Thunderbird Junk Filtering (Mac)

Mozilla Thunderbird has an in-built spam/junk filtering tool which can be trained over time to spot junk mail and, after it's trained enough, move it out of your Inbox and into a separate folder. To accomplish this, Thunderbird needs your guidance for a while so it can learn what your junk looks like (and, just as importantly, what it doesn't look like). The following shows you how to set up the filtering on your Physics account.

1. You can begin training Thunderbird at any time using the Junk button on the toolbar.
   If you've already been training Thunderbird for a few weeks and would like to know how to set it on automatic, Skip to instruction #10

   

2. Once marked as 'Junk', a junk icon will be attached to the message in your list view.

   

3. In the message, the header will now note that this message is considered 'junk'. If you've mistakenly marked something as junk, you can simply click Not Junk to fix it.

   

4. Now lets make sure your settings are correct for training Thunderbird to handle junk/spam. Tools from the menu bar and select Junk Mail Controls.

   

5. In the Junk Mail Controls window, make sure that Configure Junk Settings for: is set to your Physics account.
   Click the Settings tab. In the 'White LIsts' section, check the box labeled "Do not mark messages as junk if the sender is..." and select 'Personal Address Book'.
   In the 'Handling' section, nothing should be selected/checked (yet), except "When displaying HTML messages marked as junk, sanitize the HTML".

   

6. Click the Adaptive Filter tab. Make sure that Enable adaptive junk mail detection is checked. This tells Thunderbird to learn to identify spam/junk for you and puts it into training mode.
   If you've already been training Thunderbird for a few weeks and would like to know how to set it on automatic,
   Click OK
   Skip to instruction #10

   

7. Now let's do one more thing that will help make life easier. Let's block unwanted images. (This is optional, but actually can help cut down on spam, believe it or not).
   Click Thunderbird, then Preferences... from the menu bar.

   

8. Click Advanced in the Preferences window. Check Block loading of remote images in mail messages.
   Check Allow remote images if the sender is in my: and select Personal Address Book from the drop down menu. Click OK.

   

9. You'll notice there's a new folder in your 'Local Folders' (in the left-hand pane). This is where Thunderbird will move junk mail once it's been trained and set to automatic. You should let Thunderbird train for at least a four weeks (or until it almost never marks mail incorrectly) before setting it to automatic. That's it! Come back to this page when you've trained Thunderbird well and you're ready to set it to automatically move junk/spam to the junk folder.

   

10. Already have Thunderbird trained? Spent a couple of weeks showing it what's spam and what's not? Has it been getting all positive hits when it flags something it thinks is junk in your Inbox? Then it's time to set Thunderbird loose on your spam!
    • But first: It's a good idea of getting into the habit of checking the Junk folder periodically to make sure that no false positives get moved there. Do this every, say, Friday before you leave. If false positives end up in the junk folder, mark them 'Not Junk' and move them back to your Inbox. If this happens too often, you may need to train Thunderbird for longer.

    To set Thunderbird on automatic, go back to Junk Mail Controls (as above), make sure your Physics account is selected, and click the Settings tab.

    In the Handling section, click Move incoming messages determined to be junk to:, select Junk folder on: and select Local Folders from the drop-down menu. (Why take up server space with Junk, right?)

    Check Automatically delete junk messages older than and enter 14 days. And don't forget to take a look in this folder periodically to make sure that nothing gets put there by mistake.

    Also check When I manually mark messages as junk: and select Move them to the junk folder
    Click OK. All done! Thunderbird will now start moving junk mail automatically.