[NFBCS] Outlook.com and junk mail

Sat Feb 29 20:19:56 UTC 2020

Louis,

One challenge is that these kinds of things vary with the version of Outlook you have.  Even if you have Office 365, the timing of new updates changes.  However, my description was not clear.  I'm afraid I used the word option in two different contexts so maybe clearing that up will help.  Several times I said "option" when it would have been better to say "choice" to differentiate it from the actual Junk Mail Options dialog.

If you are in a message list and a message is highlighted, and you press the Applications key, you can arrow down to the "Junk" submenu.  If you open that submenu, there are multiple choices including Block Sender and several "Never Block" choices.  On this submenu is a "Junk email Options" choice.  This opens a multipage dialog that lets you choose certain settings.  There are additional pages or tabs in that Dialog that give you access to your "Safe Senders", "Safe Recipients", "Blocked Addresses", and "International" which allows you to block specific messages based on international coding.  In addition, one of those Option Dialog pages is also called "options".

The "Junk" option on the menu that one accesses with the Applications key is only available if a message has focus on the message list.  I said before you have to be in the Junk folder, but that appears to not be true.  You can get to that option from any message list.

If one is on a message list, one can also bring up the ribbon, and if on the HOME tab, TAB to the "Junk" button.  Opening that menu should provide the same choices, but some may be unavailable.  One of those choices should be "Junk email Options". That choice should open the same dialog described above.  In other words, it is the "Junk" submenu that you should find on the HOME tab of the ribbon, but only from a message list.  I don't think there are any junk options on the Options choice from the File menu, as you already discovered.

Let me know if this helps.  I am sorry for the confusion.  Things one writes can seem so clear until one reads them a second time.

Best regards,

Steve Jacobson

----Original Message-----
From: Louis Maher <ljmaher03 at outlook.com> 
Sent: Saturday, February 29, 2020 10:28 AM
To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>; portillo.jim at gmail.com
Cc: Steve Jacobson <steve.jacobson at outlook.com>
Subject: RE: [NFBCS] Outlook.com and junk mail

Hello Steve,

You said:
"The "Junk" option in the applications menu is not available when the junk folder is empty. However it is available in the HOME tab on the Ribbon when you
are in the Junk Folder. This lets you get to the Options submenu even when your folder is empty. Also, if you access it on the ribbon, you will find some
keyboard shortcuts that you might find useful.".

I did not find the options menu in the home menu of the ribbon when I was in the empty junk folder.  I did see options when I was in the file menus of the junk folder ribbon, but I did not see where my black-list addresses are kept.  Do you know where the black-list of addresses is kept?

Also, often when I receive an e-mail, the web links have been altered to something like safe...  Do you know why outlook is doing this?

Regards
Louis Maher
Phone: 713-444-7838
E-mail ljmaher03 at outlook.com

-----Original Message-----
From: NFBCS <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Steve Jacobson via NFBCS
Sent: Saturday, February 29, 2020 9:55 AM
To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>; portillo.jim at gmail.com
Cc: Steve Jacobson <steve.jacobson at outlook.com>
Subject: Re: [NFBCS] Outlook.com and junk mail

Jim,

My response here will show some of my frustration, but I hope it brings a smile to somebody.  There are several cases where the problem is that Microsoft knows what is best for you.  There may be some logic to their methods that makes sense at some level, but it is not clear to me in many cases.  My frustration comes from finding I need to check my Junk folder almost as often as my in-box because I can't really trust it, so what is the point.  Also, my address which is an outlook address is seen by Outlook for others as junk.  Maybe it has to do with the content of my notes, who knows.  <smile>

To some degree, one really does need to regularly check the junk or spam folder even when other than Microsoft is involved because the logic isn't perfect.  

If you have a message in your Junk folder that should not be there, you can do one of the following.  With the message closed but highlighted in the message list, press the Context or Applications key and arrow down to the "Junk" submenu.  Press RIGHT ARROW or ENTER and arrow down to "Not Junk".  This choice will automatically move the message to your in-box, but more important, will add the address to your "Safe" lists which tells Outlook to let that address through automatically.  While you are in that submenu, you can check out other options as well.  There are options that will let you decide to add the address or the entire domain to your "white List" without moving the message.  These are found in several "Never Block" menu items.  There is also a "Block Sender" option that you can use to do just what it says.

Finally, there is an Options menu selection that you should explore.  I set my options as low as possible and I still get too many messages put in my Junk folder.  I don't automatically have anything moved into my junk folder, but messages still get automatically moved.  Microsoft has an alternative definition for "automatic" I guess.  Also, the Options menu has multiple tabs so you can look at your "Safe Senders" list to see what is there and to remove entries if you want to do that.  Even more important, you can see your Block Senders list.  I've had people I did not want blocked on that list and I don't know how that happened.  Of course, I could have chosen the "block" option by accident so I suppose I should not blame Microsoft for everything.  There is an International tab that lets messages with certain encodings to be moved to your Junk folder.  It is possible that this could be how some messages I don't expect get moved to my Junk folder, who knows. 

The "Junk" option in the applications menu is not available when the junk folder is empty.  However it is available in the HOME tab on the Ribbon when you are in the Junk Folder.  This let's you get to the Options submenu even when your folder is empty.  Also, if you access it on the ribbon, you will find some keyboard shortcuts that you might find useful.

In my experience, it does not seem to me that my Safe Senders list is always honored.  Some of the "Don't Block" options don't seem to stick.  There may be a reason for this that I don't understand, though.  Still, don't assume that you don't need to check your Junk folder just because you have everything set as you want it.  

No, don't get me going on Microsoft's Safe Links that are part of Outlook messages if you have an Outlook.com address.  <smile>  Good luck.

Best regards,

Steve Jacobson

-----Original Message-----
From: NFBCS <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Jim Portillo via NFBCS
Sent: Friday, February 28, 2020 4:00 PM
To: portillo.jim at gmail.com
Cc: portillo.jim at gmail.com
Subject: [NFBCS] Outlook.com and junk mail

Howdy,

One of the email addresses I use for more personal things, such as family and friends, is with outlook.com.  I use this email address both on my iPhone and on my computer using MS Outlook.  For the most part, it works well; however, there's an issue I have with certain people's emails going straight to junk mail.  I didn't know this was happening at first, and a close friend of mine kept wondering why I wasn't getting his email.

I thought of it and went to the junk mail folder, and sure enough, there were a few of his messages.  I moved them, and all was fine.

Then, I noticed one or two other people's emails were doing the same thing.

It didn't have anything to do whether I was using my phone or computer.

Is there a way I can fix this so that my friend' emails come to the inbox, where they're supposed to go?

Why is this happening?

Thanks for any help.

Jim

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