Filter your Junk Mail

In this video, we will look at how we can filter our junk mail in the Mail app on the Mac. When we filter our junk mail, we’re telling our Mac that we no longer want to receive mail from an individual, from an organization; we’re telling the Mail app that it is junk. That mail message is junk. That way, if we were to receive another message from them, the Mail app can move to the junk mail folder or the junk mailbox automatically. We’re also going to look at how we can tell our Mail app that a mail message is not junk. Maybe it’s flagging it as junk by accident. Let’s see how we filter our junk mail on the Mac. Let’s go to my Mac.

Let’s open up my Mail app. The first thing we need to do, to filter our junk mail, is make sure that it is turned on in the Mail app. This is a setting or a preference in the Mail app. Now what I do is go up to Mail in the menu bar, and then we go over to our Preferences. From here, we have a new window that opens up, and now we go to Junk Mail. Underneath that, you’re going to see Enable Junk Mail Filtering. We need to make sure that this is on.

Our next option is to tell the Mail app what to do when it receives junk mail. Now that we have it on, we need to tell the Mail app what to do. The first option is what I call training mode; what it’s going to do when you receive junk mail is mark it, it’s going to change the color of it, but it’s going to leave it in your inbox. What you need to do then is confirm that it is junk mail, and how do you confirm it? You move it to the junk mailbox. That’s how you confirm that a mail messages junk. Just move it to the junk mailbox. So when we are in training mode, it’s going to mark it as junk, but it’s going to leave it in your inbox.

Once you train it for a few weeks, you can set Move it to the Junk Mailbox. When this is turned on, when you receive a mail message, instead of just changing its color and leaving it in the inbox, it will automatically move it to the junk mailbox.

So those are our two different modes. We’re going to put it into what I call training mode first. I Mark it as junk mail, but it’s going to leave an in my inbox. I close this and let’s take a look at a few messages here.

So let’s say that this message here is junk. Being that it’s in training mode, the Mail app would change the color of it. It’s not changing the color here because this isn’t junk. But basically, what it would do is it would change the color of it to show you that it is junk. But again, it’s going to stay in your inbox. Now, what I need to do is I need to confirm that it is junk. How do I do that? All I do is go up to the toolbar, and you’re going to see this icon with the X in it. When I click on this, it will move that mail message over to my junk mailbox, thereby confirming that it has junk. I can also go up to Message in the menu bar and select move to junk. And then my last option here is to drag and drop. I can just physically drag this over to junk. What we want to do is we want to tell the Mail app that this has junk, and the way that we do that is we place it in the junk folder. So now I let go, and I just told the Mail app that that is junk.

Let’s do that again. We’re going to go with this mail message here. To tell the Mail app that it is junk, I just select it, and then I go up to the toolbar and tell the Mail app that it is junk.

And now, when we go over to my junk mail folder, you’re going to see I have my two messages, and they are a different color because they are marked as junk.

So that’s how we train the mail app. Now let’s say we no longer need to train it. I wanted to move any messages that are junk to the junk mailbox automatically. How do we do that? We go back up to our Mail preferences, and then we go to Junk Mail, and now we have to tell the mail app to automatically move it to my junk mailbox. When I receive any junk mail, or the mail app thinks it is junk, it’ll automatically move it to my junk mailbox.

What happens if I get a message that is not marked as junk, but it is junk. I’m no longer training it. Well, you can still tell the Mail app that it is junk by just moving it over to the junk mailbox. So I have this message here, I want to tell the Mail app that it is junk; even though I am no longer training it, all I have to do is place it into my junk mailbox. I can do that via the toolbar, going up to the menu, or just dragging it there myself.

Now, what happens if a message is marked as junk, but it is not junk? How do we unmark it or tell the Mail app that it is not junk? Well, all we have to do is just select it. So I’m going to select this here, and then you’re going to see that the icon here changed. It has a little up arrow on it. Remember used to have an x. From here, I just click on this, and it moves back into my inbox. That’s all we have to do. We have to move the message back into my inbox. So I could just take this message here, if it is not junk, all I have to do is just drag this over to my inbox, and then I can also select it, go up to Message, and then Move to inbox. Once I do that, those messages are no longer marked as junk.

So that’s how we filter our junk mail in the Mail app on the Mac. We first have to turn it on; this is done through the Mail app’s preferences. Once we turn it on, we have two different modes. We have a training mode that will leave any junk mail in your inbox, but it’s going to mark it; it’s going to change its color. From there, you need to confirm that it is junk. How do you do that? You move it to your junk mailbox. After a few weeks, you’ll want to turn training mode off and then have the Mail app automatically move any junk mail to the junk mailbox. If a mail message is marked as junk, to tell the mail that it is not junk, you just take it out of the junk mailbox and move it to your inbox.

So that’s how we filter our junk mail in the Mail app on the Mac.