Emails Going to Spam or Junk — How to Stop It from Happening

Spam filters are designed to protect you, but they sometimes catch legitimate email — newsletters, receipts, messages from new contacts. Here is how to fix it across the most common email apps.

Gmail

1. Open the email in your Spam folder.
2. Click Not spam at the top of the message. Gmail will move it to your inbox and learn from the correction.
3. To prevent future messages from that sender going to spam, open any email from them, click the three-dot menu, and choose Filter messages like these. Set the filter to Never send it to Spam.

Outlook (Desktop)

1. Right-click the email in the Junk Email folder.
2. Choose Junk > Not Junk. Tick the option to always trust email from that sender.
3. Alternatively, go to Home > Junk > Junk Email Options > Safe Senders and add addresses or whole domains (e.g., @example.com) to the safe list.

Outlook on the Web (outlook.com)

1. Select the email in Junk, click Not junk in the toolbar.
2. Or go to Settings > View all Outlook settings > Junk email > Safe senders and domains and add the address.

Apple Mail

Open the email in the Junk mailbox, then click Not Junk in the banner at the top of the message. Apple Mail uses a learning filter, so doing this consistently over time trains it effectively.

Yahoo Mail

Open the email in the Spam folder and click Not Spam. To add a safe sender permanently, go to Settings > More settings > Filters and create a filter that sends email from that address to your inbox.

Why Does This Keep Happening?

Common causes include: the sender's email server lacks proper authentication (SPF/DKIM records), the subject line uses words commonly found in spam, or you have never interacted with that sender before. If you run a business and your own outgoing emails land in customers' spam, ask your hosting provider to set up SPF and DKIM records for your domain.