Why Is My Gmail Spam Filter Not Working?
One of the benefits of using Google’s mailbox is the fact that it supposedly filters spam automatically. Unfortunately, the spam email blocker for Gmail isn’t always as intuitive as we would like for it to be, and sometimes it stops working entirely. But why?
The most common issue is that you accidentally clicked “not spam” on a message that was, in fact, spam. This can easily be remedied by selecting the junk messages and flagging them as such (which we explain how to do in more detail below).
Sometimes, the filters you set up can inhibit the spam filter from working correctly. You can check this by going to Settings → See All Settings → Filters and Blocked Addresses. From there, you can edit your filters or delete filters that may get in the way of spam recognition.
If you gave out your email for something online or in-person, you might have essentially signed up for spam by giving out your email address. When you give out your email, there are usually checkboxes to consent or remove consent for vendor promotional messages. This can be frustrating, but as you know, it’s something you can fix.
Also, if you received a junk message and clicked on one of the links in that message, you could have actually sent yourself more junk this way. This creates a much more complicated issue, but there are ways to fix it both within Gmail and the Clean Email app, which we will share more about later on.
How To Fix Gmail Not Filtering Spam
Now that you know why your junk filter may not be working properly, it’s time to learn how to set spam filter in Gmail so that it starts doing its job once again.
If you notice your Google spam filter not working, you may need to perform one (or more) of the following suggestions to reset your Gmail spam filter settings.
1. Flag Messages as Spam
Sometimes you may notice Gmail not filtering spam messages even though they seem like obvious phishing or malware messages. If that’s the case, you can mark as spam in Gmail manually to help train the filter.
To flag messages as spam in Gmail, simply:
- Open your Gmail inbox.
- Select any message that you want to flag.
- Choose Report as Spam (the stop sign with an exclamation point) from the options in the top menu.
Is marking messages as junk not doing enough? Learn how to block spam emails on Gmail.
2. Set Up a Spam Filter Rule
If you can’t handle your Gmail spam filter not working even after flagging some messages in your inbox, you can create Gmail rules that serve as junk filters. These rules will automatically place messages in your Spam folder based on the criteria you specify.
To set up a spam filter rule:
- Log in to your mail account on the web.
- Navigate to the search bar, then click Show Search Options to the right of the box.
- Specify the search criteria for the message and click Create Filter.
- Specify what you want to happen to messages that match your criteria.
- Click the Create filter button again.
Want to use Gmail filters to do more? Check out our guide on how to automatically delete spam in Gmail.
3. Check if Filters are Overridden
Although the Gmail spam filter works fairly well, you can override it within the settings. Whether you did this on purpose or by mistake, chances are a few clicks will fix the issue and your Gmail spam filter settings will return to normal.
Here’s how to check and fix this issue:
- Login to your Gmail account.
- Click on Settings → See All Settings.
- Select the Inbox tab.
- Scroll down to Filtered Mail.
- If Override Filters is selected, choose Don’t Override Filters instead.
Prevent Spam Entirely With Clean Email
Sometimes, the spam blocker for Gmail isn’t enough to meet the needs of your situation. If that’s the case, you may need an inbox management app like Clean Email instead.
Clean Email lets you do many things to stop getting unwanted emails, including screen out messages from unknown senders through a tool called Screener. When enabled, this feature sends all emails from unrecognized senders into a dedicated quarantine folder so you can review them before placing them in your inbox.
Then, when you access the Screener tab, you can decide whether to block or allow these emails into your main inbox.
Additionally, you can use Screener with other tools, like Auto Clean, to set up additional rules and inbox automations. The Auto Clean feature is much more intuitive and customizable than Gmail’s filters. Auto Clean uses “if-then” triggering, and gives you options to perform tasks like auto-delete, archive, mark as read/unread, star/unstar, move to folder, and more. Besides, you can pause the rules anytime without the need to delete them and create new ones from scratch if you plan to resume these rules in the future.
In addition to filtering and organizing messages, Clean Email offers a variety of other mailbox management features that make it easy for you to keep your inbox clean and organized. Some key features include:
- Smart Folders — These predefined filters are automatically applied to messages you receive (they are similar to labels in Gmail; however, no manual work from your side is required). This lets you quickly go through or apply bulk actions to messages who share commonalities so you can move on to better things than checking email.
- Cleaning Suggestions — This tool gives you a list of suggested actions to take based on what you’ve done to similar messages in the past. So, instead of going through every message on your own, Clean Email does most of the work for you, so you can just click to approve.
- Action History — This lets you view past actions you’ve applied and ones Clean Email performed for you automatically. When enabled, you receive regular message updates that show you everything that went on to clean your mailbox so you can verify that everything is running smoothly.
The app is compatible with Gmail and other major email providers. It’s also available on iOS, Android, Mac, and through the web browser. And, you never have to worry about your information being compromised since Clean Email takes user privacy and security seriously.
Why Is Gmail Spam Filter Not Working - FAQs
Why is my Gmail getting so much spam?
As we explained above, several factors could increase the junk messages you receive. You may have opted in for spam without realizing it, set a filter that let more junk through to your inbox, or more.
Why isn't Gmail filtering out spam?
Within Gmail, you can actually disable the spam filter. You may have done this by mistake, so it’s good to check Settings → See All Settings → Inbox → Filtered Mail to check your settings.
How do I fix spam filter in Gmail?
If you’re having issues with junk, it could be as easy as going into Settings → Inbox → Filtered Mail and checking a box to enable spam filtering. Otherwise, you may need to hearhow to set up spam filter in Gmail.
Can you permanently block spam on Gmail?
Unfortunately, all you can do in Gmail is flag spam to go into the junk folder. However, you can use Clean Email to set up the Screener tool to catch junk messages before they go to your Inbox.
