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Junk settings Thunderbird.

  • 2 ŋuɖoɖowo
  • 2 masɔmasɔ sia le wosi
  • 15 views
  • Nuɖoɖo mlɔetɔ Brian

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Every time I get messages in my Inbox Thunderbird thinks they are Junk and a copy goes into my Junk folder. I click on not junk but it makes no difference. I unchecked the Thunderbird Junk mail in preferences but nothing has changed, except that I now don't get the Not Junk Mail box. Very frustrating. If I delete all the junk labeled messages from the Junk folder they also get deleted from my in box and my web mail inbox. What is going on?

Every time I get messages in my Inbox Thunderbird thinks they are Junk and a copy goes into my Junk folder. I click on not junk but it makes no difference. I unchecked the Thunderbird Junk mail in preferences but nothing has changed, except that I now don't get the Not Junk Mail box. Very frustrating. If I delete all the junk labeled messages from the Junk folder they also get deleted from my in box and my web mail inbox. What is going on?

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re :Every time I get messages in my Inbox Thunderbird thinks they are Junk and a copy goes into my Junk folder.

Need to know a bit more about your account to understand what is going on. Q:Is this an Imap mail account ? Q:What server are we talking about - gmail,comcast, yahoo etc ?

Q:Is the 'Junk' folder called 'Spam' or 'Bulk Mail' or 'Junk' ? Usually, imap accounts have a 'Spam' folder. It is possible you have set the Junk Settings to use the wrong junk/spam folder.

If Server receiving email thinks it is junk/spam mail then server filter will auto put email into the 'Spam' folder and when imap account folder synchronises with server folder it displays whatever is on the server. In Thunderbird, the email in the 'spam' folder will have a greyed outline of the junk flame icon if server set this. Q: Does the email in 'Spam/Junk' folder have a greyed outline of flame icon or is it yellow coloured flame icon? Q: Does the same email as seen in Inbox also have a greyed outline of flame icon or is it yellow coloured flame icon?

It is not normal to have email in 'Inbox' and a 'copy' in the 'spam/Junk' folder.

re :If I delete all the junk labeled messages from the Junk folder they also get deleted from my in box and my web mail inbox.

This really sounds like a gmail style of server. Where an email can get various 'labels' applied. Basically, it means the email is really stored in an 'All Mail' folder on server. All incoming mail will get the 'Inbox' label to allow it to be seen an 'Inbox' view. If email has more than one label, then the same identical email can get seen in more than one folder.

In IMAP account, it downloads whatever is displayed in Inbox on server into an imap folder called Inbox. If email has more than one label, it will be a copy of email in a different folder in Imap account, but from gmail point of view, there is only one email, it just has more than one label.

So when you delete one of the copies of email and put it in the imap Trash folder. The server Trash folder gets updated. Gmail detects you want that email deleted because it is in the Trash, so gmail remove all labels except for 'Trash' thus email no longer displays in any folder on server/webmail - then imap folders synch and get updated to show what is on server - thus email disappears from imap Inbox. Then when Trash is emptied automatically by the server or manually by yourself, the email is deleted from 'All Mail' folder. This is normal and explains why both emails were gone.

If you only want to force gmail to remove a label then you have to delete the email so it by passing the imap Trash. Use 'Shift+Del' keys on keyboard.

However, why is the 'Spam' label being applied in the first place and why is it 'copied'? These are two separate issues. Usually, when 'Spam' label is applied, the 'Inbox' label is removed.

This makes me think you are using the wrong folder. Go back into the Account Settings > Junk Settings and set it up correctly to use the server default spam folder.

The 'Junk Settings' in Thunderbird.

These are the usual settings for an IMAP account. In 'Account Settings' > 'Junk Settings' for imap account.

  • Select checkbox 'Enable adaptive junk mail controls for this account'
  • Select checkboxes of address books to act as whitelist - thunderbird gets instructed that these addresses are not junk senders.

Only select this if you really want it to occur - I have not selected this because on occasion it has overruled the contacts in the address book.

  • Advise - do not select :'Trust junkmail headers set by: eg: SpamAssassin'

Destination and Retention

  • Select: 'Move new junk messages to:
  • Select 'Other' and select 'Spam on imap account name' (Obviously it does depend upon what name your server uses as the default spam/junk folder)

Make sure your Junk Settings are set up correctly. Make sure you are choosing to put junk in the correct server imap folder.

  • Click on 'Global Junk Preferences'

This opens in a new tab

  • Select : 'When I mark messages as junk:
  • Select : 'Move them to the accounts 'Junk' folder (It will use whatever you had set up for the account)
  • Select 'Enable adaptive junk filter logging'
  • Click on 'Reset Training Data' button to clear all previous data.


Please tell us exacly what you have got set up or whether you have exactly the same.

Do you have any Message filters that are set up to put emails in a junk folder ?

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Thanks Toad-Hall. The web mail program my ISP uses ROUNDCUBE WEB MAIL 1.3.3. I followed your instructions. What I found was when I tried to change the "ALL" filter setting on the setup page and saved it, when I returned to the mail page the setting was back on ALL. Why I don't know. Any way I observed that when I set rules for messages to go to a specific folder the messages went straight to that folder. I then setup a folder with my name and now I write new rules for each sender so the go straight to the Brian folder. The Roundcube web mail app is had to use and just not up to scratch. Like you said it is like GMail bloody hard to use for a non puter person. I can do basic tasks and even got my SSD working at peak performance thanks to UTube. Doing things like trying to solve my original problems I'm hopelessly lost. I appreciate you giving me your time and I am a little bit more savvy. Thanks Again for your help. Regards Brian