Junk Mail does not learn
I am using TBird 60.5.2 in Win10. I have enabled junk mail adaptation/learning. I have white listed addresses in my various address books. I use the capital J key to learn what is not junk. I have been training junk for months. But TBird does not learn consistently. In particular I have one email from this address <webmaster@xnview.com> that I consistently receive and it is marked as Junk. I then mark it as not junk, but next time I get an email from him, it is marked as junk. And what is particularly vexing is that as soon as anything in my inbox changes, for example I get a new email or I delete or remove an email, TBird recharacterizes (the already received, and already marked as not-junk email) as junk. By that I mean the Orange flame in the sort by Junk status column comes on. The email does not get moved back into the Junk folder but it is labeled as Junk while sitting in my inbox.
And just a question. Sometimes I have email like the one above that is labeled as junk, but stays in my inbox. However most of the time when emails are labeled as Junk, I find them in my Junk/Bulk Mail folder. How is that supposed to work.
Thank you.
All Replies (8)
I use the capital J key to learn what is not junk.
J is marking a message as junk. N is marking a message as not junk.
most of the time when emails are labeled as Junk, I find them in my Junk/Bulk Mail folder.
Is this a Yahoo or AOL account?
I believe you are mistaken. Lower case j marks as Junk, and Cap J marks as not junk.
I believe you are mistaken.
I don't think so.
Curious. I am running 60.6.1. If I highlight a message in my inbox and press lower case j it moves it to junk and if I go to junk/bulk mail and highlight a message and press Upper Case J it moves it to not junk. I can use the junk button and achieve the same thing. And I can go to the menu and use the pulldown of Message/Mark/As Junk (J) or Message/Mark/As Not Junk (Shift+J) and I get the same effect and nowhere do I see using N for not junk. When I press N it asked me if I want to move to next unread message.
Regardless, my point is that marking mail consistently as junk or not junk over the past 2 months, and assuring that I have addresses in my address book that are in categories that are marked as "Do not automatically mark mail as junk if the sender is in" does not assure me that TBird will not mark mail as junk.
I suggest your issue might be far far more complex than you suspect.
Thunderbird places junk mail in the junk folder. Yahoo and I assume AOL now if is part of that mess places junk mail in their bulk mail folder. I do not recommend changing the Thunderbird junk folder to also use the bulk mail folder as then knowing the source of your mail filtering problem becomes difficult.
My guess is most of your trouble is with the bulk mail folder. not Thunderbird at all, but the yahoo spam filter for which they offer no opt out. This would be evidenced by the constant classifications of mail as spam even after you more it somewhere else.
Yes, I had noticed that my AOL/Compuserve Junk mail folder (according to Tbird) had changed to Bulk Mail, however it still has the same special icon that TBird uses for Junk mail. My Comcast accounts still use the name Junk mail. I just tried creating a junk mail folder on Compuserve, and it allows me to do it, but TBird does not appear to recognize it as junk because it has a standard folder icon and not the special orange swirl.
Is that an option that Tbird should consider for future releases to allow the Junk mail folder to be called whatever the email provider uses for its designation?
But, do note, when I login to my Compuserve/AOL account online directly, the folder is still called Spam, so it seems that it is something about how AOL links to Tbird?
Modified
I believe you are mistaken. Lower case j marks as Junk, and Cap J marks as not junk.
You are kind of right, however, the wording has been somewhat confusing.
J is marking a message as junk.
That still stands. However, J is meant as seen on the keyboard, and when pressed, it is in fact lower case j.
N is marking a message as not junk.
I was wrong with that. Shift+J is marking a message as 'Not Junk'. I suppose you actually mean Shift+J when you said 'capital J'. Terminology matters.
Is this a Yahoo or AOL account?
You didn't answer that question when you were asked about it at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1254370#answer-1209705
I had noticed that my AOL/Compuserve Junk mail folder (according to Tbird) had changed to Bulk Mail
Yahoo used 'Bulk Mail' forever. Since both, Yahoo and AOL belong to Verizon, AOL are now also using the Yahoo server infrastructure. Hence you also see 'Bulk Mail' in your AOL account when accessed via an email client.
when I login to my Compuserve/AOL account online directly, the folder is still called Spam, so it seems that it is something about how AOL links to Tbird?
That is indeed confusing. The 'Spam' folder in webmail is equivalent with 'Bulk Mail' in an email client. This isn't specific to Thunderbird.
I just tried creating a junk mail folder on Compuserve
Even though Matt has a different view on this, I wouldn't use different folders. I'd designate the Yahoo/AOL 'Bulk Mail' folder also as junk folder in Thunderbird in Account Settings - Junk Settings, and delete the 'Spam' folder. But that's entirely up to you.
I have one email from this address <webmaster@xnview.com> that I consistently receive and it is marked as Junk. I then mark it as not junk, but next time I get an email from him, it is marked as junk.
This is a problem with Yahoo/AOL only. There's a fix for this in TB 67 beta, and it will also be in the next release version (TB 68). https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1260059
Your options are:
- Login to your account via webmail. If the particular messages above are marked as spam in webmail, try to mark it as 'not spam' there. This may also fix it for Thunderbird.
- create a clone of your Thunderbird profile, and install TB67 beta. Then start TB 67 beta with the cloned profile, and fix the wrong spam/junk marking for the affected messages. This should stick now.
- Ignore the wrong spam/junk marking for the time being, and wait until TB68 is released. That should be in about two month time frame.
Modified
Thank you for the extensive and clear replies.
Your are correct that I meant Shift-J when I said Upper Case J.
As you later saw, yes this is an AOL account. I am using Compuserve from the 1990s, which became AOL. I don't have this problem with my comcast email accounts.
I already had deleted the Compuserve Spam folder in TBird and under account settings where it says "Move new junk messages to:" have selected "Other-Bulk Mail on Compuserve."
Since this problem is being worked I will be patient and await TBird 68.
Thank you again.
eb