How do I prevent emails from automatically going into the Junk folder when I've already disabled all Junk settings?
Thunderbird has been working fine with the previous settings for at least a month. Starting this week, messages started randomly going into the Junk folder, even from contacts that were already in the inbox. This is actually for my client, and my own email address is one of the ones that started going into Junk, even though we've emailed back and forth for years. I've spent all afternoon messing with all the Junk mail settings but nothing is working. The messages go into the inbox, but then after a few minutes (or longer) they move into the Junk folder. Even if we move them back into the inbox, they automatically go back into Junk eventually.
The issue lies with Thunderbird, not our host. I called our host and he confirmed that on their end the messages should be going to the inbox, and he sees that they do, but then move to Junk for some reason. Plus, he said that if their system marks it as spam it will say SPAM in the subject line. We've never seen any messages marked as spam in this way.
Please help!! My client is very frustrated, particularly since we just migrated from another host and webmail after using it for 7 years with no mail issues.
All Replies (4)
Is this IMAP?
As an experiment, try moving the messages from Junk to another folder outside the account, such as Inbox on Local Folders. Do they stay put?
The time lag you mention suggests to me something taking place at the server, despite the assurances to the contrary.
Ok, I moved one of the messages to a local folder and it stayed there. I tried again moving another message from the same sender to the inbox and it automatically moved back to Junk after about five seconds.
Question - do settings in Thunderbird sync between devices? Or, if we're seeing this issue on multiple devices then is it definitely the server?
My money is on the server, particularly if it happens after a significant delay. It would be near instantaneous if Thunderbird were doing it.
If multiple devices are connected to the same account and they all see this behaviour, then all that tells us that you're using IMAP and all the devices see the same change. Settings do not sync between different different installations of Thunderbird (unless you go out of your way to copy profiles between them.) A check would be to do the move on a system that isn't using Thunderbird, such as an Android or iPhone type device. If it's the server doing this, it won't matter who or what does the initial move from Junk to Inbox.
When you move a message to Local Folders, you're taking it out of reach of the server - and it should disappear from all devices except the one where you moved it. You're changing it from a global, shared message to a local private message. This of course might be unhelpful to your working practices or workflow, but serves to suggest an external agency (and not Thunderbird) is doing the moving.
Got it. Thank you so much for the detailed reply, that completely makes sense. I'll call the host again and pressure them to really look into this.