Outlook 2010 trusted emails going to spam folder

[PeterM]

I have this problem with a contact email address going to the spam folder all the time. I have no rules associated with this, have done the usual trust email address, domain etc and still the emails from this sender all go to the spam folder, tearing my hair out over this one, any help appreciated

 

[Diane Poremsky]

This is your pop account, correct? (Samsung smartphones & Exchange/outlook.com have a similar problem). Is the folder named Spam or Junk Email? (Spam is from a 3rd party utility, not Outlook.)

Assuming it's Junk Email, check the message header - is there a different From or Sender address in the header?

 

[PeterM]

Yes this is a pop3 account and it is junk mail.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

There is a possibility that this is a bug - i forget if it affected 2010 or just 2013 and 2016 (which were recently fixed AFAIK).

Check this: Open the message, go to file, properties then select all and copy the internet headers field. paste into a new message or notepad (so its easier to read) . Look for the sender's address, specifically in from or sender fields. Does it match what is on the safe list?

 

[PeterM]

I think I have the properties of the message but it is a fairly large file, do you want me to up it to here. It is all double dutch to me!!

 

[Diane Poremsky]

paste it into notepad and save and upload that as file. Use find and replace to replace your address with me@domain.com and the sender's address as sender@somewhere.com.

 

[PeterM]

Not a problem uploading the file, but you lost me after that.

 

[PeterM]

Here is the file

[file deleted to protect personal info]

 

[Diane Poremsky]

ok - this is what is in the header - i wanted you to change addresses so spammers don't find them. (I will delete the file next.)

The two problem addresses are in bold. Not only are there two addresses, but they are in two different subdomains (return and edm). You need both addresses on the safe list, or the full domains, back to the @.

Return-Path: <suite16@return.somedomain.com.au>
X-Original-To: me@domain.com
Delivered-To: me@domain.com
To: me@domain.com
From: "Catch" <newsletter@edm.somedomain.com.au>


the server isn't marking it as spam, looks like it is definitely outlook doing it.

X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.8 required=10.0 tests=HTML_FONT_LOW_CONTRAST,
HTML_IMAGE_RATIO_02,HTML_MESSAGE,LOTS_OF_MONEY,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE,
T_MONEY_PERCENT autolearn=disabled version=3.4.1

X-Greylist: from auto-whitelisted by SQLgrey-1.8.0

 

[PeterM]

Ok, I now have both those addresses in my safe senders list, one of which is the return-path address, is this correct?
BTW thanks for the help, I am all at sea with this sort of stuff.

 

[PeterM]

If those two addresses were supposed to stop the rot, it has not happened, just got an email from that sender and it went straight to the junk folder. Got me totally confused now!!

 

[Diane Poremsky]

Darn. It sounds like the broken junk mail made it down to outlook 2010.

 

[PeterM]

Ok, so is there a fix for this or do I just have to endure it.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

For now, endure or turn off junk mail filtering...

One thing i forgot to ask - Look at the message in the junk folder. There should be an 'infobar' in the header area that says something like ' outlook moved it' or 'something else moved it here'. Screenshots: What Moved a Message to the Junk E-mail Folder?

 

[PeterM]

This is the odd thing, outlook gives no indication how the message was moved into the junk folder.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

That means it was moved after it was downloaded - typically by rules or manually. Do you have any rules? If not, restart Outlook with the /cleanrules switch. If you do, turn them off and test it. (The switch will erase all rules.)

Test it in Safe mode - To open Outlook in Safe mode: Close Outlook then hold Ctrl as you click on the Outlook icon. You'll get a message asking if you want to start in Safe mode. Click Ok.

To use the switch, close Outlook, press Windows key + R to open the Run command, type or paste outlook.exe /cleanrules in the field then press Enter to restart outlook.

 

[PeterM]

OK after doing the cleanrules stunt, the email came in a few minutes ago, and yep you guessed it, straight to the junk folder, so it is back to square one I reckon...

 

[Diane Poremsky]

You aren't using macros are you? that would be the last thing left to move it, otherwise the filter is bad. (They might fix this, but updated filter definititions stopped about a year ago, so it won't be improving going forward - new types of spam might be missed)

you could use a macro to move it.... this watches the junk folder for mail from the sender and moves it to the inbox.

Option Explicit

Private WithEvents olJunkItems As Items
Dim olInbox As Outlook.Folder

Private Sub Application_Startup()
Dim objNS As NameSpace
Set objNS = Application.Session
' instantiate objects declared WithEvents
Set olJunkItems = objNS.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderJunk).Items
Set olInbox = objNS.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox)
Set objNS = Nothing
End Sub

Private Sub olJunkItems_ItemAdd(ByVal Item As Object)
On Error Resume Next
if item.senderemailaddress = "address@fromfield.com"
item.move  olInbox
Set Item = Nothing
End Sub

 

[PeterM]

As far as I know I am not, most certainly I did not install any macros, this was just a 32bit version of Office 2010 Pro plus that was installed and it was a generic installation, I do not know enough to do any fancy stuff, so I just let the installer do its thing.