Apple Mail Junk Filtering

Apple Mail has built-in junk mail filters to help you sort your emails.

When you receive an email that is spam, click the Junk button in the upper right corner to label it. When you receive an email that is marked as Junk, that is NOT spam, click the Not Junk button.  By repeating these two actions on your messages, Mail will get smarter and learn which messages are Junk and which aren’t.

You can also go up to the Messages menu and choose “Bounce.” This will send the message back to the sender with an error message saying your email account doesn’t exist. By Bouncing messages, you may wind up on fewer spam lists.

By default, any pictures included with the email are turned off. Spammers use images to learn if your email is genuine. If you only “Load Images” on emails you want to read, you’ll reduce your spam.

Also, you can refine Mail’s Junk parameters. Go to the Mail menu and choose Preferences. Click on the 4th button at the top marked “Junk.” 

You’ll see the “Enable junk mail filtering” turned on by default.

You can choose what happens to Junk messages. If you want them left in your Inbox, put a dot in the first circle. If you want all your Junk messages moved to a Junk folder, click the second option. But don’t forget to go look in there to make sure any real messages didn’t get marked as spam accidentally!

The next set of checkmarks helps refine the Junk definitions. Leave the first two boxes checked, so that anybody in your Address Book, or anyone you emailed yourself, will not get marked as spam.

By taking these actions, you’ll have that much less unsolicited email!