Legitimate emails going to junk

I have been having the same problem over the past two years with an account that I have been using since 2011.

After researching, this problem has been reported happening spontaneously to people for 6+years now.

All of the sudden I was not able to receive important emails from different sources.

I would not know that I was not receiving them until someone would forward them to me.

I contacted Microsoft support.

Microsoft agents are less than helpful.

They go round and round trying to blame it on different possibilities.

Finally they admitted that they cannot fix the problem.

After going back and forth their final solution was to tell me that I have to have anyone who would be emailing me fill our a white list form for their servers.

This is not possible since I cannot know who is going to be emailing me and I cannot contact every server admin to fill out their whitelist form.

When I told them this they said that there was nothing else they could do.

I cannot conceive of why Microsoft cannot let the junk mail folder do its job and has to block emails completely?

Your best bet is to move to a different email service provider.

They do not want your business.

My junk filter started working again and there was 1 activity that happened the day before it was fixed.

I ran and downloaded the rules file from Outlook.com. I didn't find anything in the files (long boring XML code), but my problem went away a day later.

I have no idea if running the diagnostics that creates the report fixed it.

After 3 months of 100% of my inbox going to junk, it's hard to call it a coincidence.

Run report: Settings (gear icon) > Mail > Rules > Scroll down to the very bottom after the last rule on the right pane and there's a text link to run a report.

Hi ALMGS, Thanks for contacting us and sorry for the inconveniences, - To stop Outlook from deleting junk emails after 10 days, you can change the retention policy for the Junk Email folder. To do this, right-click on the Junk Email folder and select Properties. Then, go to the Policy tab and select a different option from the drop-down menu under Move items older than. You can choose to keep the items for a longer period, such as 30 days or 6 months, or never delete them. You can also choose to archive them instead of deleting them. Click OK to save the changes. - To prevent Outlook from sending legitimate emails to the junk folder, you can adjust the junk email filter level or add the senders to your safe senders list. To change the filter level, go to the Home tab and click Junk > Junk E-mail Options. Then, select a different option from the list under Choose the level of junk e-mail protection you want. You can choose No Automatic Filtering if you want to turn off the junk email filter completely, or Low if you want to filter only the most obvious junk emails. Click OK to save the changes. To add a sender to your safe senders list, open their email and click Junk > Never Block Sender or Never Block Sender's Domain. You can also go to Junk > Junk E-mail Options > Safe Senders and add their email address or domain manually. - To move emails out of the junk folder automatically, you can create a rule that applies to messages in that folder. To do this, right-click on the Junk Email folder and select Create Rule. Then, check the box next to In Folder and click Advanced Options. Next, select the conditions and actions that you want for your rule, such as moving the messages to a different folder or marking them as read. You can also add exceptions if you want to exclude certain messages from the rule. Click Next until you finish creating the rule and give it a name. Click OK to save the rule and run it on your existing messages in the Junk Email folder. I hope this helps! Regards, Sola

The advice above doesn't work. I've repeatedly marked selected emails as "not junk", moved them to inbox, and added them to "safe senders". But no matter how many times I do that new emails from those senders continue to go to junk.

Additionally, many legitimate emails that used to go to "other" (as opposed to "focused") still go to junk.

I think this was the result of update or upgrade from MS that went bad, because it only started a few days ago (mid-Saturday 1/6/24).

I too am having this same issues. I have changed filters, moved mark emails not junk and they still are getting sent to junk. I agree this happened after the last update.

This sounds like a great answer to someone else's problem. For me, ALL incoming mail is, upon arrival, quickly moved from inbox to Junk mail folder (I can watch it happen). It forces me to highlight all the mail in the Junk folder and mark it as, "Read." Only after the mail is marked as read, can I move it to the inbox, where it belongs. After moving it all, I highlight the e-mail in my inbox and mark it as, "Unread," to put it in my inbox the way should be...this process works, but what a hassle that I need to do it this way to get it to where is used to always work.

Is there a Samsung Smartphone in this picture anywhere?

Samsung smartphones move email to the Junk folder