 2.x, it doesn’t really matter, but it’s difficult to know that in advance.
Report the names of the files and folders present at the first level of the ~/Library/Mail/POP-username@mailserver/ account folder in the Finder.
In order to post the exact file names and avoid typing mistakes, proceed as follows. In the Finder, go to ~/Library/Mail/POP-username@mailserver/. With that folder open, if you’re looking at it in View > as List mode, first collapse any expanded folders so that the Finder only shows the files and folders at the first level. Now, do Edit > Select All (⌘A), then Edit > Copy (⌘C), and paste it in your reply to this post.
You’ll probably see a Junk folder without the .mbox suffix there. If that’s the case, quit Mail and rename the folder to Junk.mbox. That should fix the problem.
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.

Strange Junk Mail Behavior

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