re :As of now, a bout 30 emails each day passes through and ends up in the scrap (or junk) folder.

I get about the same number per day sent to Junk.

If those emails were of the type you describe: Example: the incoming mail has a subject of "I offer you unlimitied sex" Then they should be automatically going to the Junk folder as defined by the Junk Controls.

Your Junk Controls should be set and trained to identify junk emails and auto put them in Junk. Junk controls use a special kind of filter which learns to detect the variations in junk mail, such as slightly different subject or body content or email addresses. So if those emails are going to Junk then I do not understand why that is an issue.

You should not need to set up any Message Filters for these types of emails and it is not advised. Otherwise you would end up with thousands of Message Filters trying to keep up with the various permutations.

Message filters are best used for sorting good incoming mail into various folders for organising and storage.

All Message Filters run in the order listed. Top one first. eg: If an email is filtered/moved on the first filter, then it cannot be filtered by any subsequent filter because it has already been moved.

Individual Message Filters can be set to filter before or after Junk classification. If this is done after Junk classifiction then the Junk Controls may have already moved the email to Junk, so no Message filters will detect that email because it has already been moved.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Junk_Mail_Controls
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/thunderbird-and-junk-spam-messages

re: Emails ending up in the scrap folder is not possible to use the filter functions on. Message filters only run automatically on new incoming mail landing in Inbox. To run Message filters on other folders, you can only run Message Filters manually not automatically on any folder. You can only do this if the Message filter has been set up to run 'Manually' and is enabled. Usually, there is never a need to perform a manual filter on Junk as it usually only contains junk. However, it is always worth checking Junk to see if the odd good email gets put there. In which case it is better to select the email and click on 'Not Junk' button, then the email should be auto moved to Inbox. As these occasions are usually more rare and few in number there is no point in running a filter as it is just as quick to manually select 'Not Junk'.

Junk folder should emptied on a regular basis and also 'compacted' to remove all traces of deleted emails. I empty and compact Junk folder at the end of every day to keep it a small file. So much easier to scan over the contents to check for good mail and no point in keeping rubbish.

RE: : the incoming mail has a subject of "I offer you unlimitied sex" However, if I have completely misunderstood you and you do not want them in Junk, but you want to keep them for reading and have a special folder called eg: 'Sexy Stuff', where you want to keep them. You will need to set the Message Filter to use 'Filter before Junk Classification'. Suggest you use 'Match any of the following', so each condition can catch an email. If you use 'Match all of the following' then every condition must be true in order to filter the email. Use 'Subject' or 'Body' and 'contains' and keep it simple like 'sex' click on small + sign to enter a new condition. Perform this action: move those emails to 'Sexy Stuff' folder.

my problem is worsened by the fact that a lot of ordinary emails ends up in the junk folder.... so if I delete the junk mail some valuable mail will be gone too.

So, what can I do?

I suggest you remove ALL your junk filters and concentrate of teaching the inbuilt filter what is and is not junk.

I can assure you manual filtering of junk is nothing more than a life time commitment to wasting your time. every week new variants will appear.

I have marked every incoming junk as junk but they still appear with the same content day after day. They are put in the junk folder together with ordinary mail that TB thinks is junk, but which is not. So, I will still have to go through the masses of junk to find the good ones. I hoped I would NOT have to do this.

Any suggestion?

If, instead, TB would be written to check for rules and apply them before putting the mail in junk, that would solve most of my problems.

I suggest you look in your junk and train the filter what is not junk. It will take a while, I see suggestions of 50 -100 item of each kind before it starts to get the idea.

Thunderbird will not be re written any time soon. That is for sure

Remove all those Message Filters that only concern Junk.

Then check you have set up all the Junk Controls for each mail account. Including choosing address books as whitelists.

Then you need to train the Junk controls to understand what is Junk AND what is not Junk. So any good emails in 'Junk' need to be selected and click on 'Not junk' button. Soon Thunderbird learns what to do. Although you may still get the odd email that goes adrift.

Use the links to assist. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Junk_Mail_Controls https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/thunderbird-and-junk-spam-messages Image below shows the Junk controls section in Account Settings.

when I started the filter system it was connected to "Local folders" meaning all my folders. You mean that this is an improper setting? The rules that apply to a certain designated sender, ends up in the proper folder. The rest goes to Input folder or Junk folder.

To have a filter assigned to Local folders, which by definition include all folders, would be wrong? There is a need to just select those who end up in the Input or Junk folders.

Where does the incoming mail land at first, before any filtering takes place? That decides where the filtering should be applied.

rgds

re : when I started the filter system it was connected to "Local folders" meaning all my folders.

If in 'Message filters' you have selected the account as 'Local Folders', then it will only work on new incoming mail which is incoming to 'Local Folders' mail account Inbox. 'Local Folders' mail account does not mean 'all my folders'; it is a special default mail account automatically created by Thunderbird. It contains your 'Outbox' which is used by all mail accounts if 'Send Later' is used. 'Local Folders' mail account 'Inbox' folder can also be used as a 'Global Inbox' for POP mail accounts which have been set up as deferred accounts. If you have set up all your pop mail accounts as deferred mail accounts more commonly known as 'Global Inbox'. In these cases you do not see the individual pop mail accounts in the Folder Pane, you only see 'Local Folders' mail account and it is being used as a collective Inbox.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Global_Inbox

'Local Folders' mail account can be used to store emails regardless of whether you use pop or imap mail accounts, but people who have imap mail accounts may need to move emails off the server if it is reaching limits and they can use 'Local Folders' mail account as a place to store emails off the server. You can create new folders in 'Local Folders' mail account. Using 'Message Filters' you can filter incoming emails into 'Local Folders' folders.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Local_Folders

Do you use POP mail accounts? How many pop mail accounts do you have? Have they all been set up as deferred accounts that use a Global Inbox = 'Local Folders' mail account?

If you see each pop mail account as a separate mail account in the Folder Pane, then you are not using deferred accounts (unless you set up the Global accounts incorrectly). In which case Message Filters should be account specific.

Since your latest reply the filter has suddenly started to function, without my doing anythig with it.