4.5.1   Spam Message Colors in Apple Mail

Separating Spam Caught by SpamSieve and Server Filters

With the normal setup, spam messages caught by server junk filters and by SpamSieve both go to the Junk mailbox. It can be important to know which filter moved which messages there. For example, if a good message was incorrectly moved to Junk by SpamSieve, you should train it as good. Whereas, if it was moved by a server junk filter, training SpamSieve wouldn’t help and you might want to turn off the server filter or set SpamSieve to rescue the good messages.

The easiest way to see which messages SpamSieve moved to Junk is that they will have a colored background in Mail’s message list:

(They may also have a puzzle piece icon if they were processed by SpamSieve’s Mail extension, though other Mail extensions can also add such an icon.)

Messages caught by other filters will have a white background:

Note that the SpamSieve background colors only show up on the Mac where SpamSieve is running. Mail does not sync them to the server or to other Macs or iOS devices. If you need to see, on another device, which messages were caught by SpamSieve, you can use separate mailboxes as described in Setting the Junk Mailbox in Apple Mail. You can also look in SpamSieve’s log to see which messages SpamSieve has predicted to be spam.

Using Background Colors to Show Spam Levels

Please see the Color the background according to how spammy it is section.

Messages Marked as Junk

It is normal for Mail to show a brown bar above some messages that SpamSieve or a server filter classified as spam. SpamSieve marks the messages as junk to protect you from Web bugs. Do not click the Not Junk button. If the message is not spam, you should instead choose Train as Good from the menu.