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mac_in_tosh

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 6, 2016
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Emails from someone I correspond with somewhat frequently have started to come into the Junk folder recently. That person is in my contacts, with the same email address. Why is this happening and how might it be avoided? Thanks.
 
Could be your email provider flagging it, so might need to add a rule/filter via their website (that's the usual place I find filter options).

Check your junk mail settings in Mail's Preferences: make sure the switch to ignore contacts from filtering is checked. Or totally disable junk filtering (and if they still go to spam, then it's on the provider's end).

Can add a rule to always send email from that person to Inbox.
 
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In Mail preferences, "Sender of message is in my Contacts" is checked as being exempt from junk mail filtering.

I guess my next step is to look into AOL Mail's settings. Thanks.
 
Sometimes this happens because there's a word in the text that is picked up as likely to come from junk mail.
For example, my brother had a habit of starting messages to me, 'Hi there' and this was picked up as likely to be from a spammer every time
What you have to do is copy the text, create a new message then send it to yourself. It should be picked up as spam.
Then copy the first half of the message and do the same thing.
If it's picked up as spam, it's in the first half and if not, the offending phrase is in the second half.
Once you've identified the half it's in, half that and go again.
Repeat halving the text each time and after only about half a dozen tries you'll be down to a couple of lines and then using your discretion you can probably work out what it was. You might have to try the last line or so word for word.
I had an odd one once- I can't remember exactly what it was now- but it was two words and the end of one word and the beginning of the next made one of those medicines people buy so they can go all night. That's the sort of thing that happens.
 
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Sometimes this happens because there's a word in the text that is picked up as likely to come from junk mail.
Worth trying but it didn't cause the email to myself to be flagged as junk. I tried copying and pasting the content in question into a new email to myself and also forwarding it to me.
 
First thing to try is to "correct this at the server level".
That means making adjustments to your server/email account (stuff that happens before the email even reaches Mail.app).

If it can't be corrected that way, the easiest way to handle it is set up a rule in Mail.app.
The rule could be as simple as to always move any email from that particular sender into your inbox.

If that works... well, it works.
 
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The rule could be as simple as to always move any email from that particular sender into your inbox.
I've never set up Mail rules before so am a bit cautious. I started to do what you recommended but a window came up that seemed to imply that all previous messages from that person, in an On My Mac folder, might also then be moved to the Inbox so I canceled.
 
OP:
"I've never set up Mail rules before so am a bit cautious. I started to do what you recommended but a window came up that seemed to imply that all previous messages from that person, in an On My Mac folder, might also then be moved to the Inbox so I canceled."

My advice is to proceed anyway.
It's possible that prior emails "get moved" into your inbox when you first create the new rule.
However, once they are there, I believe you can then move all the "previously read" messages BACK to the on my Mac folder, and they will stay there from that point on...

I'm thinking that the "move" part of the rule only "applies once".
Afterwards, the emails will stay wherever you put them.
 
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I tried the rule:

From/contains/---
Move message/ to Mailbox Inbox

where --- is an email address for someone in an On My Mac folder. None of that person's emails were moved. So it may just happen with new emails. I can also make a rule to send to Inbox if sender is VIP. That will also have to await a new email.
 
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