How do I fix Mac Mail's persistent junk issue with contacts and good mail in 2025?

I can’t offer any solution just adding my voice to the thread since I share all of your frustrations as a long time mac user. I’m surprised so few comments on your post. Maybe we’ve all given up hope that Apple will address this. I have tried all the guidance from apple support articles for this issue and none of it works. I know some have suggested it’s not Apple’s fault but I expect Apple to advocate on our behalf to get it fixed if it’s really an ISP issue.

islandlady91 wrote:

When you say check with my mail hosting provider, are you referring to my iCloud or my work email where my iCloud email are going? If it is my local ISP, they will not help me.

A summary…

You have a mail provider.

The mail provider can also provide spam filtering. Most do, and many will silently reject the worst of the spam.

The mail provider spam filtering can place what the provider suspects are “questionable” messages in the junk folder.

The mail provider can place these mail messages in the junk folder without the assistance of any installed apps.

This process then causes people to blame their own tools, rather than investigating what filtering the provider might implement.

Exactly what happens depends on the particular mail provider, and the anti-spam activity can vary over time.

SpamSieve can drag these messages back, and some mail providers can offer controls over their filtering.

islandlady91 wrote:

I do think it is strange that our internet went out for about 2 days and this all happened after it came back on, but only to me not my husband. I think that is because I only know enough tech stuff to be dangerous, unfortunately.

Alas, this is not at all strange, as outages and data corruptions can sometimes arise with power and communications outages, and as those corruptions can be very much specific to a particular app and its data.

loisnsb wrote:

it is now 2025, Sequoia 15.5 and mac mail is STILL PUTTING CONTACTS and good mail into JUNK!!!!! All threads on this, going back several years, have been closed for comments. At this point I am giving up - support doesn't even know what to tell me when I call. I am going to have to move to a different mail server as mac doesn't seem to want to address this issue.

I am getting so tired of "improvements" .

Where is the "NOT JUNK" button that had worked in the past?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

If Junk mail is not working for you as expected—

Mail User Guide for Mac - Apple Support

Change Junk Mail settings in Mail on Mac - Apple Support

Reduce junk mail in Mail on Mac - Apple Support

Mail advanced junk mail settings on Mac - Apple Support

Change Junk Mail Advanced settings in Mail on Mac - Apple Support

Identify and filter junk mail in iCloud - Apple Support

Report and reduce spam in iCloud Mail - Apple Support

Manage junk mail in Mail on iCloud.com

Manage junk mail in Mail on iCloud.com - Apple Support

Does anyone use a good alternative to Mac mail?

If Junk mail is not working for you as expected you can turn it off in Mail>Settings.

You have the option of installing a third party spam filter. ex. and compare your results...

https://c-command.com/spamsieve/

Check with your mail hosting provider, as the usual cause of these is the configuration at the mail hosting provider.

sabatro wrote:

I can’t offer any solution just adding my voice to the thread since I share all of your frustrations as a long time mac user. I’m surprised so few comments on your post. Maybe we’ve all given up hope that Apple will address this. I have tried all the guidance from apple support articles for this issue and none of it works. I know some have suggested it’s not Apple’s fault but I expect Apple to advocate on our behalf to get it fixed if it’s really an ISP issue.

See the previous reply for one common case. I’ve met those ISP spam filtering issues more than once.

If the ISP mail service is not working for your needs, or is not working, move to a different provider.

Apple offers mail services, among other providers.

In general, ISP-provided mail services and support tend to be underfunded and understaffed and overloaded, which doesn’t help things.

I have been in here reading and also trying to find a solution for this. I cannot move my good emails out of junk and back into my inbox and I am very frustrated. I also have Spam Sieve and when I look at the logs, Spam Sieve is not the issue. There seems to be something the last 3 days that if it can break, it will! I was on the phone with Apple today and could not take care of this. I may try again when I have a day to spend online or on the phone troubleshooting all of this!

I will be happy to try this. Our internet went out Monday afternoon and since it came back on, only my accounts, not my husbands have been very weird. I read a message and go to delete and a pop up asks if I want to delete 219 msgs. Of course I didn’t and then that happened again when trying to clear out my trash but much higher numbers. I had changed my dns a while back and learned I should put it back. Once I changed it back my wifi returned, but I also have a vpn, so more issues. I’ve had to uninstall that on my laptop and it doesn’t work anywhere now, after years of using it. I can’t boot my laptop in safe mode, so I guess I need someone with the knowledge I don’t have. I just know enough to be dangerous unfortunately.

So it sounds like you mean my ISP? There are multiple things going on since I got internet back besides this. My ISP is not helpful at all. On a good note, a fellow I work with says he has a friend there that might help me. I am not unwilling to research, but I don’t know tech stuff as much as I’ve tried to learn and research. It’s time for me to find someone that has the knowledge I don’t.

islandlady91 wrote:

So it sounds like you mean my ISP?

Does your ISP provide your mail, or are you using some other entity to provide your mail?

Google Gmail, Apple iCloud Mail, and other providers exist.

There are multiple things going on since I got internet back besides this. My ISP is not helpful at all.

Past providing the internet connection, there are other providers available for other services.

You can continue to use the ISP, and can relocate your mail elsewhere, for instance.

On a good note, a fellow I work with says he has a friend there that might help me. I am not unwilling to research, but I don’t know tech stuff as much as I’ve tried to learn and research. It’s time for me to find someone that has the knowledge I don’t.

Some ISP support is seemingly measured by how fast they get the caller off the phone. Other ISPs can be better.

So Apple is my mail provider and I have been on with them again this morning. There have been mutliple issues going on and they have escalated my case. We have checked my mail in iCloud and something is not working as it should, so they are working on that. As for Spam Sieve, it is a great program that I am unfortunately, not intelligent enough to use. That said, I am going to delete it temporarily and then download it again and try to find a tech person to help or get rid of my current email address to see if that helps.

Thank you for you comments. I do think it is strange that our internet went out for about 2 days and this all happened after it came back on, but only to me not my husband. I think that is because I only know enough tech stuff to be dangerous, unfortunately.

Michael, I have been on the phone with Apple again this morning. We went into my iCloud mail and it has been duplicating emails, so they have escalated my case on this. I believe I need to find a tech person to help me with Spam sieve, I just am too ignorant on tech things to know how to set it correctly. I am also considering eliminating my current work email address and opening a new one that does not go through the office server. I never had much of an issue with spam other than my work email. Obviously, someone sold that email and the password has been changed, we changed all our email addresses but they have gone through the same server, so the spam has never stopped in my work account other than spam sieve helping me until the past week or so and I am sure it is my fault.

So, again I do think some of this has to do with our wifi going out. When on with Apple this morning we checked my mail in iCloud and found some very interesting things. Our wifi went out Monday afternoon and in iCloud, there were a few emails that were duplicated. When I say duplicated, on Monday about 3-5 emails from about 3 different sources were duplicated. And each email was duplicated by 100. Then Wednesday, our email came back on and again there were several emails that were duplicated in the same way and each email typically was duplicated x 100. I think when I try to move them back to my inbox, that is one of the reasons I can't because in iCloud it has turned into thousands of messages to be moved! I will send this information to Spam sieve also, but I think Apple has to find out what caused this to happen. It has been escalated, so I hope they figure it out very soon.

If you can’t turn off your mail provider’s spam filter, you can set SpamSieve to find good messages in the Junk mailbox and move them back to the inbox.

When you say check with my mail hosting provider, are you referring to my iCloud or my work email where my iCloud email are going? If it is my local ISP, they will not help me.