Outlook.com rules forwarding some mail from Junk folder

Question

I have a Microsoft (Hotmail) account that I don’t use too often. I use Outlook.com Rules to forward a copy of all of these emails to a non-Microsoft email account of mine.

My understanding was that Rules are only supposed to work on emails in Outlook.com’s Inbox. Yet about one-quarter of the emails in the Outlook Junk folder end up getting forwarded, too.

Why might this be happening, and how can I prevent *anything* in the Junk folder from being forwarded?

FYI, I have a few rules designed to make sure certain emails are sent to Junk. But in most cases those are *not* the ones that are being forwarded from Junk.

Thanks.

Answer 1

One curious pattern that I just noticed:

Excluding the two emails that went to Junk per one of my rules: Both of forwarded Junk-folder emails have my address in the To field, while the six that weren't forwarded all lack a To field. (The two emails that went to Junk per my rules -- neither of which was forwarded -- both have my address in the To field.)

I wonder if that pattern could lend any clue as to what might be going on, especially if it proves consistent?

Answer 2

8 of the 10 messages currently in the Junk folder say "This message was identified as junk" at the top. 2 of those were forwarded.

2 of the 10 messages currently in the Junk folder instead say "This message was moved to the Junk Email folder based on an inbox rule" (which is correct, BTW). Neither of those was forwarded.

Answer 3

I suppose anything's possible, but I've never seen one real example of a rule working on a message that the junk filter sends to the Junk Email folder. The junk filter operates before any rules get a chance to run. Do the junk messages state at the top that they were placed there by the Microsoft junk filter? Mine do.

Answer 4

Thanks for the reply.

If the messages did not arrive in the Junk email folder, how did they end up there (and they are indeed spam, BTW)? Does some Junk mail detour to the Inbox before automatically moving to Junk? If so, that would be odd, and very different behavior than I've encountered with Gmail or Yahoo Mail.

Answer 5

Hi. I'm Brian and I'll try to help.

This forum is dedicated to problems with the new Outlook for Windows app. Problems with Outlook online at outlook.com are handled in a different forum.

You are correct. Rules work only on messages arriving in the Inbox. They do not work on messages arriving in the Junk Email folder. If the messages are reaching the other address because of the rule, then they did not arrive in the Junk Email folder.