• From the Home tab, in the Delete group, select “Junk”, and then click “Junk E-mail Options”.

Junk E-mail folder

Any message that is suspected to be junk is moved to the Junk E-mail folder. We recommend that you periodically review the messages in the Junk E-mail folder to check for legitimate messages that were incorrectly classified as junk. If you find a message that isn’t junk, mark the item as not junk by doing the following:

• On the Home tab, in the Delete group, click Junk, and then click Not Junk.

Junk Email Filter Lists

While the Microsoft Outlook Junk Email Filter checks your incoming messages automatically, the Junk Email Filter Lists give you more control over what is considered spam. You can add names, email addresses and domains to these lists so the Filter allows for messages from sources that you trust, or blocks messages that arrive from specific email addresses and domains that you don’t know.

Safe Senders List

Email addresses and domain names in the Safe Senders List are never treated as junk email, regardless of the content of the message. You can add your Contacts and other correspondents to this list. However, by design, safe domains are not recognized by default in Exchange Online or in Exchange Online Protection. Only blocked domains, blocked sender addresses, and safe sender addresses are recognized. If you use a Microsoft Exchange Server account, all names and addresses in the global address list (GAL) are automatically considered safe.

Safe Recipients List

If you belong to a mailing list or a distribution list, you can add the list sender to the Safe Recipients List. Messages sent to these email addresses or domain names are never treated as junk.

Blocked Senders List

You can easily block messages from particular senders by adding their email addresses to the Blocked Senders List. When you add a name or email address to this list, Outlook moves any incoming message from that source to the Junk E-mail folder. Messages from addresses that appear in this list are always classified as junk, regardless of the type of the message.

Blocked Top-Level Domains List

To block unwanted email messages that come from another country/region, you can add country/region codes to the list. For example, selecting the CA [Canada], US [United States], and MX [Mexico] check boxes in the list would block messages from email addresses that end in .ca, .us, and .mx.

Blocked Encodings List

To block unwanted email messages that appear in another character set or alphabet, you can add encodings to the Blocked Encodings List.

Email account types supported by the Junk Email Filter

The Junk Email Filter can be in use with the following kinds of email accounts:

• Microsoft Exchange accounts configured in Cached Exchange Mode
• Microsoft Exchange accounts that stores email in an Outlook Data File (.PST)
• POP3 accounts
• IMAP accounts
• Outlook Connector for Outlook.com (formerly Hotmail)
• Microsoft Outlook Connector for IBM Lotus Domino

* If you want to change your Outlook profile, export your Junk Email Lists before making changes so you can import the list again if needed. This makes certain that you won’t have to re-create the Junk Email Filter Lists from the beginning.

Junk Email Filter differences when Cached Exchange Mode is on or off

If you use an Exchange account, you have access to additional capabilities and tools to combat junk email.

• If you use Cached Exchange Mode or download to an Outlook Data File (.PST)     The Junk Email Filter Lists are saved on the server and are available from any computer. The filter lists are also in use by the server to check messages. This means that if a sender appears in your Blocked Senders List, then messages from that sender are moved to the Junk E-mail folder on the server, and they aren’t evaluated by Outlook.

• If you work online     The Junk Email Filter Lists are saved on the server. They are available from any computer, but only if you have the Junk Email feature enabled in Outlook Web Access. The filter lists are also used by the server to evaluate messages. This means that if a sender appears in your Blocked Senders List, then messages from that sender are moved to the Junk E-mail folder on the server, and they aren’t evaluated by Outlook.