How To Find Junk Mail In Outlook And Empty It

Outlook Junk Mail settings check all incoming messages automatically and look for signs of spam. If you receive a message that Outlook has determined is malicious or unwanted, it will place the undesired messages in the spam email folder instead of your primary inbox.

It doesn’t delete these messages though, and sometimes the Outlook spam filter places something in the Junk Email folder by mistake, so you need to know how to find and delete junk mail in Outlook.

How to Find Junk Mail in Outlook

To find the Outlook junk mail folder in the Outlook app on your computer, simply:

Open the Outlook app on your Mac or Windows computer.
Navigate to the folder list on the left side of the screen and select Junk Email.

💡 Note: Depending on the version of Outlook you are using, it may also be labeled as Spam instead of Junk.

Here’s how to block junk email on Outlook in your web browser:

Navigate to outlook.live.com.
Click Settings (gear icon). On the left side navigation, select Mail.
Then, look at the folder list and click Junk Email. Click +Add under Blocked senders and domains if you need to block someone on Outlook.

If you are using the Outlook mobile app, simply:

Open the app.
Click on your account icon in the top left corner.
Make sure the folders menu is opened, then select Junk (or Junk Email).

Deleting Junk Mail in Outlook

Once you locate your junk mail in Outlook, it’s easy to delete unwanted messages from the folder. You can do this by deleting individual messages, selecting multiple messages, or emptying the entire folder.

If you’re using the Outlook desktop app or web browser on your computer:

Delete a single message by selecting the garbage can next to the email.
Delete multiple emails by selecting all messages you’d like to delete, then press the Delete button.
To empty the entire folder, right-click on the Junk Email folder, then select Empty Folder.

On the mobile app, you can:

Delete a single message by selecting it, then click the Trash Bin at the bottom right.
To clear the entire folder, simply click the Empty Folder button in the upper left corner.

Issues with Microsoft Outlook filters and antispam

In February 2023, as reported by Bleeping Computer, numerous Outlook users experienced an influx of spam emails. This issue arose because Outlook's spam filters malfunctioned, causing messages previously marked as spam to flood users' inboxes mixing with the important emails.

If you've encountered a similar problem, we recommend using the Screener tool in the Clean Email app, which is completely free within two weeks.

With Screener enabled, Clean Email intercepts emails from new senders and keeps them quarantined for your review instead of delivering them to your inbox. You can access these messages in a separate section and decide whether to allow or block emails from these senders.

Stop spam emails with Screener feature in Clean Email

If you are an Outlook user and you crave to stop spam by keeping messages from first-time senders out of your Inbox—sign up to Clean Email with your mail account and enable a 14-day trial (no credit card is required). Learn more about Screener and how it can help you to get rid of unwanted senders.

Configure Your Outlook Junk Email Filter on PC or Mac

An effective email spam filter can help you avoid junk messages from ever entering your main inbox. However, you have to configure them to work for you.

If you're using Microsoft Outlook on your PC or Mac, you should tweak the junk mail settings to improve the performance of the Outlook spam filter.

To do this:

Open Microsoft Outlook on your computer.
Click the Home tab, click the Junk icon (a person with a prohibited sign), and select the Junk E-mail Options button.
- If you're on a Mac, click the Tools menu and select Junk Email Preferences.

In the Options tab, look for junk email protection settings and pick one of the available options:
- No Automatic Filtering: Mail from blocked senders is still moved to the Junk Email folder. Use this option if you're wondering how to stop emails going to junk Outlook folder.
- Low: Move the most obvious spam emails to the Junk Email folder.
- High: Most junk email is caught, but some regular mail may be caught as well. Check your Junk Email folder often.
- Safe Lists Only: Only mail from people or domains on your Safe Senders list or Safe Recipients List will be delivered to your Inbox.

Save your choice.

That's how to stop junk mail in Outlook on a PC or Mac. To create the best spam filter for Outlook possible, we highly recommend you manually add addresses and domain names that you always want to be treated as spam on your Blocked Senders List. You can do this in the Blocked Senders tab of the Junk Email Options or Junk Email Preferences window.

Learn more about what to do if your Outlook spam filter is not working.

Stop Junk Mail in Outlook Mobile App

If you mostly use Outlook on your mobile device, here is how to stop spam emails in Outlook by moving them to the Junk folder:

Open the mobile app.
Select an email you’d like to be moved to spam.
Then click the ‘Move to’ icon at the bottom toolbar.
Select Junk.

Send emails to junk in Outlook desktop app

6 Additional Tips on How to Stop Junk Email in Outlook

There are currently close to 4.5 billion email users worldwide. Unfortunately, this means there are lots of spam messages being sent and received each and every day. Unless you learn how to stop spam emails from winding up in your Outlook inbox, you can expect your mailbox to eventually be so full of useless messages that make using it nearly impossible.

The good news is that learning how to get rid of spam emails on Outlook doesn’t require much effort, and it certainly doesn’t require any expert knowledge. All you have to do is familiarize yourself with six simple email management tips and use Clean Email in addition to the Outlook spam filter.

1. Don’t Respond to Spam

Never respond to spam messages. Ever. It may seem obvious, but you would be surprised how many people break this simple rule and open unsolicited emails. Sometimes, they even download attachments, which is how most malware infections begin.

The trick is to learn how to separate legitimate messages from illegitimate ones. If you don’t recognize the sender's address, you’re most likely dealing with an unsolicited email from a clever spammer who has managed to circumvent the Outlook spam filter. Look at the subject line and think hard if it makes sense and doesn’t contain grammar mistakes.

Spammers often make outrageous claims and write emails that are full of spelling errors and grammar mistakes. Legitimate senders, on the other hand, take time to proofread their emails to make a good first impression. It’s also very rare for legitimate senders to send emails with attachments without first touching base.

2. Don’t Share Your Email Address

Do you know how an email spammer gets your address in the first place? They usually find it posted online! We understand that it can be tricky, especially if you have a website or maintain an active online presence but try not to publish your email address online. If you absolutely must share it with others, at least disguise it by substituting the @ symbol with the word “at.” This won’t fool all email address scrapers used by spammers, but it will throw off a good percentage of them.

When you do give your email address to someone else, pay attention to your inbox and monitor the number of spam emails you receive. A major uptick in the frequency of spam emails could mean that the person with whom you’ve shared your address has published it somewhere. When registering on websites, consider using a disposable email address instead of your real one.

3. Report Junk Emails

The sad truth is that the Outlook junk email filter leaves a lot to be desired. You can, however, train it by reporting junk emails. When you mark a message as spam, it will not only disappear from your inbox but also appear on Outlook’s junk email filter. Next time the same sender attempts to send you a similar spam message, there’s a very high chance that the email will be detected and stopped from ever reaching your inbox.

How to Mark Emails as Spam in Outlook

You can filter spam in Outlook by following these directions:

Go to outlook.live.com to access your inbox on the web.
Select the spam message or messages you’d like to filter out of your inbox.
At the top of the screen, select Report. Then choose Report junk.

Learn more about how to mark an email as spam in Outlook if you are using Outlook on a desktop or your smartphone.

4. Unsubscribe from Promotional Emails

Promotional emails are the curse of our digital era. However, most promotional emails today contain an unsubscribe link somewhere at the bottom of the message. All you have to do to unsubscribe is click on it.

Unfortunately, there are times when this Unsubscribe button isn’t easy to spot or available at all. Luckily, you can navigate to Settings → Mail → Subscriptions through Outlook to remove yourself from certain subscription lists directly through your email client. This is just one way you can learn how to stop spam emails in Outlook.

Additionally, you can check out our complete guide on how to unsubscribe from emails on Outlook.

Furthermore, you can use the Unsubscribe feature in the Clean Email app to stop promotional emails from cluttering your mailbox with just a few clicks. Whether you want to stop newsletters permanently or temporarily pause them all in one place, this feature is incredibly convenient. Moreover, you can try it for free.

To stop junk email in Outlook using Clean Email’s Unsubscriber feature, simply:

Go to: app.clean.email and sign in with your credentials.
Select Unsubscriber from the left pane.
Go through the list of active subscriptions and click the Unsubscribe option next to each subscription you no longer wish to receive (or select multiple of them and unsubscribe from them all with one click).

5. Get a New Email Address

Getting a new address just to stop junk mail in Outlook may seem like a drastic option, but we recommend it to everyone who’s losing the fight with spammers. Outlook lets you create as many new addresses as you need for free, and you might even be able to snatch a good username if you don’t wait too long. At the very least we recommend you create another email address just for online registrations and various other activities that might lead to junk infiltrating your inbox.

6. Use Temporary Email Services

If you’re not keen on managing another inbox just to stop spam emails from infiltrating your Outlook account, you have another option: a disposable email address.

A temporary account looks and works just like a regular email address except that it’s not meant to be used long-term. Most temporary addresses expire after anywhere from 10 minutes to a couple of hours, so using them for regular communication is not advisable.

Instead, we recommend you use a temporary email address as a way how to stop spam emails in Outlook from various websites that force you to create a user account. Here are a few reputable providers of temporary email services that you can choose from:

Guerrilla Mail: Launched in 2006, Guerrilla Mail is one of the oldest providers of temporary addresses in the world. So far, it has processed around 13 billion emails, which says a lot about its popularity. Guerrilla Mail automatically generates a unique address as soon as you open it in your web browser, and all you need to do to use it is copy it. Unlike most other similar services, Guerrilla Mail allows its users to send messages, limiting their size to 150 MB per email.
EmailOnDeck.com: This provider of temporary email addresses is used by professionals and regular users around the world to catch annoying subscription emails and spam. If you want it to generate a temporary address for you, confirm that you’re a real human and click the 'Get Email' button. In just a few seconds, you’ll be taken to your private inbox that you can use to receive messages that you don’t want in your Outlook inbox.
10 Minute Mail: The name of this temporary email service is pretty self-explanatory. That said, 10 Minute Mail doesn’t strictly limit you to just 10 minutes. You can always reset the timer with a single click, which may come in handy when waiting for a delayed message.

Besides temporary email services, you should also learn how to stop receiving junk email in Outlook with burner emails extension like Burner Mail for Chrome. Browser extensions are convenient to use because they are always just one click away, and they offer various useful extra features, such as real-time email notifications.

Use Clean Email To Declutter Your Outlook Mailbox Even More

Clean Email is an inbox management tool that enhances your Outlook spam filter. It organizes incoming messages and helps clean up Outlook mailbox to achieve 'inbox zero'. This approach allows you to focus on what's truly important, freeing you from being overwhelmed by junk mail in Outlook or any other email provider.

If you enable the app’s Screener feature, it will hold emails from unknown senders until you have time to check them and decide if you’d like them to go to your Inbox or to be blocked or unsubscribed from. Although Screener is a premium feature, you can experience its benefits for free for 14 days.

Filter your Inbox from Spam Using Clean Email's Screener Feature

Additionally, the Privacy Monitor checks your email address against known data breaches to help keep you even safer. If the system recognizes your address within a known security incident, it suggests you change your password immediately. This timely action can minimize or completely prevent any potential damage and spam.

The app’s Auto Clean feature allows you to apply any action to new emails coming to your mailbox without any manual work. For instance, you can set Clean Email to automatically mark all emails from certain addresses as spam. Just select the sender, click Create Rule at the blue action bar, fill in the criteria for your rule, and click Create Rule again.

Create advanced Auto Clean rule to mark emails as spam

Creating automation rules is a matter of checking a single checkbox, and you can manage all automation rules using a convenient dashboard in the Auto Clean tab or through the Control Center.

For manual spam control in Outlook, select the group of emails you wish to mark as junk and click the Spam button on the blue action bar. From then on, you will not receive messages from this sender in your mailbox.

Clean Email offers a comprehensive solution for Outlook users looking to efficiently manage their inbox and avoid spam. The app's dedication to privacy and security guarantees the protection and confidentiality of users' emails and personal information.

How to Stop Junk Email in Outlook - FAQs

Is spam the same as junk in Outlook?

Although Outlook uses the word Junk Mail, it's essentially the same as a spam filter on other email providers.

How do I check spam in Outlook?

In Outlook, there's a dedicated Junk Email folder that you can check for spam messages. This Outlook spam folder is located in the lineup with your other folders, like 'Inbox' and 'Sent'.

How do I stop getting so much junk mail in Outlook?

Junk mail seems to be a problem that everyone faces. However, you can report each spam email in Outlook and unsubscribe from promotional emails to help lower the amount of spam you receive.

Why is my junk mail going to my inbox in Outlook?

Junk mail may end up in your Outlook inbox for two reasons: misclassification or if the email sender is on your Safe Senders or Contacts list. Reporting spam emails can improve classification accuracy, and it's essential to review and manage your Safe Senders and Contacts settings for a well-organized inbox.

Why can't I block junk emails in Outlook?

Unfortunately, Outlook doesn’t have a universal option to block junk emails. However, you can use the block sender list to remove messages from addresses or domain names you no longer wish to hear from.

How do you stop unwanted emails on Hotmail?

Here is the path to stop unwanted emails on Hotmail. Log in to your Hotmail account in the Outlook app for desktop and click: Home → Delete group → Junk → Junk Email Options. When you get to this page, you can make the desired changes to your junk email options.

How do I change my junk mail settings in Outlook?

If you want to change your junk email settings on a Microsoft computer, you need to open Microsoft Outlook and navigate to Home → Junk → Junk E-mail Options. If you're on a Mac, click the Tools menu and select Junk Email Preferences.