Missing Emails! Have you checked your Spam Folder?

When was the last time you checked your spam or junk email folder?

Email service providers’ spam filters are very good but occasionally they can send legitimate emails to your spam folder.

It’s a good idea to regularly check your spam folder if you don’t want to miss important emails that may have been sent to spam by mistake.

Here are our tips:

Change your Spam folder to show (if it is hidden)

By default the Spam folder is hidden when a gmail or Google account is set up.

Changing your gmail spam folder to Show makes it easier to monitor how many spam emails you receive and check your spam folder.

The easiest way to show your spam folder is to use the Gmail Settings page as follows:

1.  Click on Settings

Click on Settings

2. Click on Labels tab.

Click on Labels

3.  Click on Show next to the Spam label

Click on Show

4.  When you look at your menu items you should now see the Spam label above the More drop down menu.

Spam folder

Regularly check your spam folder

Make it a habit to regularly check your spam folder (may also be called Junk Email folder depending on the software used).

You’ll quickly work out how often you need to check once you’ve set up a habit to check your spam folder.

Mark any legitimate email as Not Spam

Spam filters learn by what what you spam and mark as Not Spam.  Marking an email as Not Spam (or Not Junk) moves the email from the spam folder and will help prevent future emails from the same person from being marked as spam.

Here is how it is done:

1.  Click on your Spam label (or Junk Email folder).

Click on Spam

2.  This reveals the emails that have been sent to spam.

3.  Select the email(s) that aren’t spam by clicking on the check box next to the sender’s name.  Select the email

4.  Click on Not Spam to move the email(s) back to your inbox.

Click on Not Spam

5.  Select all other emails that are spam emails and Mark as Read.

This makes it easier to monitor for new emails in your spam folder.

Mark as Read

Check Spam Folders in All your email accounts

Remember to log into your original email service provider account if you forward emails into another account.

For example, I forward my Google apps account to my personal email account.  Emails sent to the spam folder of my Google apps account aren’t forwarded to my personal email account.

Filters on Educational Email Domains

If you can’t find an email you were expecting in your spam folder it’s either been sent to the wrong email address by mistake or it’s being blocked by your email domain.

Filters on educational email domains, and some parent’s business email accounts, are more likely to block or spam legitimate emails than web based email service providers like gmail.

Student email domains are most likely to block emails.

If emails are blocked you either need to request the sender’s email domain is whitelisted by your IT Department or use an alternative web based email account.

Your Tips

What did we miss?  What else did you want to know about dealing with missing emails?  What are your email tips?

Leave a comment below to share your tips or ask a question.

27 thoughts on “Missing Emails! Have you checked your Spam Folder?

  1. Hi! If I send an email for the first time to someone who has a gmail account and doesn’t have my email on their list of contacts, will it go straight to the spam folder?

    1. Hi there,
      It should be on the upper left of your Gmail screen. If the link isn’t there, click on the drop down arrow that says more.
      Hope this helps!
      Kathleen

    1. Hi Joyce, the spam folder should be listed with your other folders by default but you might want to search for instructions for your specific email service provider.

  2. Will my spam mail be counted in my number of gmails. For instance when i open gmail it shows number of emails. Does that number include spam mail?

    1. Hi Jill, I’m pretty certain you’re right that the number of emails only shows emails in your main inbox. Hope this helps!

  3. Your language settings also matter. I am Dutch and had Gmail interface set to English, causing many Dutch mails to be marked as spam. In addition add email adresses to contacts to whitelist them

  4. Dear Ms. Waters,

    I do occasionally check my spam folder to delete irrelevant emails from unknown users. I haven’t checked it in a while, but I read this post and checked it again to find three more irrelevant emails. Also, student email accounts are likely targeted by people who pretend to be a different gender and age. Make sure to never trust these people because they can send inappropriate emails to kids, fooling them. You can block these emails by going to settings and activate block to a certain user.

    Just thought i’d put a helpful tip, and I really like you’re post.

    -Aukai

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