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Pretty much all incoming mail moved to junk folder

aries81

aries81

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 18, 2021
253
787
For some reason, most of the emails I receive are marked as junk and don’t appear in Apple Mail's inbox but in the junk folder instead. I’ve tried marking them as regular mails, added their senders as contacts, no avail. This problem started only recently.

Anyone else experiencing this? Is there a fix?
 
Obvious data points first:
  • What OS and Mail versions are you running?
  • Did you happen to add any MacOS Mail processing rules?
  • What mail account congiguration are you using, e.g., POP, IMAP, MAPI (Microsoft)?
  • Did you happen to add any mail processing rules at your ISP level?
  • Not so suggest a conclusion, but anecdotally, I have troubleshot in-box rules that were overly broad, effectively junking/deleting masses of eMail, at both locl and ISP levels.
<pontificate> Apple has entered is Post-It-Just-Works epoch. I expect Apple's upcoming AI processing on Mac OS mail will surface more problems, real and perceived. </pontificate>
 
ipaqrat said:
Obvious data points first:
  • What OS and Mail versions are you running?
  • Did you happen to add any MacOS Mail processing rules?
  • What mail account congiguration are you using, e.g., POP, IMAP, MAPI (Microsoft)?
  • Did you happen to add any mail processing rules at your ISP level?
  • Not so suggest a conclusion, but anecdotally, I have troubleshot in-box rules that were overly broad, effectively junking/deleting masses of eMail, at both locl and ISP levels.
<pontificate> Apple has entered is Post-It-Just-Works epoch. I expect Apple's upcoming AI processing on Mac OS mail will surface more problems, real and perceived. </pontificate>
Click to expand...

Latest OS and Mail version, no rules applied, IMAP.
 
aries81 said:
For some reason, most of the emails I receive are marked as junk and don’t appear in Apple Mail's inbox but in the junk folder instead. I’ve tried marking them as regular mails, added their senders as contacts, no avail. This problem started only recently.

Anyone else experiencing this? Is there a fix?
Click to expand...
That happens regularly for notifications for one of my Proton accounts. For that and other reasons, I use my Apple Mail account very little.
 
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Expos of 1969 said:
That happens regularly for notifications for one of my Proton accounts. For that and other reasons, I use my Apple Mail account very little.
Click to expand...
"Apple Mail account"? Do you mean the macOS Mail app?

Back to the OP's issue…it's my understanding that the macOS Mail app doesn't move anything to the Junk folder if you don't have "Enable junk mail filtering" checked in Mail>Settings…>Junk Mail or have a Mail app rule that moves email to junk.

If that's the case, the junk/spam filtering is happening at the server level. You did say you have no rules at the server level. You didn't specify, exactly, which provider you're using. Those would be the folks with which to compare notes.

Having said all that, Apple Intelligence currently seems to be throwing a wrench in the works…marking messages that are spam/phishing, and haven't been filtered at the server level, as "Priority". Who knows what other stupid things it is doing?

To test what's happening before you check your email with the Mail app, leave the Mail app off and access your email for a while via the web interface at your provider. If "most of the emails" are being marked as junk then your issue is with your provider.
 
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BrianBaughn said:
"Apple Mail account"? Do you mean the macOS Mail app?

Back to the OP's issue…it's my understanding that the macOS Mail app doesn't move anything to the Junk folder if you don't have "Enable junk mail filtering" checked in Mail>Settings…>Junk Mail or have a Mail app rule that moves email to junk.

If that's the case, the junk/spam filtering is happening at the server level. You did say you have no rules at the server level. You didn't specify, exactly, which provider you're using. Those would be the folks with which to compare notes.

Having said all that, Apple Intelligence currently seems to be throwing a wrench in the works…marking messages that are spam/phishing, and haven't been filtered at the server level, as "Priority". Who knows what other stupid things it is doing?

To test what's happening before you check your email with the Mail app, leave the Mail app off and access your email for a while via the web interface at your provider. If "most of the emails" are being marked as junk then your issue is with your provider.
Click to expand...

The odd thing is that the webmail service I am using (GMX) does not mark the emails in question as junk/spam, yet Apple Mail does.
 
BrianBaughn said:
Do you have junk filtering on in Mail and/or are you running Apple Intelligence?
Click to expand...

No to both, that's what I find so confusing.


Like I said, it used to work fine, but since about two weeks or so it all went haywire.
 
Only the Macs could possibly be putting the Mail in junk…and you're saying that neither has junk filtering on or any rules to move emails to junk.

One thing you could try…as a test…is to temporarily switch off that account in Mail on the two Macs and install a third-party email client to see what happens with new emails.
 
I might have found the solution, I've reset the spam filtering settings within the webmail service and now my mail shows up as intended in Apple Mail. Let's see if it stays that way.
 
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