Selected files in junk folder few move to spam folder

Running Apple Main. I had 84 Junk Mails in the junk mail folder. Selected all and pressed command-control-s and then mark as spam from menu. Fourteen files moved to spam folder. Balance remainded in junk folder.

It does sound like something is wrong there, but my first question is why are you training messages that were already caught in the Junk mailbox as spam? Normally, you would only correct the mistakes.

Why I was training junk.

About half my spam winds up in the Spam Mailbox. The other half winds up in the Junk Mailbox. I assumed that for some strage reason mail in the Junk Mailbox was getting moved there my a mysterious force before SpamSieve could work it’s magic. In addition after I looked through the Junk Mailbox for stuff I didn’t want to treat as spam and trained it as good I trained the balance as spam. About 1/3 of the emails in the Junk Mailbox were moved to the Spam Mailbox which made me think my assumption mail in the Junk Mailbox was getting moved there my a mysterious force before SpamSieve could work it’s magic otherwise it would have gone to the Spam Mailbox on the first pass.

Why is the junk Mailbox getting anything?

Another way of looking at it might be to ask why doesn’t everything SpamSieve recognises as spam go to the Spam Mailbox?

Thanks in advance

It does, but Mail only asks it to look at messages that arrive in the inbox. You likely have a server spam filter that’s moving some messages to Junk before your Mac sees them. You should probably not train messages in Junk either way. For more information, please see this page.

I think we are now on the same page.

What I think I have learned from our exchange so far is this:

  1. There is a spam filter upstream of the Apple Mail inbox, (I called it a ‘mysterious force’) that diverts what it is concerned about to the Junk folder.
  2. Stuff that gets past the ‘mysterious force’ and is recognized by SpamSieve is filtered into the Spam folder.
  3. I do need to let SpamSieve train the stuff in the junk folder because SpamSieve never go a look at it when it was diverted from the Apple inbox into the Junk mailbox.

This leaves me with only one question. Since I review what is in the Junk mailbox and mark those I wish to keep as not Junk what remains, as far as I am concerned, is Spam. When I train the remaining emails in the Junk mailbox only half wind up in the Spam. Why don’t all of them wind up in the Spam folder.

Correct.

Correct.

You should not train SpamSieve with the messages in Junk. Since SpamSieve never got a look at them, they are not SpamSieve mistakes, and in general it’s best only train SpamSieve with the messages that it filtered incorrectly.

It could be due to a problem with Mail’s database or interference from the server. If this happens when training from the inbox, we could look into this more, but in this case there’s no reason to train the messages in Junk, so it doesn’t really matter.

Thank you
I haven’t completely gotten my head around the training as spam/good. But you have drilled it into me that their use should only be to correct an error SpamSieve made.

Your customer support is excellent.

Thanks again.