Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Is it worth bouncing spam emails? [MacMail and iOS]

P

Peter Franks

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jun 9, 2011
2,118
125
I now receive 30 plus SPAM emails over night, that are actually flagged in subject line [SPAM] by server but incapable of putting in a Spam/Junk folder on iOS. So if I open mail in iPhone instead of MacBook I have to delete them all every morning and continually throughout the day.

If I open them on Mac, they invariably go into the junk folder. However, the first thing I open in the morning is my phone before I get to Mac, and have this problem.

Now, as you probably all know, when you bounce any spam emails, 99% of them come back as an 'undelivered', so this is of no help at all. because that then creates more work and having to then delete the bounce backs.

Can I win on iOS for these spamming £^@&*s.

Is there ANY way of getting these blatant junk mails into a junk folder, or on iPhone there is also a spam folder. My host company said mailbox behaviours on the iPhone do not allow anything for Spam?

These SPAM emails are relentless all of a sudden, and I don't know what to do. It's making work even more of a pain, every time I get an email. Surely, if it has SPAM in subject header I can do something to stop inbox receiving on phone
 
Last edited:
Any decent email service should provide good spam filtering on their end. It may be time to change your provider.

Don't bounce spam as that, if the message actually gets back to the sender, would announce to the spammer that yours is a valid email address. This is also a good reason to turn off "Load remote content in messages" in Mac Mail (or the equivalent setting in whatever client is used) as loading remote hosted images in spam can also announce to the spammer that yours is a valid email address.

Don't expect iOS Mail to ever add spam filtering as the world has moved toward a server-side solution to that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 997440
Thanks for your reply, I just don't understand why they have a SPAM folder on the iPhone, and yet, all of them have SPAM in header, from provider, but deliver to inbox.

This is the reply I received from host of my site/email address,

The emails moved between folders on your laptop should also be reflected on your phone whenever the laptop synchronizes them.

However the Spam filtering behaviour is unfortunately out of our control and is down to Apples mail client which on mobile devices does not allow rules to be set up so any content that is not synced between the devices would still come in to the normal Inbox. Although in this instance I would also expect the Spam emails being moved to be reflected but I cannot confirm this as I do not have access to an Apple device.
 
It seems you're using an IMAP configured account and the iPhone is just reflecting what folders exist at the server. If you delete the spam folder at the webmail site or on your Mac, it will likely disappear from your iPhone.

Spam filtering is out of their control in the sense that they haven't included it in their email hosting service. Their answer sort of dances around that fact. My Gmail, Outlook.com, iCloud, Office 365 and Yahoo accounts all filter spam at the server...some better than others.
 
If I delete spam folder they'll still just fill my inbox hourly though.... V frustrating
 
Peter Franks said:
If I delete spam folder they'll still just fill my inbox hourly though.... V frustrating
Click to expand...

I'm only trying to explain why the spam folder's on you iPhone. If you still don't understand...I don't know.

The root cause of your frustration is the lousy, crappy, horrible email provider you're using. Your provider probably can't believe you're still using it. If it's a custom domain you should pay for some separate, decent email hosting elsewhere.

If you don't want to change your email provider the only thing I can say is "learn to love it."
 
The fact that they do go to 'junk' on the MacBook is more of a frustration... But won't on iPhone.

And a 'junk folder' and a 'Spam' folder on my iPhone that happily sits there with 'No Mail'.

If I didn't have to use my phone all day instead of the 10% of it spent on MacBook, it wouldn't be a problem.
 
Last edited:
They go to "junk" on your MacBook because your email program sends it there - not the mail server.

You need to configure your mail server to send those items to junk or spam or whatever, then they will go to junk or spam on whatever device you use to check your email.

Right now your mail server is just sending all mail, spam or not, to your inbox. Your email client (app, if you will) is then sending it to junk on your MacBook, while Mail for iOS isn't doing that for you. You need to do it at the server level, if you can.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Brian33 and Peter Franks
thanks guys, My server have done as much as they are going to do, which is not much. Didn't know that Tom', that it was the Mac putting them in Junk. Interesting and makes sense.

Yes Brian, it was a pain back then, but I lived with it, because it was maybe 20 or so a day, but now it's just a constant, and that's why I'm getting more riled by it. Forwarded at server is how it's set up now, I believe. My hosting company used to be based in the UK, well it still is, but their Customer Service is somewhere in the Philippines I believe. Well as you can imagine, they aren't overly clued up, and there is a language barrier over the phone, and it's a case of giving up with them. I've looked on server settings and you have the highest grade of security, level 5, which it is on now. Or, I think what looks like a 'delete all' before they even hit, which is a bit of a risk for me, in case they delete stuff that isn't Spam. If it deleted and went in a trash folder to look through periodically to check they're all SPAM, but they have told me that it deletes and doesn't save anywhere. Worth going into Apple store to see if they can configure anything on phone, or is it all purely server?
 
It's all server. Nothing they can do at the store.

I'm thinking there's not enough detail about your website, type of website, the emails that originate with your website, web host and hosting platform, webhost email platform, and the amount of configuration you can perform on all of the above to give you any more advice that we already have.
 
At the least, let us know if it is a POP or IMAP account (I'd expect POP). Even with POP, these days most mail server software allows you to log into a web page and manage your mail - you ought to be able to create rules to filter your inbox, move SPAM-marked items to a spam folder, etc. If your hosting service cannot provide that, there are plenty that can.
 
No it's IMAP, has to be to mirror inbox and sent on phone and Mac. Don't suppose.... that Outlook App will make a difference on the phone, instead of the standard Mac one?
 
I think this post explains what you're seeing:

Tomorrow said:
They go to "junk" on your MacBook because your email program sends it there - not the mail server.

You need to configure your mail server to send those items to junk or spam or whatever, then they will go to junk or spam on whatever device you use to check your email.

Right now your mail server is just sending all mail, spam or not, to your inbox. Your email client (app, if you will) is then sending it to junk on your MacBook, while Mail for iOS isn't doing that for you. You need to do it at the server level, if you can.
Click to expand...

Here's a crazy idea: leave your Mac running and receiving mail all the time. As soon as a spam email was sent to the inbox of your Mac mail, its rules would presumably move it into the junk mailbox. Since you are using an IMAP account, the iOS mail client would syncronize with what the Mac mail client just did (I think!). So looking at your mail in iOS it would show up in the junk mailbox too, at least shortly after the Mac moved it there. Not very elegant or efficient, but maybe quick and easy solution for awhile!

I think a better long-term solution is what I'm doing, but then you'd have to change your email address one last time: register your own domain for around $10 a year. An address at this domain will be your permanent, "publicly-known" (i.e., to friends, associates, etc.) email address. Get a forwarding account from pobox.com or similar outfit (mine is $35 a year for five forwarding destinations, maybe they have some plan even cheaper). pobox.com does a great job with spam filtering. Set pobox to receive all your domain's email and forward it to whatever free IMAP account you want to use (gmail, icloud, your ISP's, etc.). Sync your email clients with that IMAP account. However, you need to set them up so they send mail as your "public" domain email address. That way, your correspondents only ever see and know your "public" personal domain email address -- they never know about the IMAP server address that you are syncing with (gmail, icloud, etc). Now you can change to a different IMAP server anytime you want without needing to give a new email address to friends and associates. You're no longer held captive by your ISP... And like I said, pobox.com, before forwarding the email, does a great job of filtering it. They will send you an email about the few they are not sure about being spam or not. It works well, in my experience. For $45 a year you get five pretty much spam-free separate email addresses, one for each family member for example, and you can change ISPs or IMAP mail providers whenever you want to without changing your email address that friends, etc. know you by. I think it's worth it!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tomorrow and Peter Franks
Ironically, the SPAM that is caught on the Mac, doesn't go into the Junk or Spam on the iPhone. But that's no problem at all, as long as it doesn't go into the Inbox.

It's something I'm a bit wary of, leaving the MacBook plugged in all day, every day, It gets really hot and, also, your theory means I'd need to keep it awake permanently. If my laptop is on upstairs and I'm downstairs, after 10 or 15 mins it sleeps, and the spam then goes to phone instead. So it has to be awake permanently.

That's a really interesting solution, and thank you for the time taken to explain. Yes, I will check that out today. I have already deleted my 'name@' the domain I use, because that was spammed to hell, and only have the 'info@' now, which has taken over the mantle. Thanks again
 
It is, yes ... it's a 'new enquiry' email address for website visitors
Wish I got as many new clients as I do spammers
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back