Filtering Spam in Apple Mail — Basic
Last updated
August 21, 2009 10:13:39 AM PDT
Set up mail filters to decrease junk mail (also known as spam) in your e-mail inbox. This basic form of filtering uses the spam status header to filter junk mail into a separate folder.
In the right place? See also advanced instructions.
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- Open Apple Mail.
- From the Mailbox menu, choose New Mailbox.
- Enter Spam in the Name field.
- Click OK.
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- From the Mail menu, choose Preferences.
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- Select the Rules icon.
- Click Add Rule.
- Click From and choose Edit Header List.
- In the Message Headers box, click on the + button.
- Type X-Spam-Flag
- Click OK.
- Incoming e-mail that appears to be spam will automatically be moved to the new folder you created.
- It's possible for legitimate e-mail to be marked as spam.
- Periodically check the contents of the Spam folder to ensure that this has not occurred before deleting its contents.
- Apple has a feature that heuristically filters spam. That means that you train it with what you think is spam, and eventually it will "know you well enough" to filter the spam into a separate mailbox.
- Some users find this method provides too many "false positives" where legitimate mail is labeled as junk. To turn this feature off:
- Select Mail, then Preferences.
- Click on Junk Mail.
- Uncheck Enable junk mail filtering.
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