Dysfunctional Junk Filter In Mail.app

[mnewman]

I'm a long time user of Mail.app and have always been happy with its junk mail filtering ability. It just works fine for me. It rarely flags real mail as junk and rarely misses mail that really is junk.

Until now.

A few weeks ago I bought a new Mac Mini. I did not use the Migration Assistant. I simply let MobileMe Sync synchronize contacts, mail accounts etc. This seemed to work fine.

The problem is that the junk mail filter now fails miserably. It misses huge amounts of junk. (Still in training mode.) But it also flags lots of real mail as junk; even when the sender's address is in my address book. For example, this morning I had three messages from Mom, all sent from the same e-mail address she has been using for years. Two of those messages were flagged as junk, one was not.

In other words, Mail seems to be ignoring its own junk mail rules.

I've tried resetting the junk mail filter, but that seems to have no effect on the erroneous flagging of real mail as junk.

Any ideas?

Note to you-know-who: I have not yet tried setting up another account to see if Mail's junk mail filter misbehaves there as well....

Just to show what I'm talking about. Attached is a screen shot of an e-mail message showing that the sender is in my address book. Also attached is a screen shot showing that messages sent by people in my address box should not be treated as SPAM. Any ideas on how to fix this?

[yellow]

Does MobileMe synch the junkmail database?

I don't think so..

[mnewman]

Quote: Originally Posted by yellow Does MobileMe synch the junkmail database? I don't think so..

What does MobileMe have to do with it? Mail is marking as junk mail items that have been sent from e-mail addresses that are in my address book.

[yellow]

2 different computers, 2 different junk mail databases. It seemed to me that you expected the Mail setup to be the same on your new Mac?

The old computer, had a well trained junk mail database, the new one does not. It's not a rule, per se, it's a bayesian filter, it simply assigns a % likelihood that a piece of mail is spam using keywords and data from the mail's header. As you train it, it "learns" which keywords and mail info are more & less likely to be spam. I don't think it cares about addresses you have in your address book.

If you had used Migration Assistant, you would have the database from your old Mac. Since you didn't, you need to retrain it on your new Mac, end of story.

[mnewman]

Did you look at the attachments to my OP? One of the junk mail rules is:

"The following types of messages are exempt from junk mail filtering:

Sender of message is in my Address Book"

I don't expect the junk mail databases to by synced. All I expect is for mail to follow its own junk mail rule which is that if the sender of the message is in my Address Book then the message us exempt from junk mail filtering.

Mail is ignoring that rule and I can't figure out why.

[yellow]

What version of Mail.app is this?

In v3.5, I have a "Filter Junk Mail before applying my rules" checkbox, do you?

[mnewman]

Quote: Originally Posted by yellow What version of Mail.app is this? In v3.5, I have a "Filter Junk Mail before applying my rules" checkbox, do you?

Ditto here on both counts.

It seems to me that the first thing mail should check is whether or not the sender is in my address book. If the sender is in my address book then mail should do nothing because in that case the message should be "exempt from junk mail processing."

[yellow]

Do you have that checkbox checked ("Filter junkmail..")? I do not.
Otherwise, I'm not sure. Sorry.

[mnewman]

I've tried it both ways. It doesn't (and shouldn't) make a difference.

This is so strange. I've got four Macs, three PowerPC and one Intel. Junk Mail filtering works nearly flawlessly on the three older Macs but is seriously messed up on the new Mac Mini. (I didn't have problem with the older Macs even when they were in "training mode".)

I guess it will remain a mystery.

Anyway, yellow, thanks for your time.

[mnewman]

One year on and I'm still not able to solve this problem. Junk mail filtering still working fine on iMac, PowerBook and iBook; failing miserably on the Mac Mini.

Even after a year of "training" it still flags as Junk mail messages sent from family and friends; all of whom are in my Address Book.

It's looney.

[mnewman]

Still having trouble with this.

Beginning this week all mail from forum_master@macosxhints.com is ending up in the IMAP Junk mailbox. This even though forum_master@macosxhints.com is in my address book.

I have "Enable junk mail filtering" checked, but also selected is "Mark as junk mail, but leave it in my Inbox". Also checked as being exempt from junk mail filtering is "Send of message is in my Address Book".

Oddly, messages from forum_master@macosxhints.com are not flagged as being Junk, they just get put in the Junk mailbox.

I have no rule enabled which would cause this to happen.

[benwiggy]

You have "Perform Custom Actions" checked. What is in the Advanced box?

[mnewman]

Not for at least a year. I gave up on that and now have:

"Mark as junk mail, but leave it in my Inbox"

Interesting, though. I deleted the "Junk" IMAP mailbox and the notification of the above post ended up in my Inbox.

Still, mail from people in my Address Book ends up flagged as junk.

[benwiggy]

If it's an IMAP server, then perhaps the server has its own junk mail settings that Apple Mail, as client, is mirroring?

[mnewman]

The IMAP server is Apple's me.com.

It's very interesting. In my list of me.com IMAP folders I have both "Junk" and "Junk (Me)". If I tell mail to move Junk Mail to the Junk mailbox, Mail deletes "Junk (Me)" and creates a "Junk" mailbox under "Mailboxes". If I tell Mail to just mark mail as junk but leave it in the inbox, it deletes the "Junk" mailbox at the top level and recreates "Junk (Me)".

All mail from "The Forums <forum_master@macosxhints.com>" is now being put in the me.com "Junk" mailbox (not "Junk (Me)") but it is not flagged as being junk mail.

If I delete "Junk", Mail recreates it.

[chinajon]

I gave up on IMAP after Mail created the mirror boxes and I did not have any other computers opening mail. IMAP is much more powerful than POP. You have to understand that IMAP mirrors both sides of the equation. If you change the setup on your Mac, The server will mirror it and create what ever is needed on the server.. And Mail will mirror what is on the server. Select the boxes on your Mac that are duplicates of the server and select 'USE FOR' and select the name on the server. The box on your Mac will disappear and the server box will be used. Just take the point of view that what you want to set up is a web based system that you can access from any computer and get up to date information. If you want to keep everything on one Mac, then switch to POP. But you have several Macs, and I guess they all access the server. So tell each Mac to use the server's boxes.

About the rules. The order of the rules in your Mail Rules is important. Drag the most important rules to the top. If a rule is misbehaving, uncheck it and test it. Or delete it and try to simplify.

[mnewman]

I guess I'm not sure what you're telling me.

All of the mailboxes on the server have a corresponding mailbox in Mail.app. The arrows in the attached graphic show which junk mailboxes correspond with each other. The one that is just "Junk" contains messages that are not flagged as junk mail. The one that is "Junk (Me)" contains messages that are flagged as junk mail.

I only have one rule and all that rule does is change the color of mail sent through a different (not Mobile Me) IMAP server.

What I'm trying to figure out now is:

1 - Why is mail that is not flagged as junk being sent to the junk mailbox?

2 - Why is so much mail that is clearly not junk being flagged as junk? (eg Mail sent from people who are in my address book.)