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How do I get thunderbird to put spam in the spam folder and not just put a fire icon beside it?

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  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by Toad-Hall

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When I open Thunderbird, some of the spam has gone into the spam folder but TONS of it is still in my inbox. It has a fire icon beside it, that's great and all, but why hasn't it gone into my spam box so I don't have to see it?

I click on the fire icon to turn it off and then click again to turn it back on, it vanishes then, but the next time that email address messages me it ends up back in my inbox with the fire icon.

If Thunderbird knows it's spam why doesn't all of it just go to the spam folder?

When I open Thunderbird, some of the spam has gone into the spam folder but TONS of it is still in my inbox. It has a fire icon beside it, that's great and all, but why hasn't it gone into my spam box so I don't have to see it? I click on the fire icon to turn it off and then click again to turn it back on, it vanishes then, but the next time that email address messages me it ends up back in my inbox with the fire icon. If Thunderbird knows it's spam why doesn't all of it just go to the spam folder?

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Thanks for image.

As you have a 'Spam' folder, that tells me you are using an Imap mail account.

Check your Account Settings for that mail account.

  • Right click on mail account name folder in Folder Pane and select 'Settings'

It will open in a new tab.

  • Click on 'Junk Settings' for that account
  • Select: 'Enable adaptive junk mail controls for this account'
  • Select any of the address books - this tells Thunderbird that contacts in selected address books are to act as a white list.

The server will be marking some emails as spam and auto putting them in 'Spam' folder, but if you want Thunderbird to Trust any spam mail headers set by a server spam filter you can select the 'Trust junk mail headers set by and select the spam filter - otherwise leave that unchecked.

Destination and Retention:

  • Select 'Move new junk mail messages to'
  • Select 'Other' choose 'Spam on imap account'
  • click on 'Global Junk Preferences'

'Settings' opens in a new tab

  • Select 'When I mark messages as junk:
  • Select 'Move them to the accounts 'Junk' folder'
  • Select 'Enable adaptive junk filter logging'

In this location is the 'Reset Training Data' button - if you have only been using Thundrebird for a short time then you may have not yet fully trained it. But if you want to start training afresh then that is the button to click.

Exit Thunderbird and allow a few moments for background processes to complete. Start Thunderbird.

Please note: Thunderbird's adaptive junk controls need to learn what you think is junk. This means you will need to mark various emails as 'Junk' and also those which are 'Not Junk' so it can learn the difference.

Please confirm you have all those settings selected - let me know if you had to alter any of them.