Forum Discussion

mmoser18's avatar
mmoser18
Copper Contributor
Aug 06, 2024
Solved

Can one phrase Mail rules to be applied for newly arrived mails not in Inbox but in Spam folder?

My Email provider runs its own (unfortunately very bad) spam filter and continues to sort tons of legit emails as false positives into my Spam folder. These emails are then synchronized to my Outlook where I then always have to angle them out from Spam and move them back to my Inbox.

I would like to automatize this (or at least large parts of it) by creating an Outlook "Unspam" mail rule that moves emails from a list of known senders from Spam back to my Inbox but unfortunately - it seems - Outlook's mail rules can only be applied to emails newly arrived in the Inbox but not in other folders.  

Is there a way to apply such mail rules also automatically to emails in the Spam/Junk folder?

  • there is a workaround using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) scripting in Outlook. You can create a script that periodically checks the Spam folder for emails from known senders and moves them to the Inbox.

    Alternatively you do this -
    create a transport rule using the Exchange Admin Center (EAC), you can follow these steps:

    Log in to the EAC and navigate to mail flow > rules.
    Click + and select Create a new rule.
    Enter a name for the rule, such as "Unspam Rule".
    In the Apply this rule if... section, select The sender and then select matches any of these patterns.
    Enter the email addresses of the known senders, separated by commas.
    In the Do the following... section, select Move the message to and then select Inbox.
    Click Save to save the rule.

    Thanks!
  • Ankit's avatar
    Ankit
    Brass Contributor
    there is a workaround using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) scripting in Outlook. You can create a script that periodically checks the Spam folder for emails from known senders and moves them to the Inbox.

    Alternatively you do this -
    create a transport rule using the Exchange Admin Center (EAC), you can follow these steps:

    Log in to the EAC and navigate to mail flow > rules.
    Click + and select Create a new rule.
    Enter a name for the rule, such as "Unspam Rule".
    In the Apply this rule if... section, select The sender and then select matches any of these patterns.
    Enter the email addresses of the known senders, separated by commas.
    In the Do the following... section, select Move the message to and then select Inbox.
    Click Save to save the rule.

    Thanks!
    • mmoser18's avatar
      mmoser18
      Copper Contributor

      Ankit Thanks for the response and the instructions. I understand that adding a rule on the EAC would be something to do on the provider side, right? But I don't have access there. So I guess I'll try the VBA approach. Will be a nice exercise. 🙂 

      • Ankit's avatar
        Ankit
        Brass Contributor
        You can go with VBA approach !!

Resources