Almost everyone has experienced the frustration of junk or spam emails filling up their inbox. While there are a few measures, you can take to try and prevent them from arriving in the first place, what if you want to delete them automatically as soon as they show up?
This article will explain how to do just that in Outlook, Gmail, Hotmail, iCloud.
But first
What is Spam mail?
Spam mail is an unsolicited email that is sent to a large number of people. It usually contains advertising content and is often sent by spammers.
So, if you’re using Outlook, Gmail, Hotmail, or iCloud, you can take specific measures to prevent junk mail from arriving to your mailbox in the first place.
How to Automatically Delete Spam or Junk Emails in Outlook?
So, we heard that you’re tired of your Outlook email service provider pilling up with junk/ spam messages.
Well, that’s about to stop now since we’re going to show you two methods on how to delete these annoying messages automatically.
Method 1: Instead of filing suspected junk email in the Junk Email folder – automatically delete it!
You can get rid off of every junk email for good rather than regularly moving them to the Junk folder.
Here’s how you can do that:
- First, click on the Home button (up at the top, next to File). Then, look for Junk (a small red circle with a diagonal line thru).
- When clicking on Junk from the drop-down menu, select Junk E-mail Options.
- In the Junk E-mail Options dialog box, select Permanently delete suspected junk email > press OK.
All done! Whenever a junk/ spam email comes in, Outlook will automatically delete delete them.
Method 2: Use the Auto Archive function to remove spam/ junk emails automatically.
You might not have heard of this handy Outlook function – but you’re about to witness how efficient it can be to you.
Let’s follow these steps:
- Locate the Junk Email folder > Right-click on it.
- The right-click shows a drop-down menu; in it, search for Properties (at the bottom of the menu).
- The next move is in the Junk Email Properties box to click on AutoArchive.
- Next, click on Archive this folder using these settings feature.
- Right underneath this feature, you’ll notice the Clean out items older than option. Here you need to enter specific months/ weeks/ days.
- Afterward, click on Permanently delete old items.
- To apply the above settings, click OK or Apply.
- Since all settings so far are applied, the next thing to do is click File > Info. In the right pane, find Cleanup Tools and then Archive.
- Inside the Archive box, click on Archive all folders according to their AutoArchive settings feature.
- To wrap it up, click OK.
NOTICE: You need to revise this option manually – every time you delete Junk mail.
By applying this method, you can rest assured that all spam emails older than the specified months, weeks, or days (you’ve entered) will be deleted from your Junk Email folder.
How To Automatically Delete Spam or Junk Emails in Gmail?
Do junk spam emails tend to clog up your inbox on Gmail?
We understand that this can be a major annoyance. Fortunately, there are ways to delete them automatically as soon as they show up.
Here’s one of the most straightforward ways to achieve this:
- Type in Gmail on your most used browser > Open it > and Log into your Gmail account.
- Click on the Gear Icon.
- Select Settings from the menu that appears.
- In the Settings window, select Filters and Blocked Addresses from the tab at the top of the page.
- Click on Create a new filter.
- In the pop-up window, enter Junk, or you can also enter ‘is:spam’ (without the quotes) in the Has the words field and click Create filter with this search.
Note: You instantly get a filter for all spam-tagged emails once you do this.
7. After creating the filter, the next thing to do is to set the action that deletes whichever email comes categorized as spam — checkmark Delete it.
The next thing to do is to archive the spam emails automatically. You can do this by selecting the first function – Skip the Inbox (Archive it).
Congrats! Now you’re free of spam/ junk emails while using Gmail.
This is just one more indicator of why Gmail is among the most widely used email service providers globally. It offers various valuable customization (creating folders, setting up actions, filtering, etc.) that let you adjust your email according to your preferences.
How to Automatically Delete Spam or Junk Emails in Hotmail?
Do you remember Hotmail? Though, now all of the Hotmail accounts are under Outlook.
And we’re sure that many of you are still using it — after all, this email provider was one of the first worldwide to offer its messaging services to us.
Now, let us help you efficiently solve the spam/ junk email problem you face when using Hotmail.
Follow these next steps:
- Sign into your Hotmail account. Or, just use your Hotmail’s sign-in info but log in via Outlook.
- Now, click on the Gear Icon in the top right corner of your screen.
- From the drop-down menu at the very bottom, you’ll find View all Outlook settings – click it.
- The following window will grant you access to many options. Look for Junk email and click on it.
- You won’t find a direct feature that just turns OFF spam/ junk mail. Instead, you can choose to move specific email addresses to the Blocked senders and domains list or add some to the Safe senders and domains list.
- To add an email to either of the two lists we mentioned, just click on the + Add button (as shown in the picture above) > click the Enter button.
- At the very bottom of this window under Filters, you’ll encounter two options:
Note: Checkmarking the boxes (from the above picture) will help you wrap up the prevention process of unwanted emails, i.e., junk/ spam from entering your Hotmail inbox.
How To Automatically Delete Spam or Junk Emails in iCloud?
One of the best things about iCloud is that it offers a built-in junk mail filter that deletes spam emails automatically.
To enable the Junk mail filter, follow these next steps:
- Go to Settings > Mail > Accounts.
- Choose your iCloud account and find Filters > click on Rules.
- From here, you’ll need to click on Add a Rule.
- Enter a description for the rule, such as ‘Delete junk mail.’
- Under ‘If,’ select Any Recipient (just like in the picture above).
- Then, find ‘Contains,’ and enter ‘@icloud.com’ (without quotes).
- Under ‘Do,’ select Delete Message.
- Click on Done.
Now, any email sent to your iCloud account with ‘@icloud.com’ – or anything you’ve entered in the recipient field will be automatically deleted.
Tip: The junk mail filter is not perfect, and some legitimate emails may be marked as junk mail and deleted. You can always retrieve the email from the Trash folder (if this happens).
Another way to delete junk mail is by following these steps:
- Find Mail and look for your iCloud account > open it.
- Here, click on the Settings icon (
), located at the top of the Mailboxes list.
- Now, go to Junk folder > afterward click on Empty Junk, and then again press/ click on Empty Junk.
There you have it! Now you’ve managed to delete your junk mail all at once.
Causes: Why Does Emails Go to Spam/ Junk Folder?
Almost everyone has experienced the frustration of sending an email only to have it end up in someone’s spam or junk folder. But, do you ever wonder why does it happen? What are the email triggers that cause this?
While there are many potential reasons why this might happen, here are some of the most common ones:
- Images and Attachments: The email content has too many images or other attachments, unlike regular emails.
- Spam Trigger words: congrats/ congratulations, guarantee, winner, cancel at any time, etc. All these are considered spam triggers.
Hence, the chances are that an email with such content ends up in the spam/ junk folder instead of the primary inbox.
- No address: The lack of a physical address in an email is a red flag for any email service provider.
-
- The Reputation of the Sender’s Domain: ISP rates each IP address. Therefore, if an email from a specific domain/ address has been tagged as spam previously or for any unpermitted activity, a virus too, will be sent straight to junk/ spam.
- Links in the Email: Adding links in your email content (that might be infected or suspicious) identified by the system will undoubtedly categorize your email as spam mail.
- Message Interaction: ISP (again) takes care of this too. Moreover, they are familiarized with how you interact when writing/ sending messages or what kind of messages you accept and those you reject/ delete.
So, they have some idea whether you wrote a specific message or whether to ‘permit’ for a particular email to be delivered to your inbox.
- No Proper Authentication: This is one of the biggest issues for the existence of spam mail. Luckily, there are tools to help solve this:
- SPF, or Sender Policy Framework.
- DKIM, or DomainKey Identified Mail.
Using these will prove that it is YOU who’s indeed using the address/domain, i.e., that your domain is genuine.
- Poor Grammar and Bad Spelling: Poorly written emails and wrong spelling of words can act as an alert for the email to be marked as spam. Therefore, check twice before sending out an email.
How Long do Emails Stay in Junk?
So, what happens if you haven’t manually delete it your junk and spam mail? Or, if you haven’t set up an auto-deletion for the same?
Emails generally stay in junk for a period of time determined by the email service provider. Therefore, don’t freak out — junk/ spam emails have an “expiration date.”
Let’s find out how different email service providers treat junk and spam messages when it comes to their “stay” in the mail box.
- Outlook – if you’ve found out that an urgent email went straight to your spam box – you better hurry up because you have only ten days to move it from there.
- Gmail – on the other hand, Gmail takes care of the junk messages after the expiration of thirty days by automatically deleting them.
- Hotmail – like Outlook, handles junk/ spam the same way. After just ten days, the junk emails will be deleted by the system.
- iCloud – However, iCloud acts just like Gmail does — as soon as thirty days pass, your junk mail gets deleted.
The Wrap Up
As you can read for yourselves – all of the email providers listed above offer some way to automatically delete junk or spam emails as soon as they arrive in your inbox. Furthermore, we took the liberty to show you how to do this in Outlook, Gmail, Hotmail, and iCloud.
If you follow the instructions as mentioned above, you can rest assured that junk or spam emails will be taken care of with little to no effort on your part.
