Is gmail spam filtering working for you? (with poll)

[ghanwani]

Since many months now, I have noticed that gmail's spam filter is no longer working. Basically it puts a ton of legitimate messages in the spam folder. This morning, e.g., I had 7 messages in the spam folder of which 5 were legitimate. And this is not atypical. I get upwards of 50% false positives.

Many of the messages that end up there are from technical mailing lists that I am on. I have filters set up to apply a label and automatically archive those messages. The messages actually get classified and labeled correctly but still end up in the spam folder instead of getting archived.

I have been diligently going into the spam folder and marking messages as "Not Spam" but it doesn't appear to be helping.

Is anyone else having trouble with gmail spam filtering? Any suggestions for how to fix this?

 

[ghanwani]

I continue to have this problem and have no idea how to fix it. I'm pretty sure there are times when I have deleted legitimate messages from spam, and once deleted from there they are gone forever. I wish there was a deleted spam folder.

If anyone has suggestions for how to fix this, please let me know.

 

[dmr727]

Sorry I can't help, but it's still working well for me. As much as I dislike Google's stuff, Gmail has the best spam filter of any service I'm familiar with.

 

[ghanwani]

Sorry I can't help, but it's still working well for me. As much as I dislike Google's stuff, Gmail has the best spam filter of any service I'm familiar with.

Do you check the spam folder regularly to make sure that what is in there is truly spam? In the last year or so I’ve found increasing numbers of good messages in there — from credit card notifications, to communications with online merchants, to messages to technical mailing lists I’m subscribed to (and actually have a filter for). In the last case, the message gets labeled per the filter but still ends up in spam.

 

[dmr727]

Do you check the spam folder regularly to make sure that what is in there is truly spam? In the last year or so I’ve found increasing numbers of good messages in there — from credit card notifications, to communications with online merchants, to messages to technical mailing lists I’m subscribed to (and actually have a filter for). In the last case, the message gets labeled per the filter but still ends up in spam.

Perhaps not regularly, but I do check from time to time. Your post made me go back and look - in the last six months I received about 200 spam messages and nothing legitimate made it through.

 

[ghanwani]

Guess what? As of today, all my notifications from MacRumors are ending up in my spam folder. I keep marking them as "Not spam" but it doesn't seem to be helping.

 

[BrianBaughn]

Guess what? As of today, all my notifications from MacRumors are ending up in my spam folder. I keep marking them as "Not spam" but it doesn't seem to be helping.

Marking at the Gmail webmail page?

 

[ghanwani]

Marking at the Gmail webmail page?

Yes, on the web interface. I mark them as not spam and they appear in my inbox. But the next notification(s) goes to spam and it's lather, rinse, repeat...

Even the notification for this message went to spam!

 

[velocityg4]

Have you tried adding those senders to your address book in GMail?

Are you marking not spam in the web interface or through a client?

Have you tried to whitelist a domain?
- For example create a filter
- In from put macrumors.com
- create filter
- check "Never send it to Spam"
- create filter

Multiple filters for one domain may conflict.

In "Filters and Blocked Addresses" are any e-mail addresses from the domain you want to come through blocked?

 

[ghanwani]

Have you tried adding those senders to your address book in GMail?

Are you marking not spam in the web interface or through a client?

Have you tried to whitelist a domain?
- For example create a filter
- In from put macrumors.com
- create filter
- check "Never send it to Spam"
- create filter

Multiple filters for one domain may conflict.

In "Filters and Blocked Addresses" are any e-mail addresses from the domain you want to come through blocked?

I actually have filters for various tech mailings lists and many of those still end up in spam, but I don't have the "Never send it to Spam" checked. Let me try that. Still a pain because I get a ton of regular emails, esp correspondence with online merchants that ends up in there.

 

[ghanwani]

Creating a filter and checking "Never send it to Spam" seems to be working. The macrumors notifications are now showing up in my inbox instead of spam.

However, even at this time, I placed an order with a merchant and had the order confirmation go to spam. Looks like I'd have to create a filter for everyone I receive legitimate email from.

This means I need to manually disable the spam filter for each address, soon having 100's of filters. So, basically Google with all its AI and quantum computing cannot figure out how to make a spam filter that works.

 

[velocityg4]

Creating a filter and checking "Never send it to Spam" seems to be working. The macrumors notifications are now showing up in my inbox instead of spam.

However, even at this time, I placed an order with a merchant and had the order confirmation go to spam. Looks like I'd have to create a filter for everyone I receive legitimate email from.

This means I need to manually disable the spam filter for each address, soon having 100's of filters. So, basically Google with all its AI and quantum computing cannot figure out how to make a spam filter that works.

It's probably a lot to do with other users. If a bunch of users mark XYZ as spam. Google will see XYZ as spam.

Although I haven't had issues with receipts not going to my inbox. A lot of newsletters go to spam. But I never saw it as an issue. I felt it was doing it's job.

 

[ghanwani]

Now even though the notifications from Macrumors show up in my inbox instead of going to spam, they are all tagged with a note "This message was not sent to Spam because of a filter you created."

 

[ghanwani]

Today I had a major failure of spam filtering. 46 messages in spam of which 36 were legitimate messages that should have been in the inbox and only 10 were real spam. Those 36 are not even close to spam messages in their content--emails on technical mailing lists.

Now apply this type of failure to self-driving cars.

Not at all worried about an AI-centric future.

 

[BrianBaughn]

Maybe you can figure out a way to use "+" or "dots" in your email address when giving it out to make filtering work better.

2 hidden ways to get more from your Gmail address

Posted by Robby Stein, Associate Product Marketing Manager I recently discovered some little-known ways to use your Gmail address that can g...

gmail.googleblog.com

 

[HalfFullmoon]

I found a couple of notifications from Macrumors in the spam folder, where I rarely look. Anyway, I think other Gmail users are reporting these as spam, and so, Gmail assumes these to be spam.

 

[ghanwani]

Looks like the spam filter broke again. In the last 2 days, getting way too many false positives.

 

[max2]

Looks like the spam filter broke again. In the last 2 days, getting way too many false positives.

Works fine here.

 

[rafark]

Since many months now, I have noticed that gmail's spam filter is no longer working. Basically it puts a ton of legitimate messages in the spam folder. This morning, e.g., I had 7 messages in the spam folder of which 5 were legitimate. And this is not atypical. I get upwards of 50% false positives.

Many of the messages that end up there are from technical mailing lists that I am on. I have filters set up to apply a label and automatically archive those messages. The messages actually get classified and labeled correctly but still end up in the spam folder instead of getting archived.

I have been diligently going into the spam folder and marking messages as "Not Spam" but it doesn't appear to be helping.

Is anyone else having trouble with gmail spam filtering? Any suggestions for how to fix this?

The real question is, why would you check your spam folder anyway?

 

[ghanwani]

The real question is, why would you check your spam folder anyway?

Always scan it because spam filtering is never perfect. But occasionally finding a message there is one thing. Having to "unspam" 20-50% of messages means something is broken.

 

[ghanwani]

Today was an amazing day. 5 out of 6 messages in my spam folder were legitimate! Google never ceases to amaze me.

Please check your spam folders regularly or you may be missing important messages.

 

[icanhazmac]

As much as I despise Google, I haven't had the issue you report in significant numbers. It does happen, but for me it is infrequent, say 1-2 a month and almost always a legit message flagged as SPAM versus the other way around.

Your advice is sound, always manage your SPAM folder.

I really need to stop being lazy and cut the Gmail cord.