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How to Disable Outlook's Junk Email Filter

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› Outlook › How to Disable Outlook’s Junk Email Filter

Last reviewed on August 29, 2018     69 Comments

Applies to: Outlook (classic), Outlook 2007, Outlook 2010

Outlook has a No Automatic Filtering setting in Junk Email Options, which turns off all junk filters but leaves the Blocked Senders List applied to incoming email.

junk mail options

Some users complain that the filter continues to work after setting it to No Automatic Filtering and with the Blocked list empty. Other users prefer to use a different spam filter.

Before disabling the Junk Email Filter, see Dave's comment below.

For those users who want to disable Outlook's Junk email filter, there is a registry key that will disable the Junk email filter in Outlook 2007, 2010, and 2013. This key will completely disable the junk filter, including the Blocked list, and disable the Junk email options button. It will not affect third party spam filters.

Disabled Junk mail filter in Outlook 2013When the registry key is set, the Junk button will be grayed out, as seen in this screenshot.

To disable the filter, browse to the following registry key and add the DisableAntiSpam DWORD, setting it to a value of 1. If the key does not exist, you'll need to create it.

In Outlook 2016, open the registry editor and browse to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\16.0\outlook
DWORD: DisableAntiSpam
Value of 1 disables the junk filter, 0 enables it

In Outlook 2013, open the registry editor and browse to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\15.0\outlook
DWORD: DisableAntiSpam
Value of 1 disables the junk filter, 0 enables it

In Outlook 2010, browse to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\14.0\outlook

Outlook 2007:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\12.0\outlook

Registry editor

Do It For Me

If you don't want to edit the registry yourself, we have ready-to-use registry files. Download (right-click on the link and choose Save as) then double click to run, answering Ok or Yes as needed.

Outlook 2016 Outlook 2013 Outlook 2010
Outlook 2007

Restart Outlook for the registry edit to take effect. The Junk email folder will remain (but should not be created if you make a new default pst file) – you can delete the junk folder using OutlookSpy or MFCMAPI.

To re-enable the Junk filter, edit the reg file in Notepad, replacing the 1 with 0.

To remove the key, Open the registry editor, browse to the value then delete it.

More Information

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  • Should You Respond to Junk Mail?
  • Understanding the Safe and Blocked Senders lists
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  • Using Outlook's Junk Mail filter
  • What Moved a Message to the Junk E-mail Folder?
How to Disable Outlook's Junk Email Filter was last modified: August 29th, 2018 by Diane Poremsky

Related Posts:

  • Using Outlook's Junk Mail filter
  • Junk Email Filtering isn't Working in Outlook
  • What Moved a Message to the Junk E-mail Folder?
  • Junk Mail Filtering in Outlook

About Diane Poremsky

A Microsoft Outlook Most Valuable Professional (MVP) since 1999, Diane is the author of several books, including Outlook 2013 Absolute Beginners Book. She also created video training CDs and online training classes for Microsoft Outlook. You can find her helping people online in Outlook Forums as well as in the Microsoft Answers and TechNet forums.

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viciva (@guest_218029)
April 27, 2021 2:02 pm
#218029

There exists a freeware named FromJunkToInbox that moves any email delivered to the Junk Email folder to Inbox folder.

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Caio Martinelli - Brazil (@guest_213030)
April 3, 2019 10:13 pm
#213030

Thanks a Lot!

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David Slight (@guest_206397)
May 5, 2017 5:07 pm
#206397

For insiders this is the fix for 16188 :-)

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Straydog (@guest_205226)
March 14, 2017 11:20 am
#205226

Hello Diane,
I have Office 2016, I followed your instructions and I believe the filter was disabled. The folder now has a No Parking sign on it, but I am not sure that it is completely disabled because it is still there. How can I make it disappear, please?

JunkFilter.JPG
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Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  Straydog
March 14, 2017 1:04 pm
#205230

that is the normal junk mail folder icon - the only way to know it was disabled is because the junk menu button is grayed out and no longer works.

junk-icon.png
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Anita (@guest_201150)
August 27, 2016 9:15 pm
#201150

In Outlook 2013, I found no "Policies" in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies, so I went to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\office\15.0\outlook and then created the key = 1. However, after rebooting, the junk button was Not greyed out, and the incorrect filtering continued (despite my safe sender list, rules, etc. to the contrary).

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Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  Anita
August 27, 2016 11:29 pm
#201151

if the policy key path doesn't exist, you need to create it. Most, but not all, keys will work in either the user section or under policies. This is one of the few that only works in the policies section.

The registry file for outlook 2013 will set the correct key.

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Anita (@guest_201162)
Reply to  Diane Poremsky
August 28, 2016 3:31 pm
#201162

I don't know how to create the policy key path. Would you please describe the steps to do it? Thank you.

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Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  Anita
August 28, 2016 11:17 pm
#201168

If you are not familiar with editing the registry, the easiest way is to download and run the reg file for your version of outlook that is linked under 'Do it for me' - if your browser saves it as a text file, change the extension to .reg and download to run.

Otherwise, open the registry editor and find the path - if a key doesn't exist, right click and choose New Key and type in the name. See How to edit the registry if you've never one it before.

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Tom (@guest_199803)
July 5, 2016 4:02 pm
#199803

The path for Windows 10 appears to be different....can you give that path because there is no policies folder anymore...I need to do this because even if I click on the "no automatic filtering", the next day something changes it back to low filtering.

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Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  Tom
July 5, 2016 11:46 pm
#199809

This is with the hotmail account? Was the account migrated to the new server? If you are still on the old server, i believe that behavior is expected. If the policies key doesn't exist, add it. You can run the reg file I provided for your version of outlook then edit the registry to ch ange the value. (The path is the same in all OSs.)

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Charles (@guest_198803)
May 18, 2016 7:04 pm
#198803

How does this work with a shared mailbox? We have had a case where junk e-mail still filters through with group polices applied to disable Junk e-mail as well.

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Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  Charles
May 18, 2016 8:37 pm
#198804

It would definitely apply to all accounts open in the profile but I'm not sure if it applies to mailboxes open as shared boxes in a profile as they don't have client side options - server side options (such as rules) would apply to these mailboxes.

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Mike (@guest_196671)
February 23, 2016 9:54 am
#196671

Thanks Diane, using your script solved an irritating issue with the Junk filter. It was always and only putting good emails in there.
BTW, HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\16.0 was not in my registry. I had entries for 12.0, 14.0, and 15.0, but the script still worked.

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Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  Mike
February 23, 2016 5:01 pm
#196678

The keys in the path are only present when added by the user or administrator.

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Reply

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