What to Do If Outlook Junk Filter Not Working? Complete Method

Published By Jamie Kaler

Approved By Rollins Duke

Published On August 12th, 2024

Reading Time 10 Min Read

Recently, many Outlook users have reported problems with the spam filters in their Outlook accounts bypassing email from their Junk folders, but they still see emails in the Inbox folder. Due to the “Outlook junk filter not working” problem, many users faced a lot of issues, after which many users also expressed their problems on social media.

Although Microsoft claims that they have fixed this issue, many users are still facing this issue. If you are also one of them, then stick with this article, here you will be provided with all the manual tricks with one such solution. With the help of this, you will be able to fix the Outlook junk filter not working issue very easily. Let’s start the article.

What is Outlook Spam Filter and Purpose of the Junk Email Folder?

Junk or spam emails often create inconvenience in the Inbox folder of your Outlook.com account and disturb the security of your account. If you are a Microsoft Outlook user, you can use the Junk filter to avoid junk and spam emails.

When emails are received in your Outlook account, it comes with Junk filter features to evaluate spam emails based on the content of the emails and many different factors.

A junk filter does not prevent spam emails from coming to your Outlook account but instead saves spam emails in the inbox folder. It saves them in a folder named Junk. So, that you get to know how many spam emails are there in your account.

Why is My Outlook Junk Filter Not Working?

If you wrongly set up a junk filter in your Outlook account, then the junk filter is not able to filter spam emails properly and as a result, spam emails keep getting saved in your inbox folder as a result “Outlook junk filter not working” problem will appear. Due to this, you have to face inconvenience and many times due to spam emails, the security of your Outlook account is also compromised. This does not mean that your Outlook is not responding with junk filter or is broken.

As we all know the Junk filter can work according to the design of the Outlook.com user, just have to customize it according to their preferences. Use the information below to repair the Outlook Junk filter and its settings if you’re experiencing difficulties filtering emails.

Emails are not adequately filtered by Junk filter for a variety of reasons. To improve the filter’s capabilities, check the Junk filter settings and make the appropriate changes. You may learn about the many Junk Filter Options and Lists in the sections below and customize them to suit your tastes.

How Can I Fix Hotmail/Outlook Email Spam Filter Not Working Issue?

Disable No Automatic Filtering
Make Sure Your Junk Protection is High
Also, Block Individual Senders
Add Emails to the Safe Senders List
Verify Emails are not in the Blocked Sender List

Before fixing the Outlook Junk filter Not Working issue, you need to understand the Junk Email option because if you do not set up the Junk Emails option properly then you may face a problem. You need to make three important changes to make the Outlook spam filter work according to your desired preferences. As we have mentioned below, if you do not want to face any problems, then read the article till the end without skipping any step.

#1: Uncheck “No Automatic Filtering” Option

The default setting for the junk email option is No Automatic Filtering. You may still receive emails in your Inbox even if the filtering setting is set to Low since they are not considered spam.

Launch your Outlook account.
Go to the Home menu and choose the Junk option.
Choose Junk E-mail Options.
From the Options tab, check your protection level and change it to another level as per requirements (If No Automatic Filtering already selected).
Lastly, Apply >> OK icon and save changes to resolve “Outlook junk filter not working” issues.

#2: Make Sure Your Junk Protection is High

Enabling high protection for spam filters protects from the “Outlook spam filter is not working” issue. before changing any setting, you can try this method:

Again, go to the Junk E-mail Option from the Menu.
Select High from the appearing list.
Finally, click on the Apply >> Ok button to save changes.

#3: Fix Outlook Junk Filter Not Working by Blocking Individual Senders

If the above-given methods don’t help to resolve the Microsoft Outlook spam filter not working problem, try to block individual senders’ email addresses to cut off those, who are persistent. Especially if spam filters are not catching them.

Open Desktop Outlook account.
Choose the Junk option from the Home tab.
After that, choose Junk Email Options.
Click on the Blocked Senders tab.
Choose Add and put the email addresses want to block.
Lastly, click on the OK >> Apply to save all the changes.

#4: Add Email Addresses to the Safe Senders List

If the regularly received emails are going into the junk folder. Consider adding the sites and emails you believe to be secure to the Safe Senders List. By doing this, you can be confident that all emails sent to the addresses on this list will arrive in your inbox and prevent from “Outlook Junk filter not working” error. If you are adding emails to the Safe Sender list follow these mentioned steps:

After clicking the Junk emails option, click the Safe Sender list
Then add the email address to which you want to add the safe sender list.
Lastly, click the Add button.

#5: Verify Your Emails Are Not Listed on the Blocked Sender List

Make sure that your email address is not included in the Blocked Senders list. If so, remove your email address and add it to the Safe Senders list. If your email address is added to the block sender list, then your important emails will also go to the junk folder.

And, if you do the modification properly by following the above-mentioned steps then we hope that your Outlook junk filter not working issue will be fixed. If you face any problem, then you can get help from the support team of RecoveryTools. It will help you completely in dealing with this problem.

#6: Junk Mail Settings in Outlook 365

If you are a user of Outlook 365, Outlook.com, or Outlook web (all are similar) and want to resolve Outlook 365 junk email filter not working problem, then follow the given steps:

Log in to your Outlook 365 account.
Hit on the Gear (Settings) >> View all Outlook Settings options.
After that, choose Mail >> Junk Email.
Enter addresses to the Safe senders, Domains, Blocked Senders, and Domains lists.
You can change settings as per your requirements.

Also Read:

Emails Disappearing from Outlook Inbox After Reading

Outlook Not Connecting to Server, But Internet is Working

#7: Resolve “Outlook Junk Filter Not Working” by Keep Filter Up-to-date

Catching spam emails is easy, but some of the spammers are very clever they do proper research about Microsoft’s spam filter technology. So, that they can easily send their spam emails without catching them in the junk filter.

On the other hand, Microsoft is also trying hard to improve spam or junk filters. So, it is advisable for MS Outlook to keep updating your latest version of the spam filter. To update it, follow the given steps:

Launch Outlook on your system.
Go to the File tab and choose Office Account.
Choose Update Options > Enable Updates from the right corner.

#8: Microsoft Outlook Junk Filter Not Working by Reporting

Even after updating your spam filter, still spam filter is still not working and you are receiving some of the spam emails in your Inbox. So, you can report these messages to Microsoft to upgrade their junk email filtering technologies.

Important Note: Right now, the Inbuilt Report option is only available in Outlook 365 or Outlook web, for desktop Outlook, you can report on Microsoft Report Message and Report Phishing add-ins for free. Or you can submit a report on the Microsoft 365 Defender portal.

for reporting follow the given steps:

Login to your Outlook.com account.
Choose one or multiple unsolicited emails.
Select Report and choose Report phishing or Report junk from the top menu.

As we all know emails are automatically deleted after 30 days from the spam folder, after which you cannot recover them. If your important emails have been deleted due to this reason or you are not getting any important emails from your Outlook account due to the Outlook Junk filter not working issue. Then automatic software should be used to deal with such a situation.

The automatic software that can recover data from your PST file is named RecoveryTools PST Repair Software. With the help of this software, if any data has been lost or corrupted in your Outlook account, you can recover it.

If you are using Outlook.com then you have only a manual solution to overcome this problem. If you do not want to lose your data in the future by getting trapped in such a situation. Then you have RecoveryTools Outlook.com Email Backup Software is a must-have. With the help of this software, you can easily keep a backup of your account.

Common Queries Asked by Users

Q1: Why is Outlook not filtering junk mail?
Ans: There are multiple reasons for these issues, and one of the strong reasons behind your Outlook junk filter is not working is your Junk Email Filter protection level is set to No Automatic Filtering.

Q2: How to fix junk email in Outlook?

Start your Outlook account.

Choose Junk >> Delete from the top Menu.

After that, choose “Junk E-mail Options”.

Select the required protection level: High.

Finally, save the all changes.

Q3: How do I get my junk mail to show in Outlook?
In Desktop Outlook

Open your desktop Outlook.

Locate the Junk folder from the side panel.

In Outlook.com

Log in to your web Outlook.

Similarly, scroll down the folder from the side panel.

Here you will get your Junk Folder.

Q4: Why is all my email going to junk all of a sudden?
Ans: If your emails going to junk all of a sudden, then there are multiple reasons:

Because of High-Level Protection, might be your emails misclassified as junk.

Or maybe your important senders or domains are blocked by mistake.

Wrongly set rules may direct your emails to the Junk folder.

Q5: Do Outlook rules work on junk mail?
Ans: No, Outlook rules generally do not apply to emails that are already classified as junk mail and moved to the Junk Email folder.

Last Words

In this article, you learned how to fix the Outlook Junk filter not working issue. This problem had just come recently, after which the user had to face a lot of trouble and the user had asked questions related to this query to our support team. After this, our attention went to this “Microsoft Outlook spam filter not working” problem. And, we felt that this is a very serious problem whose solution would be needed by many more users. So, then our technical team found a solution to this problem and brought this article to you.