The Samsung Galaxy is a very popular line of phones, based on the queries I receive from users who are complaining that Outlook is creating a new folder called "Junk" or "Spambox" and moving mail sent from their co-workers to the Junk folder. The users don't have rules set and when the user moves the mail back to the Inbox, it gets moved back to the Junk folder. If they turn off the phone, the mail stays in the Inbox. (That is the first clue that it is not Outlook's fault.)
I have a user with Samsung Galaxy. Email is setup on his phone and Outlook. Extra folder called Junk is created in the mailbox automatically and some new emails get forwarded to that folder automatically. No Outlook rules set. Even if I move emails from that new Junk folder to the Inbox, those emails get back to this new Junk folder. Its not a System folder as I have an option to delete it. This folder is accessible even in Webmail.If I switch off the phone, new emails get to Inbox as expected but with the phone being switched on, some emails get forwarded to this new Junk folder (Emails in this new Junk folder do not have the option of "Not Junk". If I delete the email account from the phone (Samsung Galaxy S4) and add it again, another folder called "Junk" is created again.
Because the folder appears in Outlook after creating the account on the Samsung phone, the phone is responsible for the folder, not Outlook. The S4 is not picking up the server's junk folder and is creating a junk of it's own.
The solution:
- Go into the E-Mail app (on the phone)
- Press the Menu Key, select Settings, then General Settings
- Select Spam addresses and remove any addresses that should not be in there, such as your corporate domain.
- If the address is not on the Spam address list, also check Rules for filtering.
For screenshots, see this article from AppRiver: Samsung Devices Move Valid Email to Junk Folder.
More Information
- Add EU to the International Blocked TLD List
- Automatically Cleanup Outlook's Deleted Item and Junk Email Folders
- Blocking Mail From New Top-Level Domains
- Bulk Add Addresses to Safe and Blocked Senders Lists
- Don't Get Caught In a Phishing Hack
- Empty Multiple Deleted Items Folders using a Macro
- How to Block Foreign Spam
- Icon is not correct on the Junk Mail Folder
- Junk Email Filtering isn't Working in Outlook
- Junk Mail Filtering in Outlook
- Office 365 Fraud Detection Checks
- Outlook's "Not Junk" option isn't available
- Rules and Tools to Filter Junk Mail
- Sending Autoreplies to Spammers
- Should You Respond to Junk Mail?
- Understanding the Safe and Blocked Senders lists
- Using Outlook's Junk Filter with Multiple Accounts
- Using Outlook's Junk Mail filter
- What Moved a Message to the Junk E-mail Folder?
Jim B says
We cannot find the "spam addresses" setting in Email, Gmail, Outlook, or any other setting on the S20. Can someone please give us pictures on this? I have an exec and we CANNOT find a solution to this issue! Thanks.
Diane Poremsky says
It should be in the Samsung native email app, under it's settings.
Jim B says
We discovered it, thanks!
Colin says
Brilliant - thanks very very much. My wife and I had tried every setting / rule in Outlook to solve the sudden problem of sent emails (and also emails to herself) going to the junk file. We had not thought of looking at her Samsung phone until I read this. What initiated the problem was a now redundant Outlook birthday reminder message that she marked as junk on her phone rather than in Outlook on her laptop - it was the only time she had done this on her phone and she could not remember actually doing it.
Susan Hasara says
Thank you I found all the mysterious junk mail addresses in the spam folder. This has been driving me crazy for months. Samsung Galaxy S7
josh says
This is great, but I use my phone for business and not everyone who texts me is in my contact list. If I’m going away, there’s no way to auto-reply to those not in the contact list. So new clients either get ignored or my vacation is spent responding to texts! thanks for this knowledge you have shared for us. i always appreciate any news i can get about my samsung
Penny Drost says
Wow thanks for the Samsung tip, I followed the instructions, then on my computer in Outlook I moved the emails to my Inbox and they did not pop back to the spam folder. It is a mystery to me how 14 of my safe email addresses got on my spambox list on my phone. I did not put them there. I removed them all. Hope this fix holds.
Frank says
I have a new Samsung A20...……...can't find menu key to select email settings
Diane Poremsky says
It should be either 3 lines or an icon at the top left. If you don't have the 3 lines, look for an icon in the top left or right.
Penny Drost says
I have a Samsung 10 and did this: Settings icon, Apps, Email, Setting icon in upper right corner (gray), Spam Addresses, and then removed all of them.
3ss0neR says
Tried the steps above and: it worked! Thanks!
The only problem is that it continually adds other email addresses to the junk folder and now, they don’t appear in the Spam addresses.
Question: would unsyncing my email address from the Samsung email app and using Outlook for my Exchange emails resolve the issue?
Diane Poremsky says
It *should* because I think the issue is with the Samsung's mail app.
Mark Metz says
I had a user today that was having this exact issue. I came across this article and that was the problem. Thank you.
MICHELE says
This doesn't help me. My SENT ITEMS get moved to Junk, i.e. the e-mails I have sent to clients etc. Very frustrating when I want to make sure if I sent a document to someone, then I find it under Junk. Have to keep moving them back to SENT but soon they jump back! PLEASE HELP!!!
Diane Poremsky says
Neither your address or the recipient is on the phone's spam list? Does it happen if you disable junk mail filtering on the phone?
Steve says
I have the same problem, blocked emails do not show up under "Span Addresses" in settings on phone but they DO appear in this "Spamfolder" that gets created in Outlook? How do I disable junk mail filtering on the phone? Smasung Email Version 6.0.02.12
Diane Poremsky says
Is the folder called Spamfolder? That indicates something else - possibly a spam filter on the desktop or mail server is filtering for spam.
andrea says
I am being sent by an "unknown" email address on my Android phone via a junk mail. I contact my Telestra Webmail (Outout.com) and I can see the emails I entered.
I want to stop using my phone because the computer says it's a trash, how can I get this?
well I heard from my old colleagues, they asked me about this but I am not sure about it so kindly if you have experience about it. then please share with me. thanks for sharing good article and thanks in advance…
Karla Andrea says
Thank you so much!!!
Vince Hollis says
Nevermind. I just realized why you can't just simply delete the pesky junk folder. It's because that's what Microsoft Exchange uses and the spam folder is what Samsung email uses. So there is a bit of a conflict there. Wow. I wish Samsung would fix this. I may have to look for another email app if I keep missing important emails.
Vince Hollis says
My Samsung email app has two folders for filtering unwanted mail, one is labeled spam which looks like the proper folder and gives you the option to mark emails as not spam, and the other is that pesky junk folder which good emails seem to be going in and doesn't have the not junk option available only move to inbox. Can't we just delete the unwanted junk folder and use only the spam folder?
David L says
Thanks again for this page. This happened 2 years ago and again this week with my new phone (Note 9 with Android 8.1). In Outlook 2016 it uses the spambox folder.
Wilmar says
muchas gracias me funciono con la cuenta corporativa del deje
Anthony says
Worked perfectly!!
thanks
Anthony
Himanshu says
Thank you it worked.
Vince K. says
Very good. I noticed my device does not have a menu key, so I wrote up instructions like this for my end user:
On older device (or device with Menu Key):
Go into the E-Mail app
Press the Menu Key, select Settings, then General Settings
Select "Spam addresses" and remove any addresses that should not be in there, such as your corporate domain.
On newer device (or device without Menu Key):
Go into the E-Mail app
Press the Hamburger menu in the upper left corner, then click the Gear in the upper right
Select "Spam addresses" and remove any addresses that should not be in there, such as your corporate domain.
Diane Poremsky says
Thanks! Thanks very helpful.
KarenO\'Connor says
Is there not a way that I can copy the email address into the spam address list? I don't want to have to type out (first write out) each address every time one appears.
Diane Poremsky says
In desktop outlook, you can right click on a message and choose Junk Email > block sender to add addresses to the list. To copy an address, click on the address in the message header then expand the contact card (Open contact card command will do it, or click the V) and select the address and right-click copy it.
Ronan says
Thanks!! You've saved me soo much hassle. I'd created a rule in outlook to move it with no effect. I would never have thought of it and such an easy fix..
THANK YOU!!! Galaxy S4
GoldenOak says
Thanks for the tip. Spot on!
Gaurav Sharma says
Thanks for the fix...Issue resolved...:)
Gilles says
Thanks for the tip
Mike says
Fixed, thank you, my mobile is S8
Jake says
Hi, this did not work in my case on the S8 Galaxy. I have one address that keeps going to the UNWANTED folder in my phone and on my Outlook. The name is not in the SPAM ADDRESSES list. What do I do?
Diane Poremsky says
Can you create a rule on the phone to move it to the Inbox?
Jamal says
Wow, this fixed worked perfectly, Thanks!
Edward says
Thanks. Issue solved!!
curtis says
This solutions worked! my phone is the Galaxy S8, only one Domain user was been sent to Spambox.
Azam Ali says
Thanks for this solution. I could not find why the emails were going in spambox until I saw this solution.
Dylan G says
You're a life saver once again! Thank you so much!
Mahmoud says
Dear Diane,
You're so amazing, I am really learned a lot of things from your articls.
Chris says
Fixed it for me but it was on my tablet not phone!!
wong says
but there are no spam addresses at all in spam addresses, yet everything goes to junk still.
Diane Poremsky says
What type of email account do you use? The issue on this page applies to Exchange mailboxes.
jack says
I have a Galaxys5 and don't see where you are speaking about.
Diane Poremsky says
it would be in the native mail app - click on the menu icon, then settings.
joey wells says
If I remove the account from my Galaxy and add it through Gmail's imap client will this fix it?
Diane Poremsky says
The Gmail Android app? Yes, it should fix it.
Everett Parsons says
This is a fantastic article. I’m so glad that there’s a way to overcome Microsoft’s boneheaded idea to remove the ability to turn off junk filtering at a server level!
Thanks for your help!
Eleonora Lichtenecker says
Thanks for your help - it worked!!!
Simon says
Your the best. Thanks
daniel chesney says
Thank you soo much
Mohan says
Thanks for sharing this!!
Brennan says
So seemingly simple, yet such an inconvenient problem to have. Thanks for sharing this fix! Works wonders!
ben doughty says
Sorry maybe i should clarify, the problem im having is that i cant figure out how to tell it what sites go in what folder, so for example: john blag.com is a site i want in my inbox but it reads it as spam, where as pplsometgingorother.com is a site i want in my junk folder
Diane Poremsky says
Sorry, I'm not really sure how to do that. Only my gmail account on my Androids has the ability to make spam - it's on the 3 dot menu when viewing a message. My non-gmail accounts don't have this option.
ben doughty says
Ok im having trouble moving emails back and forth between junk trash and inbox and i dont see a button to move it, i have a Samsung Galaxy avant, any help would be appreciated
Diane Poremsky says
Click the folder name tab to open the move dialog. (I don't have a Samsung - this is how its done in the standard android client.)
Emma says
I have had this happen twice now-- are there any thoughts on troubleshooting before it happens-- IE how to I keep it from happening again?
Diane Poremsky says
Sorry, no, I don't have any ideas how to keep it from happening.
Edwin says
Thank you so much for posting this, I spent over a half an hour trying to determine the cause of this mystery folder being created and emails being moved.
Thanks!
Joel Salazar says
As one friend said: BYOD will be the end of the IT industry...
Diane Poremsky says
It will change IT but won't end IT.
Anthony says
The solutions does not work on a Note 3...... H E L P
Diane Poremsky says
This is the only solution I'm aware of - were able to find any that worked for it?
Er Kartik Mittal says
Thank You!!
This helped me
Carl says
Thanks for this solution. It initially resolved the issue but the Junk folder returned several hours later. Checking the Spam settings, the blocked domain name was NOT included in the list so I am back to troubleshooting.
Thinking about deleting the email configuration on the S4 and setting it up again.
Kumar says
I had the same problem on Galaxy Grand. Thanks for the post, problem solved.
lukegooglewalker says
have a user with the same phone/issue...I trouble shot it down and figured and it was the phone so sent him and it back to ATT. they agreed and removed the folder but the folder recreated itself...thanks for the "correct fix" there is a rant about Phone mfg and providers adding their layers of junk...what a pain.
Keila Gnonsoa says
I've had the same problem but with a Galaxy Note 3. Problem solved, thanks.
triatechnology says
Had a client with this exact issue today, found this article from Google search, and yes, he has a Samsung S4! Thanks for posting!
Cam says
Brilliant. I have been trying all the low level stuff like resetting outlook profiles. disabling AV, checking exchange rules and was just about to give up when i linked a post on Whirlpool regarding a S3 phone and its rules. Found out that the user had a S4 and googled away.