Outlook 2019: Emails from Safe Senders are landing in the Junk folder

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Suddenly, in the past 1 or 2 weeks, I’ve found emails from Safe Senders arriving in my Junk folder.

I can just move them to the Inbox, or other folder.  I do not have to tell it that is “Not Junk”.  So Outlook know that it is from a Safe Sender.

What has happened to cause this and how can I sort it?

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Worse,  in my EPIM mail app (and online Hotmail) my hotmail and wife’s bellsouth.net mail both to Hotmail Spam over x weeks. The weird part, I deleted the only 2 rules I had in EPIM (for bellsouth.net) and all mail then correctly went to proper acct or Spam if really Spam. Rotating your tires makes sense per that.  I have no idea on this but it occurred last Sept too.

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Junk filters can override safe senders if the content is spammy or the mail sender doesn’t have their mail setup correctly.

Is the mail from people using one of the big email providers or their own?
Is the email unusual / has lots of links etc?

cheers, Paul

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My junk filtering is set to “Safe List Only”, so only the emails on my “Safe Senders” or “Safe Recipients” are allowed into my InBox.

The emails are from reliable, well-known organisations with their own email address.

The emails are normal newsletters and have the normal amount of links.

This has worked well for years and suddenly emails from organisations like Redshark News (theteam@redsharknews.com) and ZDNET are sent to Junk. (This particular email came while I was typing this).  Outlook knows they are not Junk because I can just move them to the Inbox!

I feel strongly that some part of a recent Outlook 2019 update must have caused this.

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MikeBuzz wrote:

Outlook knows they are not Junk because I can just move them to the Inbox!

You can do that with any message in the Junk folder.

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In our case it was Uncomplicated emails from a church, medical facility we use, friends, a retail store we’re use to getting mail from — AND actual Spam…. As for “Accounts Not setup correctly”, all I know is the Hotmail / Bellsouth.net accounts have worked for years but infrequently go nuts.
My only 2 Rules Both were … IF ______ is in From, then Send to Spam.

There is no justification for THAT Simple RULE (for just bellsouth.net) to put Both Accts emails into Hotmail Spam.

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Seems you have an overexuberant spam filter – must be the new MS “AI-in-everything”.

cheers,  Paul

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Hi MikeBuzz:

What is your Windows OS version and build (check at Settings | System | About | Windows Specifications), and are all the “safe” emails being sent to your Junk folder addressed to your free Microsoft email address (e.g., <yourusername>@hotmail.com, etc.) or are they addressed to a different email address provided by Google Gmail, your Bellsouth.net ISP, etc.?  If these “safe” emails are being sent to the email address provided by your ISP, for example,  then the problem is likely the fault of the spam filters used by your ISP, not Microsoft’s.

I use MS Outlook 2019 and I’m not seeing the behaviour you describe. However, all my rules for managing incoming emails addressed to my free Microsoft email address are created on the back end Outlook.com webmail server at Settings | View All Outlook Settings | Mail (i.e. after I log in at https://outlook.live.com/mail/0/ – I don’t create rules from within my local MS Outlook 2019 client). If your spam filtering rules and Safe / Blocked senders lists are configured correctly on Outlook.com (and on the webmail site for your Bellsouth / AT&T ISP) I don’t think it should matter what version of the MS Outlook 2019 client you use since all the message rules will be applied on the back end webmail server(s) before they are uploaded to your local computer.

The default spam filters on the Outlook.com webmail server are currently catching almost every spam email addressed to my free Microsoft email account so I have not bothered to enable Settings | View All Outlook Settings | Mail | Junk Email | Filters | Only Trust Email from Addresses in my Safe Senders and Safe Domains List and Safe Mailing Lists in my Outlook.com settings. I created my own filter rule called “Move to Junk” on Outlook.com at Settings | View All Outlook Settings | Mail | Rules that automatically moves any emails with certain key words in the subject line (e.g., Casino, eBay, ScotiaBank, etc.) into my Junk folder just to handle the few spam emails (about 1 or 2 a month) that manage to evade Microsoft’s spam filters.

I’m not sure it’s relevant, but if I go to File | Office Account | About Outlook it shows that I’m still on on Version 2305 / Build 16501.20196 (rel. 01-Jun-2023). Have you received the latest Version 2305 / Build 16501.20210 (released 13-Jun-2023) listed in the retail Office 2019 update history at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/update-history-office-2019#retail-versions-of-office-2016-c2r-and-office-2019? Release notes for the Current Channel are available at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel.

MikeBuzz wrote:

I can just move them to the Inbox, or other folder. I do not have to tell it that is “Not Junk”. So Outlook know that it is from a Safe Sender.

It’s better to mark these “safe” messages as “Not Junk” as instructed in the support article Mail Goes to the Junk Folder by Mistake instead of dragging them to your Inbox.  When messages are marked as “Not Junk” this it helps to train the default spam filters to correctly identify what is and isn’t junk.
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Hi

Thanks for your reply.  Here are my answers to your questions:

I use Windows 10 Pro, 22H2, Build 19045.2846

I have my own, private email address and all my emails come to it.

All my email rules are made in Outlook 2019.

My Outlook 2019 was at 2304.  I have now updated it to the latest: 2305.  I will see if this is better.

I understand why you say to mark as “Not Junk” because “it helps to train the default spam filters to correctly identify what is and isn’t junk.”  But my Spam rule is very clear: unless it is from a Safe Sender, then it’s Junk.

Thanks again.

I hope this helps you identify the problem.

 

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MikeBuzz wrote:

… I have my own, private email address and all my emails come to it…

Could you please clarify what you mean by “private email address”? Does that mean you’ve set up your own private email server at home on a separate computer as described in the MakeUseOf article How to Set Up Your Own Secure Email Server?  If so, what email server software are you using, and does that server software come with its own anti-spam software?

What is the name and version number of your antivirus, and does it includes an anti-spam feature for screening incoming emails?

MikeBuzz wrote:

… All my email rules are made in Outlook 2019…

I assume that means you opened MS Outlook 2019, went to Home tab | Delete group | Junk | Junk Email Options | Options, and selected “Safe Lists Only. Only mail from email or domains on your Safe Senders List and Safe Recipients List will be delivered to your Inbox” as instructed in the Lifewire article How to Set Outlook to Accept Only Mail From Known Senders. From my own MS Outlook 2019 settings:

I’d suggest you open that Junk E-mail Options window and check your entries on the Safe Senders tab and Safe Recipients List tab to confirm that the email addresses of your problematic “safe” senders are up-to-date.  It’s not unusual for businesses like ZDNET to occasionally change the email address / domain they use for mass mailings, or for friends to use alternate email addresses when sending emails.
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Hi

Thanks.

My email is hosted by SiteGround.

Yes, I have selected Safe Lists Only as you suggested.

I do check on the senders’ addresses as often their prefixes change.  Recently, I have gone into the safe senders list and edited  some to remove the prefix, so the address begins with the “@”.

I’ve nothing else to add.

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MikeBuzz wrote:

My email is hosted by SiteGround. …I’ve nothing else to add.

Hi Mike Buzz:

If you mean that your email address is provided by SiteGround web hosting service then I know nothing about how their user/domain level email filtering works, other than what I found in a few email tutorials on their web site. You also seem reluctant to provide any information about your antivirus (and whether it comes with its own anti-spam filters) so it’s useless for me to speculate on whether you might have multiple email filters and rules originating from different sources that are now creating a conflict in the way your spam messages are handled in MS Outlook 2019.

At this point all I can suggest is that you:

1. Temporarily change your junk email filter from “Safe Lists Only” to “High” in MS Office 2019 at Home tab | Delete group | Junk | Junk Email Options | Options.
2. Test for a few days to see if the “High” junk email filter is able to filter spam vs. “safe” emails.
3. Delete the email addresses on your Safe Senders and Safe Recipients lists and re-build them from scratch.  Be sure to review your Blocked Senders list at the same time. (I don’t know if re-building your “safe” lists is even practical because I don’t know if your web site hosted by SiteGround is used for personal or business reasons).
4. Change your Junk email filter in MS Outlook 2019 back to “Safe Lists Only” and see if emails from your “safe” senders go to your Inbox instead of your Junk folder as expected.

If re-creating your Safe Senders and Safe Recipients lists doesn’t fix your problem then a repair of MS Office 2019 as instructed in the Aug 2021 ComputerWorld article 4 Steps to Repair Microsoft Office might be in order. Either that or contact SiteGround support and see if they can figure out why your MS Outlook 2019 junk email filter isn’t working for the email address they provided to you.
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Hello, IMHO in using / managing Outlook and various other spam filters for decades and acknowledging Outlook Junk Email folder has weeks were even grandma’s typed out from scratch cookie recipe would end up in “Junk Email”, I tell my colleagues the following:

• Check your “Junk Email” folder at least once a week;
• Anything that is found there and safe, right click on the email and select Junk > “Not Junk” and check off whatever reason Outlook has decided it failed this time;
  • Even if you swear you did this months or years ago.
• “Stay Calm and Move On”.

There’s multitude of reasons that spam filters catch stuff and unfortunately that’s the world we live in.

My current spam funny (though it can be a laugh versus cry type of funny) is that Microsoft consistently blocks it’s own “This message wasn’t accepted by the host because….” from another Microsoft hosted customer SIGH.

Take care,

IT Manager Geek

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Hi

Thanks very much for your kind response.

Because I set the rule in Outlook 2019 so that everything is Junk unless I say it’s safe, I check my Junk folder all the time as several go there that that I decide to be “Not Junk”.  It’s easy to check as it goes Bold and states the number of new Junk items in it!

Yes, I do “Stay calm & Move On” in spite of loads of sighs about Microsoft’s stupidities – you’d think they learn from their mistakes, wouldn’t you?  Maybe their learning ends up in Junk due to negative filtration!!!!

Thanks again

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