Office 365 Emails Going to Junk? Stop Auto Junk Mail in Outlook

Are your Office 365 emails going to junk on their own? We are here with a proper tutorial to stop you from missing out on important conversations. Although a junk folder is an important tool for removing spam and scams from one’s inbox. Sometimes this powerful filtering mechanism may start to filter based on false positives.

This results in even genuine messages being put together with other spam. So it is important to see what may be causing this issue to arise in the first place Only then can we move forward with a proper strategy to prevent this from happening again. Note that many of the methods below are in the post-incident and prevention categories.

Reasons Why Office 365 Emails are Going to Junk Box

The most common reason is when the sender is new and uses a custom domain name instead of the regular ones like @outlook.com, @gmail.com, etc. Although this is a security feature designed to stop spam and phishing emails in Office 365, in some scenarios, these end up overdoing the filtering.

Other than that, the causes can be split into the source side and destination side so see what matches your situation.

Source-side causes

• The source email is marked as a hijacked phishing source.
• Inappropriate mail structure, i.e., use of many links, and images.
• Unvalidated SPF, DKIM, or DMARC certificates.

Destination-side causes

• Rules depositing all emails in junk.
• The sender is kept in the blocked list.
• Overtly strong auto-filtering

One or more of these errors may contribute to your emails ending up in the junk folder. Moreover, if not fixed timely, users risk losing their email permanently. As Junk Folder does not allow any mail to sit for longer than 30 days.  Regardless of its read/unread status. Moreover, unlike the deleted mailbox restoration in an Office 365 account, data deleted from junk folders is impossible to get back. Next, let’s start with the solution at an individual level.

Individual Level Methods to Stop Emails from Going to Junk Folder

Outlook Classic Application:

• Go to the Home tab
• Click Junk > Junk E-Mail Options
• Set your desired Filter Level to No Automatic Filtering. 

Office 365 (Individual Level):

• Log in to your Exchange Online account.
• Click the Gear icon (top right).
• Select Mail under My app settings.
• Go to Mail > Accounts > Block or Allow.
• Choose Don’t move email to my Junk Email folder.
• Click Save.
  

As mentioned earlier, the method only stops new emails from falling into junk mail. So to get back the presently stuck mail, users have to do the following.

A Simple Way to Get the Outlook Emails Out of the Junk Box

• Open Outlook
• Go to Junk Mail
• Toggle the Select Option
• Select All or Make a Custom Selection
• Click on Move
• Select Inbox/Archive/New Folder
  

This is a temporary remedy. Moreover, the user has to repeat these steps every time they see an important mail inside the junk box instead of the regular inbox.

Then perform the same steps or set up a new rule to stop incoming mail from going to the junk box like this. (These steps are for Outlook Web.)

• In Outlook Click on Rules > Manage Rules
• In the Popup > Add new rule
• Type a Rule name (eg junk bypass rule)
• In condition, choose Apply to all messages
• In action, select Copy to > New Folder > Type in a name for the folder
• Hit Save.

Step-by-step Way to Bulk Disable Junk Email Folder For Admins

Using PowerShell

Open PowerShell as Administrator

Link:

Connect-ExchangeOnline

Run:

Get-Mailbox | Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration -Enabled $false

Using Admin Center

1. Go to EAC
2. Log in with your administrator email account (the same one used to manage your domain name)
3. You will be redirected to the Exchange Admin Center
4. Click on Mail Flow > Rules
5. Click + (Plus Sign) and select Bypass Spam Filtering
6. Create a new rule:
   • Name: Choose a name (e.g., “Bypass Outlook Junk Mail Filter”)
   • Apply to: All messages
   • Do the following: Modify message properties > Set Spam Confidence Level (SCL) > Bypass Spam Filtering (ignore other options)
7. Click on Save

There are multiple variants where you can specify IPs, email addresses, etc. So change whatever you wish and customize the filter.  Note that on top of these manual methods, there is an automated alternative that can act as a safety net in case you fail to get emails out of the junk box in time. So let us see what it is.

Save Office 365 Mails Offline as a Backup

Use the SysTools Office 365 Backup to keep a copy of all emails, including those that are in junk folders. It has a date filter to specifically select the items from a particular time period. Apart from that, you get user-level selection and priority marking options too.

Conclusion

Here, we told you what steps to take if Office 365 emails go to the junk box. You now possess a full knowledge set comprising of reason as well as solutions if important Outlook emails end up in the wrong (i.e. junk) folder.

Among the methods, which included manual transfer, rule removal, and others, the one that stands out is the automated tool. Although not a direct solution, it can get you the emails, even from a junk folder prior to deletion. Combine it with the delta export and you have a regular backup of all email conversations accessible offline.

Frequently Asked Questions on Office 365 Emails Going to Junk

Where is the Junk Email folder in Outlook?

The junk email folder is present in the left side pane along with other default folders.

What would happen if I forgot to pull mail out of the Junk Box?

To know what would happen understand the lifecycle of an email in the junk folder. As soon as a mail gets in the junk folder an internal countdown begins. This lasts for 30 days after which the auto-deletion policy gets triggered. This deletion is permanent and non-reversible so you won’t have any chance of recovery whatsoever.

Is there any way to disable the Junk Box in Outlook?

At the user level, unfortunately, there is no such feature. The only possible alternative is to set up a rule that copies all incoming mail and puts it in a separate folder. However, this causes mailbox storage to swell up so is not suitable.

If a set of emails is only to be used for internal company communication, then admins can switch off or disable junk mailboxes from their end. Note this is only possible for those with business/enterprise editions of M365 plans and not regular users.