Mail (Mavericks): Change the junk mail filter

This article has been archived and is no longer updated by Apple.
Change the junk mail filter

The default settings in Mail’s junk mail filter catches most of the junk messages you receive (they’re highlighted in brown), but you can customize the filter.

  1. Choose Mail > Preferences, then click Junk Mail.
  2. Specify what Mail should do when junk mail arrives.
    • To verify what Mail identifies as junk mail, select “Mark as junk mail, but leave it in my Inbox.”

    • If you’re sure the filter accurately identifies junk mail, select “Move it to the Junk mailbox.”

    • To set up other actions, select “Perform custom actions,” then click Advanced.

      Note: To make sure the junk mail database is used to identify junk mail, don’t change the default condition “Message is Junk Mail.”
  3. In the Junk Mail pane, indicate the types of messages that don’t need to be evaluated.
  4. To include in the filter any junk mail detection that may already be present in messages, select “Trust junk mail headers in messages.”

Mail maintains an internal database of information that helps it detect junk mail. When you mark messages as junk or not junk, Mail updates the junk mail database accordingly and your junk mail filter improves over time. If you change your mind about what is junk mail (for example, you want to receive someone’s messages that you previously specified as junk mail), you need to mark them as not junk.

Mark messages

To reset the junk mail database to its original state and remove everything Mail learned from you about what is or isn’t junk, click Reset.

Last Modified: Oct 20, 2015
Helpful?

Additional Product Support Information