Ask Lena: Junk Mail on my Mac?
Question
A question – is there a way to set up Mail so that the stuff marked as junk go somewhere other than the main mailbox? With Entourage the junk went directly into the Junk folder but on my mail it shows up – albeit a different color and says this is junk- but I’d rather not even seeing it. Just wondered!
Answer
Yes! Easily done.
In the beginning of setting up a new mac, I rather like seeing what gets marked junk. This way I can monitor the mail and make sure that it isn’t marking anything junk that shouldn’t be. After a period of time and things get settled and your mailbox gets trained, this becomes a pain.
To move your junk mail into the Junk Mailbox do the following
- Go to Mail –> Preferences –> Junk Mail
- Go to the area “When junk mail arrives” and choose “Move it to the Junk mailbox”. Take the time to review the other settings to see if you want to make any other changes.
- Click on “General” or any other item across the top to prompt the save dialog box.
Mail can be set up to automatically delete your mail after a period of time – which I recommend. This setting will also affect your junk mail.
TIP: If you like to keep three years worth of mail, considering archiving the bulk of it. Too much mail means a bloated database that can cause you issues down the road. If you need something from 5 months ago, you can restore from the archive.
Automatic Deletion of Mail (and junk mail)
- Go to Mail –> Preferences –> Accounts
- Choose the account you want to make changes to
- Go to “Mailbox Behaviors”
- Adjust the Sent, Junk, and Trash individually to your own preferences.
- Click on “General” or any other item across the top to prompt the save dialog box.
