Spam folder missing

[freedda]

I recently installed Thunderbird on my tablet as my default email program. A few of the folders I created previously are missing, but I think I know how to deal with those. However, the default Spam folder is missing. I'm wondering what I might have to do to get that back?

Best, David

[tanstaafl]

If you check the checkbox to enable the adaptive junk mail controls for the account and also check the checkbox to move junk mail to a dedicated folder in Tools -> Account Settings -> Account_Name -> Junk Settings it defaults to creating a Spam folder whose name is email provider specific. Frequently its called Junk or Junk Mail. The folder by itself is worthless, you need to enable the feature to make use of it first.

[freedda]

If you check the checkbox to enable the adaptive junk mail controls for the account and also check the checkbox to move junk mail to a dedicated folder in Tools -> Account Settings -> Account_Name -> Junk Settings it defaults to creating a Spam folder whose name is email provider specific. Frequently its called Junk or Junk Mail. The folder by itself is worthless, you need to enable the feature to make use of it first.

Okay, thanks. I checked the box to enable the adaptive junk mail, and I also did something so now there is Junk box in the list.

One question (from a tech Gomer): when I look at emails using my provider's webmail site, I believe it's their filters which are deciding which emails are labeled as 'junk.' So, now that I'm using T-bird, are they still the ones that are deciding which emails are junk? Or?

Best, David.

[tanstaafl]

Both could be. It depends upon whether you chose a junk folder that webmail also uses. If you did your email provider may have already moved some spam to that folder before Thunderbird tries to determine if any of the messages in the inbox are spam.

You can enable logging of the adaptive junk mail controls in tools -> options -> security -> junk.

If you email provider uses something like SpamAssassin to add custom headers to record its best guess how likely a message was spam you can configure Thunderbird to use that information. That is useful if your email provider uses a very conservative threshold and you want Thunderbird to be more aggressive at detecting spam (at the risk of more false positives). You might combine that with white listing of any email addresses in your personal address book. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Junk_Mail_Con ... l_provider

[mgagnonlv]

Apart from checking your junk mail settings as Tanstaafl recommended, please checked your subscribed folders. Here is how to do it (your menus may differ as I use Thunderbird in French):

– Right click on your account name (left panel) and select "Parameters"
– For said account, go to "Sync and disk space"
– At the top, under "Save messages from all this account's folders on this computer", click on "Advanced".
– Select (tick) all folders that you want to be synchronized. In particular, check that your account's spam folder is synchronized. From what you describe, you might have a local spam folder and one on your server. (see note 1).
– Quit and restart Thunderbird (I had "refresh" issues more than once).
– Normally, your distant spam folder will appear along with the local one you had created some time ago.
– Access (Account) Parameters –> Spam parameters.
– Towards the bottom, make sure that "Move new junk messages to..." is configured to send spam messages to the "spam" folder you have on your server (i.e. the distant account you just synched a few lines ago.
– Then delete the old, now useless, local spam folder.

NOTES.
1. If by any chance you have two "spam" folders by the same name, I would suggest you quit the "Parameters" window and change the name of your local spam (or Junk) folder to something slightly different like "Junk2"; that way, it will be easier to configure the system properly.

2. If you are not in US and using an English US version, you may have translation issues. For example, my junk folder is called "Indésirables" in Thunderbird, but is automatically matched to either "Junk" or "Spam" depending on which server I connect to. And the names of these default folders are even different if I use the web interface.