Troubleshoot the Junk E-mail Filter

• The Mark as Not Junk menu command on the Junk E-mail shortcut menu or the toolbar button is available only in your Junk E-mail folder. To switch to your Junk E-mail folder, on the Go menu, point to Folder, and then in the list, click Junk E-mail.
• Your administrator has turned off this feature. Contact your administrator for assistance.
• You are using a Microsoft Exchange Server e-mail account and working online, and your version of Exchange server is earlier than Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. If you do not know what version of Exchange server your e-mail account is using, contact your Exchange administrator.

• You are using a Microsoft Exchange Server e-mail account and working online using a version of Exchange Server prior to Exchange Server 2003. This button is available only if you are using Cached Exchange Mode with versions of Exchange Server earlier than Exchange Server 2003. Switch to Cached Exchange Mode or contact your Exchange administrator.
• Your administrator has turned off this feature. Contact your administrator for assistance.

• These messages meet the criteria for the Junk E-mail Filter and are being moved to the Junk E-mail folder. Switch to the Junk E-mail folder to review these messages, and change the level of protection if necessary.
• You are using an IMAP or Hotmail e-mail account. Messages on these servers must be downloaded before the Junk E-mail Filter can evaluate them. Therefore, these messages may be displayed briefly in your Inbox. If you are using an IMAP e-mail account, you can switch from downloading headers to downloading the entire message, or you can manually filter messages based on the message header displayed in your Inbox.
• You are using a Microsoft Exchange Server e-mail account in Cached Exchange Mode. Switch from downloading headers to downloading full items. On the File menu, point to Cached Exchange Mode, and then click Download Full Items. The Cached Exchange Mode command is available on the File menu only when you are using a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 e-mail account. For more information on the version of Exchange server you are connecting to, contact your Exchange server administrator.

• The protection level for the Junk E-mail Filter has been set to Safe Lists Only, the Permanently delete suspected junk e-mail instead of moving it to the Junk E-mail folder check box has been selected, and the Also trust e-mail from my Contacts check box has been cleared. Switch to your Deleted Items folder and see whether the messages from your contacts are still in the folder. If you are using a Microsoft Exchange Server e-mail account, and if your administrator has enabled the Recover Deleted Items feature on Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.5 or later, you may be able to retrieve any deleted messages. To prevent messages from your Contacts from being automatically deleted in the future, on the Safe Senders tab, select the Also trust e-mail from my Contacts check box.

It is not possible to search for these files because they are "hidden" files. The files are at the following location:

drive:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook.

• If you are using a Microsoft Exchange Server e-mail account, and if your administrator has enabled the Recover Deleted Items feature on Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.5 or later, you may be able to retrieve the deleted message. Recovered messages will appear in your Deleted Items folder.
• If you are not using a Microsoft Exchange Server e-mail account or could not recover the message, ask the message sender to send the item again.

• The Junk E-mail Filter is set up on multiple computers accessing the same e-mail account. On one computer, the Permanently delete suspected junk e-mail instead of moving it to the Junk E-mail folder check box is selected, and on another computer messages are being moved to the Junk E-mail folder. If there is a conflict in settings, deleting junk e-mail messages takes precedence over moving messages to the Junk E-mail folder. Check the options for the Junk E-mail Filter on all your computers, and clear the Permanently delete suspected junk e-mail instead of moving it to the Junk E-mail folder check box.

To obtain the maximum protection possible by using the Junk E-mail Filter, set the protection level to Safe Lists Only to have Outlook deliver messages into your Inbox only from domain names and e-mail addresses on your Safe Senders and Safe Recipients Lists. You should permanently delete all messages suspected of being junk e-mail messages instead of moving them to the Junk E-mail folder. When you permanently delete suspected junk e-mail messages, they are immediately deleted and not moved into the Deleted Items folder. Verify that Outlook is not set to automatically download pictures and other content in HTML messages, and that downloads from Web sites in security zones is turned off. Turn off automatic processing of meeting requests and read and delivery receipts.

• To prevent messages sent to a mailing list or a distribution list that you subscribe to from being moved to your Junk E-mail folder, add the sender's name to your Safe Recipients List.

• You are using a POP3 e-mail account and have created a client-side rule to move messages to another folder. One copy of the message is being moved to the other folder and the other copy is being moved to the Junk E-mail folder. Edit your rule, and then add the senders' names to the Safe Senders List, so only messages you want will be moved to the other folder.

• Occasionally, messages received in a language other than English may be moved to your Junk E-mail folder by mistake. To prevent this, add the sender to your Safe Senders List.

• Right-click the items, click Mark as Read, and then manually move them back to the appropriate folder.

• You are connecting to your Exchange Server account using IMAP. Change your e-mail account settings. Remove the IMAP account and create a Microsoft Exchange Server account.

  Note  If you already have an Exchange Server account in this profile, you must use a different profile.

If you are using a Hotmail e-mail account and displaying messages in the Reading Pane, the Junk E-mail Filter may occasionally appear to stop working. When you select a message in the message list, it is downloaded so it can be displayed in the Reading Pane. Once the message is downloaded, it is evaluated by the Junk E-mail Filter and moved to the Junk E-mail folder if it is considered junk e-mail. When that message gets moved by the Junk E-mail Filter, the next message is selected. If a message is not evaluated as junk e-mail, the Junk E-mail Filter will not move the message and that message will remain selected in your Reading Pane. No further messages will be downloaded unless you synchronize your messages. To download all messages before you read them, on the Tools menu, point to Send/Receive, and then click Send/Receive All.

• Specific address entries take precedence over domain name entries. To block an entire domain but still see specific safe addresses, add the specific entries to the Safe Senders List and the domain name to the Blocked Senders List. For example, add someone@example.com to the Safe Senders List and @example.com to your Blocked Senders List.

• The sender's name is on both the Safe Senders List and the Blocked Senders List. To reduce the possibility of messages that you want mistakenly being marked as junk e-mail messages, the names or e-mail addresses on the Safe Senders List take precedence over names on the Blocked Senders List. Remove the name from the Safe Senders List.

When the size limit for the Junk E-mail Lists is exceeded on the Microsoft Exchange server, the lists are not available from any computer (also known as "roaming") and are used to evaluate messages only on the computer where the lists are stored.

• There are too many names or e-mail addresses on one or more of your Junk E-mail Lists. Review the names on each of the three lists, and then delete some of the names.
• Make the Safe Senders List shorter by excluding your contacts from this list. On the Safe Senders tab, clear the Also trust e-mail from my Contacts check box.
• There are too many contacts in your Contacts folder. Switch to Contacts, and then determine whether there are any contacts you can delete, or create a separate contacts folder and move some contacts to the new folder.