False positives in iCloud mail

[iRock1]

I know that Apple's mail service is faaaaar from being perfect, but this is just absurd.

Somehow iCloud filters are sending legit messages from people who are on my very own contact list to the junk folder. How is that even possible?

And how to avoid this in the future? I have the legit opinion that if somebody is on my contacts, it should be considered safe. Period.

Also this is not the first time this happens, though in previous times it was with other contacts.

 

[impaler]

I know that Apple's mail service is faaaaar from being perfect, but this is just absurd.

Somehow iCloud filters are sending legit messages from people who are on my very own contact list to the junk folder. How is that even possible?

And how to avoid this in the future? I have the legit opinion that if somebody is on my contacts, it should be considered safe. Period.

Also this is not the first time this happens, though in previous times it was with other contacts.

You need to help iCloud's mail filters learn what is junk, what is not. While your opinion, in my view, is definitely legit, that doesn't mean the filters behave that way. Just unchceck them as junk as you go, and the filters should get better. I doubt their email will ever be on par with Gmail, in terms of filters and spam handling.

 

[iRock1]

You need to help iCloud's mail filters learn what is junk, what is not. While your opinion, in my view, is definitely legit, that doesn't mean the filters behave that way. Just unchceck them as junk as you go, and the filters should get better. I doubt their email will ever be on par with Gmail, in terms of filters and spam handling.

Believe me, moving messages from the spam folder to my inbox and unchecking them as junk is not enough.

 

[Weaselboy]

I know that Apple's mail service is faaaaar from being perfect, but this is just absurd.

Somehow iCloud filters are sending legit messages from people who are on my very own contact list to the junk folder. How is that even possible?

And how to avoid this in the future? I have the legit opinion that if somebody is on my contacts, it should be considered safe. Period.

Also this is not the first time this happens, though in previous times it was with other contacts.

iCloud's server mail filters have nothing to do with those local rules on your Mac. If you have messages incorrectly being identified as spam you need to login to iCloud.com and move then out of the spam folder and that will tell Apple they are not spam. Doing this on the local mail client does not send the info back to Apple to update the spam filters like doing it from the web site does.

 

[iRock1]

iCloud's server mail filters have nothing to do with those local rules on your Mac. If you have messages incorrectly being identified as spam you need to login to iCloud.com and move then out of the spam folder and that will tell Apple they are not spam. Doing this on the local mail client does not send the info back to Apple to update the spam filters like doing it from the web site does.

Weird. According to the Apple support site, if you do that from the mail client ( at least on the iPhone) it should work exactly as if you were doing it from the iCloud website.

 

[Weaselboy]

Weird. According to the Apple support site, if you do that from the mail client ( at least on the iPhone) it should work exactly as if you were doing it from the iCloud website.

Look at the bottom of this support article. Notice how only the last option from iCloud.com says it reports it to iCloud and the other two do not. The other two just filter locally.

If you want iCloud to know about spam from the clients you need to forward the mail as ann attachment to spam@icloud.com.

 

[impaler]

Believe me, moving messages from the spam folder to my inbox and unchecking them as junk is not enough.

I've been forwarding as attachments in Mail under Mavericks...I usually get a 'thank you' from Apple for sending it.

 

[iRock1]

I've been forwarding as attachments in Mail under Mavericks...I usually get a 'thank you' from Apple for sending it.

You are describing exactly the opposite case.

 

[Hayakuro]

Basically, the most prominent issue I have had with iCloud is their spam filtering on their mail service. Either it lets obvious spam through and reporting these does nothing, or it silently filters out mail you want and doesn't even deliver them to the spam folder, much less your inbox. I've missed emails from legitimate contacts and didn't even know it until they asked me why I haven't been responding to them when I next saw them in person. Some people have described success in addressing this issue by calling Apple support and asking them to take certain email addresses off of their silent filtering list. Why Apple doesn't make this system more transparent is beyond me.

I even had to abandon an iCloud account due to my primary email address for the account getting on some spammer list somehow, and now hundreds of blatant spam messages are being delivered to that inbox every day. I have forwarded literally thousands of these emails to spam@icloud.com or marked them as spam on the iCloud webmail, and the messages have only increased in volume. I'm much more careful with where I use my iCloud email now, and who I give it to. Aliases are another good proactive step to take if you sign up for a lot of online accounts.

 

[iRock1]

Basically, the most prominent issue I have had with iCloud is their spam filtering on their mail service. Either it lets obvious spam through and reporting these does nothing, or it silently filters out mail you want and doesn't even deliver them to the spam folder, much less your inbox. I've missed emails from legitimate contacts and didn't even know it until they asked me why I haven't been responding to them when I next saw them in person. Some people have described success in addressing this issue by calling Apple support and asking them to take certain email addresses off of their silent filtering list. Why Apple doesn't make this system more transparent is beyond me.

I even had to abandon an iCloud account due to my primary email address for the account getting on some spammer list somehow, and now hundreds of blatant spam messages are being delivered to that inbox every day. I have forwarded literally thousands of these emails to spam@icloud.com or marked them as spam on the iCloud webmail, and the messages have only increased in volume. I'm much more careful with where I use my iCloud email now, and who I give it to. Aliases are another good proactive step to take if you sign up for a lot of online accounts.

I'm with you, iCloud filters suck.

I might be moving from iCloud as my primary email provider anytime soon. Actually, I have huge concerns not only on their spam filters (which are absolutely dark and inefficient), but also on their policies of how to threat certain keywords that might be too inmoral for the Big Brother that Apple has turned into.

Just as you said, not getting emails and never knowing about them is just unacceptable, though I think worse than that is the fact of having an email provider that decides what's good for you in terms of morality.

PS: having to go to the iCloud website in order to mark or unmark something as spam is just plain stupid.

 

[Hayakuro]

I'm with you, iCloud filters suck.

I might be moving from iCloud as my primary email provider anytime soon. Actually, I have huge concerns not only on their spam filters (which are absolutely dark and inefficient), but also on their policies of how to threat certain keywords that might be too inmoral for the Big Brother that Apple has turned into.

Just as you said, not getting emails and never knowing about them is just unacceptable, though I think worse than that is the fact of having an email provider that decides what's good for you in terms of morality.

PS: having to go to the iCloud website in order to mark or unmark something as spam is just plain stupid.

iCloud mail is definitely the weakest part of the iCloud experience and very substandard compared to other providers. After losing my iCloud account to spam, I actually created a Gmail account to be my new primary address, which has not had a single problem with spam or undelivered emails nor any extended outages like iCloud mail has suffered recently. I keep wanting to switch back to my new iCloud account just for the convenience of going all Apple, but I'm always reminded of how I got burned the first time around. I end up staying on Gmail just for the reliability.

 

[iRock1]

iCloud mail is definitely the weakest part of the iCloud experience and very substandard compared to other providers. After losing my iCloud account to spam, I actually created a Gmail account to be my new primary address, which has not had a single problem with spam or undelivered emails nor any extended outages like iCloud mail has suffered recently. I keep wanting to switch back to my new iCloud account just for the convenience of going all Apple, but I'm always reminded of how I got burned the first time around. I end up staying on Gmail just for the reliability.

Yes, iCloud sucks, but I would never go with Google as a replacement. If Apple is like the Big Brother, Google is the devil.