Spend any amount of time with an Apple Mac, and you’ll become familiar with macOS.
One of the defining features of macOS is its graphical user interface, which is designed to be intuitive and easy to use. It includes a wide range of built-in applications, including a web browser, photo editor, and most importantly for today, an email client.

The Apple Mail app is a useful tool that lets you check all your emails from your desktop. It integrates with macOS, making it much more convenient to incorporate into your workflow.
But, that doesn’t mean it’s without its issues of course. Many users report that the Mail app for Mac can often stop sorting your junk and spam mails properly, so what can you do when this happens?
Ways to Resolve Mail App for Mac Automatic Spam or Junk Filter Not Working
There are several methods to fixing this issue on Mac, though most of them come down to changing simple settings. Most of these options are buried within menus or obscured from the user, making them features you need to already know about in order to use them.
This is what often leads to frustration with these issues, but worry not! We’ve compiled a few guides below to make things easier for you.
Update Your Mail Client on Mac
Making sure your Mail client is updated is important to keep it functioning properly.
- Go to the App Store.
- Click on the “Updates” tab.
- Check and see if there are any updates for the Mail app.
- If there are, download and install them.
- Once the updates finish installing, you can move on to the next fixes.
Check Your Junk Mail Settings on the Mail App
Sometimes, the Mail app can simply disable junk mail filtering, which leads to spam landing in your normal inbox.
- To fix this, open up your Mail app.
- Click on “Mail” in the top menu bar.
- Select “Preferences.”
- Click on the “Junk Mail” tab.
- Check the option to “Enable junk mail filtering.”
- Adjust the level of sensitivity for junk mail filtering.
- Now, your Mail app should begin junk mail filtering properly.
Train Your Mail App to Recognize Junk Mail
The Apple Mail app can sort through junk mail, but many don’t know that it can be trained to recognize junk mail that passes through normal filters.
- First, open your Mail app.
- Select any junk emails that pass through the filter.
- Click on the “Junk” button in the toolbar.
- From now on, the Apple Mail app will recognize these emails as junk.
With that, you should find all your emails now being properly sorted out. You can officially say good bye to junk emails landing in your inbox by accident!
It’s frustrating to find junk in your normal emails, so we hope we managed to help you fix your issue. For more tips and fixes for common problems just like this, stay tuned for more!