Why Is My Yahoo Spam Filter Not Working?
Just like with most other email providers, you can filter emails in Yahoo and flag messages as spam. However, Yahoo doesn’t always catch all junk messages that are sent to your address. There are a variety of reasons why Yahoo Mail filters don't work, but here are a few of the main issues.
If you have set up Yahoo rules to filter messages, you could have a conflicting filter and that is why the Yahoo spam filter not working. You can go to Settings → More Settings → Filters to check what filters you have in place and edit them.
Also, you may have incorrectly flagged a message as “not spam.” This can be easy to do by mistake, but you can easily undo it by right-clicking on the message and choosing Spam from the provided options.
Other times, you may simply need to train the spam filter to correctly pick out all the messages you want to be marked as junk. Each time a message ends up in your inbox that is junk, you need to take the time to flag the email as spam. Otherwise, your Yahoo Mail spam blocker will never learn what you view as spam, which will make it seem like the Yahoo Mail spam filter not working.
Finally, you may have signed up for spam mailings by mistake. We are frequently required to enter our email addresses for things, and sometimes these landing pages have checkboxes to “opt-in” or “opt-out” of receiving promotional and other mailings. Pay close attention to these boxes, and make sure you know what you’re signing up for.
Still having issues? Learn how to stop spam emails on Yahoo.
How To Fix Spam Filter Issues in Yahoo Mail
If you’ve tried learning how to block spam on Yahoo Mail and still have junk messages in your inbox, you may need to try several troubleshooting suggestions. Depending on the situation, adding a spam filter, editing a current filter, or unsubscribing from a mailing list may help.
If you’re having issues with other email providers, we also have guides on what to do if your Gmail spam filter is not working and how to set up an Android email spam filter.
1. Add Spam Filter to Emails In Yahoo Mail
If you notice messages aren’t going into spam, you can train the Yahoo junk mail filter by adding a new spam filter into the equation.
To do this:
- Open Yahoo Mail.
- Right-click on a spam message.
- Next, select Filter Messages Like This.
- When the pop-up opens, click the Select folder drop-down menu and choose Trash.
- Optional: If you’d like to add more conditions to this rule, press More options and specify the settings for the rule.
- Click Save.
2. Unsubscribe from Mailing Lists
Sometimes, Yahoo Mail spam settings don’t flag subscription messages as junk. Instead, you’ll need to go in and use the unsubscribe tool to remove them.
To do this:
- Open Yahoo Mail.
- On the left menu, go to Views, then select Subscriptions.
- Locate the sender, and choose Unsubscribe or Block (up to you).
- A menu will appear to ask you to verify your choice. Click Unsubscribe (or block) again.
3. Fix Issues with Yahoo Mail Filters
If you’ve already set up filters in Yahoo, you may need to adjust them if certain messages are no longer going to spam.
To do this:
- Open Yahoo.
- Go to Settings in the upper right corner. Next, select More Settings.
- On the left menu, click Filters.
- From the list, choose the filter you think needs to be edited.
- Make any changes as needed.
- Press Save.
Keep Out All The Junk With Clean Email
Even though the Yahoo junk mail filter is often effective, it’s not perfect. Sometimes, Yahoo users find it easier to get third-party email spam filter services and use an inbox management app like Clean Email instead of trying to make the native spam filter work how they want it to.
Clean Email has a tool, called Screener, that prevents junk messages from reaching your Inbox. It sends all email communication from unrecognized addresses to a dedicated folder outside of your main inbox. Then, you can go in and review these emails and decide whether you want them flagged as spam, sent to the inbox, or somewhere else.
Also, unlike most other spam filters, Screener separates messages based on whether they’re from individual senders or subscriptions. This lets you choose whether to block unwanted spam from an individual sender or unsubscribe from a mass mailing like a newsletter.
You can also combine the Senders feature with Auto Clean, and this allows you to create an automation rule for all messages that meet the criteria you specify going forward. This is great if you have a message that isn’t spam, but you want it to go into a dedicated folder or be flagged a certain way the next time that sender messages you.
Here’s how to create an Auto Clean rule:
- Go to https://app.clean.email/ and sign in using your Yahoo account.
- Select Auto Clean in the left menu.
- Press the Plus (+) icon to create a new rule.
- Now, name the rule. (Ex. Block BookStore)
- After you name the rule, select the conditions that will trigger the rule (i.e., new message in Inbox, sender’s email address, etc.)
- Next, go to Apply Action section and choose the best option (ex. Trash).
- You can have Auto Clean apply this rule to existing messages if desired (make the relevant toggle green).
- Click Create Rule and the rule is set.
With Clean Email, you can enjoy many other great features too. You can use it to unsubscribe, view messages in Smart Folders (like predefined filters), perform Cleaning Suggestions tasks, and more.
Why Is Yahoo Spam Filter Not Working - FAQs
Why is my Yahoo mail suddenly getting so much spam?
There are many reasons why you could see an increase in spam. You may need to adjust your junk filter, check your address against known data breaches using Clean Email’s Privacy Monitor feature, or adjust filters you’ve already set up.
How do I stop getting so much spam on Yahoo Mail?
The easiest way to stop getting spam is to go into your Yahoo Mail spam settings and set up filters that apply to messages.
How do I turn on spam filter in Yahoo?
Yahoo Mail spam blocker is automatically set up. However, you can right-click on any message and choose to make a filter for messages like that to go to spam. This will add more to your junk filter.
How do I permanently block spam emails on Yahoo?
Yahoo Mail filters don't work all the time, nor do they permanently block addresses. Instead, you can use the Screener tool in Clean Email to send messages from unrecognized senders to quarantine until you review them and decide if you’d like to get emails from these senders to your inbox or not.
