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ome incoming emails end up in Junk , despite having marked not Junk and Safe sender.

Allyssa Jane Perez 0 Reputation points
2026-06-17T23:19:38.2533333+00:00

emails keep getting sent to junk even when they're not blcoked or anything. we cannot add them to safe senders list either

Outlook | Web | Outlook.com | Email
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  1. Victor1-V 9,380 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-06-18T06:48:33.2533333+00:00

    Hello Allyssa,

    I understand that legitimate emails are still going to Junk even after you marked them as Not junk, and that you cannot add those senders to the Safe Senders list. Please note that this is a user-to-user forum, so contributors here cannot access your mailbox or review account-side filtering directly.

    The Q&A Assist answer above is a good starting point. Have you had a chance to try those checks yet? I would like to add two more things that may help with your specific issue:

    1. Please check whether any rule is moving those messages to Junk or another folder. In Outlook.com, go to Settings > Mail > Rules, then review, disable, or delete any rule that mentions that sender, domain, subject keyword, or Junk folder.
    2. Since you mentioned that you cannot add the sender to Safe Senders, please go to Settings > Mail > Junk email and check both Safe senders and domains and Blocked senders and domains. If the lists contain many old entries, remove the ones you no longer need, select Save, then try adding the affected sender or domain again. Outlook has a limit for safe and blocked sender entries, so a very large list may prevent new entries from being saved.

    If the sender is a mailing list or automated sender, also try adding the sender domain or the mailing list address under Safe mailing lists instead of only adding the individual address.

    If it still cannot be saved, please share what happens when you try to add it, for example whether the Add button does not respond, the entry disappears after saving, or a message appears on the page. Please mask any email address before posting it publicly, such as name@example.com.

    Useful references:

    I hope this helps narrow down whether the issue is caused by a rule, a sender-list saving issue, or the junk filtering behavior itself.

    Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.    

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  2. AI answer

    2026-06-17T23:19:52.56+00:00

    For Outlook on the web / Outlook.com, use these checks and fixes when legitimate messages still go to Junk and cannot be added as safe senders:

    1. Confirm they are not blocked
      • Go to Settings > Mail > Junk email.
      • Under Blocked senders and Blocked domains, make sure the sender’s address and domain are not listed. If they are, remove them.
      • Save changes.
    2. Add the sender as Safe Sender / Safe Recipient
      • In Outlook.com: open the Junk Email folder, select the message, choose It’s not junk. This moves it to Inbox and helps train filtering.
      • Then open Settings > Mail > Junk email and add the address or domain under Safe senders and recipients (or Safe Senders List / Safe Recipients List depending on UI):
        • Type the full email address (for example, ******@contoso.com) or just the domain (for example, contoso.com).
        • Select Add and then Save.
      • If adding fails for a specific address, try adding the domain only.
    3. Check strict junk settings
      • In Settings > Mail > Junk email (or Block or allow):
        • If Don’t trust email unless it comes from someone in my Safe Senders and Recipients list or local senders (or similar “treat all email as junk unless…”) is enabled, messages from outside those lists can still be treated as junk.
        • Either turn that option off, or ensure the sender is correctly listed under Safe senders and recipients.
    4. Verify Safe lists precedence
      • The junk filter gives precedence to specific email addresses over domains. If the domain is blocked but the specific address is in Safe Senders, that address should still be delivered to Inbox.
      • Ensure there is no conflicting entry (for example, domain in Blocked and address missing from Safe).
    5. Reset junk handling (Outlook.com web)
      • Some users have resolved persistent misrouting by temporarily changing the junk handling mode:
        1. In Outlook.com, go to Settings > Mail > Junk email and set incoming mail handling to the stricter option.
        2. Save, sign out, then sign back in.
        3. Go back to Junk email settings and set handling back to the standard/automatic option.
        4. Save again and allow a few hours for behavior to stabilize.
    6. Remember server-side filtering
      • The mailbox server may apply junk filtering before messages reach the mailbox. Even with Safe Senders configured, some messages may be filtered upstream. In that case, continue marking them as Not junk and maintaining Safe Senders; if the issue persists, contact support for tenant-level filtering review.

    If, after these steps, messages still go to Junk and cannot be added to Safe Senders, capture examples (full headers, timestamps) and contact Outlook.com/Outlook on the web support so they can review server-side filtering for the account.

    References:

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