[Fix] Gmail Marks Your Important Emails as Spam

A few days ago I noticed that many of my important emails were not coming in my email account. Most of those missing emails were sent from my blog server including email notifications of new comments, services status, etc.

Actually I use Windows Live Mail desktop email client to access my email accounts and it was not receiving many important emails in one of my Gmail accounts.

When I logged into my Gmail account using web browser, I found that all those important emails were automatically marked as spam by Gmail. It was surprising because those emails were legitimate and didn’t contain any suspicious thing such as any attachments or links, etc.

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I investigated and found that it has happened with many Gmail users and the best way to prevent this situation is to create a filter in your Gmail account.

So if you are also facing this problem, if Gmail is automatically marking your company, website or other important emails as spam, then this tutorial will help you in stopping Gmail from moving your legitimate emails to spam folder.

You can follow these simple steps to prevent Gmail from marking a particular email ID or a whole domain as spam:

METHOD 1: Mark Emails as Not Spam

First of all try to mark that email as Not Spam. Open the email or select the email which has been incorrectly marked as spam by Gmail and click on “Not spam” button.

Mark_Gmail_Message_Not_Spam.png

The email will be moved to your Inbox and Gmail will remember your decision. If Gmail again marks future emails from the same email ID or domain as spam, repeat the steps again. Repeating it a few times will teach Gmail that the emails are important and should not be marked as spam.

METHOD 2: Add Email IDs to Contacts List

You can also try to add that email ID to your contacts list.

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1. Click on Gmail logo and select “Contacts” option.

Open_Gmail_Contacts_Page.png

2. Now click on Add contact button and enter desired email ID. At last click on “Add” button.

Add_New_Gmail_Contact.png

Now Gmail should not mark future emails from that email ID as spam.

METHOD 3: Create Filters for Email IDs or Domains

If Gmail consistently marks legitimate emails as spam, you’ll need to create a filter so that Gmail never sends those emails to spam folder.

You can create filters in 2 ways:

A. Create Filter for a Selected Email:

1. Select an email and click on “More -> Filter messages like these” option.

Filter_Gmail_Selected_Message.png

2. It’ll open a drop-down box in searchbox containing the email ID in “From” field. Click on “Create filter with this search” link given at the bottom-right corner of drop-down box.

Create_Gmail_Filter_for_Email_ID.png

3. Now enable “Never send it to Spam” checkbox and click on “Create filter” button.

Never_Mark_Gmail_Messages_Spam.png

That’s it. Now Gmail will never mark any email from that particular email ID as spam.

B. Create Filter Manually for an Email ID or Whole Domain:

1. Click on the small down arrow icon present at the end of Gmail searchbox. It’ll open the same drop-down box.

2. Now enter any desired email ID or domain name such as askvg.com in “From” field and click on “Create filter with this search” link given at the bottom-right corner of drop-down box.

Create_Gmail_Filter_for_Domain.png

3. Now enable “Never send it to Spam” checkbox and click on “Create filter” button.

That’s it. Now Gmail will never send any future email from that email ID or domain to spam folder.

Published in: Mobiles and Internet, Troubleshooting Guides

About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.

Comments

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  1. Thank you so much. It was too much frustrating. Gmail was moving my office emails to spam but now everything is ok. 😀

  2. Hi. I’m a Windows 7 user and have a lot of programs installed on my pc. The task bar is too small to display all their shortcuts. That’s why I made a Quick Launch tab, the way you explained in an older article. Question: is there a possibility of creating more than one Quick Launch tab? If so, can I rename them? Because I want to sort the shortcuts according to their functionality.

  3. ^^ Why not. You can create new folders and put desired shortcuts into that folder, then create new toolbars pointing to those folders.

  4. Thank you. I made exactly what you said, but I wasn’t too excited about the result, and I gave it up. Unfortunately, I can’t find anymore the Quick Launch button, it disappeared. Do you know how to put it back?

  5. Hi Vishal
    I wanted to ask you a question…
    I am using windows 7 and it runs veryy….slow
    Please give me some tips to increase its speed.
    One more question that i had was..can i restore my pc to its default state..
    Note: I don’t have any built in recovery partition…or OS CD

  6. Fine. Now what the hell happened to those ‘spammed’ emails I marked “NOT SPAM?”

    They evaporated ….. and gmail is oblivious to the NEED for an UNDO that has more than a one second wait or more than one use …..

    CRFC

  7. I marked several messages as “not spam” that were in my spam folder. They never showed up in my in box.

  8. I had the same problem and tried all three solutions. None of them worked. I have to check my spam folder regularly. Gmail is adding more and more legitimate emails to my spam folder.
    It’s disappointing that this cannot be resolved.

  9. Gmail is without doubt the worst it has ever been my misfortune to use.

    None of the fixes actually work.

  10. I have the REVERSE happening to me, not only with gmail, but ALL my email providers, even AOL. For some insane reason 99.9% of all emails I am sending (legitimate) jobs, etc, are not being sent! I have trackers on all my emails and they are not even read. I can see them being read, but they are not. My GF (same IP) has the exact issue. She is sending emails and they are not received. ANY HELP?

    t

  11. none of these worked for me gmail still sends every email to spam. tried this for the last 2 3 weeks doesn’t fix it. can’t call or email or live chat google no wonder why because they would have so many calls perday it be impossible to keep up.

  12. I have done ll you have suggested and gmail ignores it and still sends to spam I give up, somebody please blow up Google headquarters

  13. I tried the Never Send to Spam option and it started sending things straight to my trash folder. I won something on ebay and never knew, my children had to be at an event by a certain time that I missed, and lost a few more important messages. I’m glad I happened to catch that error before more was lost. I just had to delete all my filters and am needing to check both folders (Inbox and Spam) regularly for messages since nothing else is working. They need a filter option that says to send directly to Inbox.

  14. Hi, tried all your tips, none worked.
    Gmail still sends filtered messages to spam. They are the pits.

  15. I have using you suggestions and still get my children and friends in the Spam folder. This Google Mail Problem is similar to them abandoning Picasa and providing a a hard to use Google Photos. Can you suggest a good solid working e mail site. I would like to use Win 7 with windows live mail, I like that format. Thanks, Art G

  16. Gmail is suddenly sending legitimate mail to SPAM
    The legitimate email messages I send or copy to myself are being MOVED by Gmail automatically from INBOX and ALL LABELLED FOLDERS to the SPAM Folder.
    This problem started on 6 July 2017 on a Computer when I visited Poland Krakow in first week of July. It persists even after I have returned to Paris.
    I have tried everything including Filters, Clicking Not Spam, Adding Contact.
    (1) Clicked NOT SPAM in the SPAM folder. The emails initially moved to INBOX but returned to SPAM folder within minutes.
    (2) Checked and Confirmed that my email address is added to my own CONTACTS list. he emails initially moved to INBOX but returned to SPAM folder within minutes.
    (3) Created NEVER SEND TO SPAM” FILTER. The emails initially moved to INBOX but returned to SPAM folder within minutes.
    (4) The FILTERS are applied that would mean the filter is “seeing” them, but something else is putting them in spam (overriding the filter).
    Kindly help me solve this issue.
    Best regards,
    Sajid

  17. Thank you for your tips but it hasn’t stopped gmail from sending email to spam even though the sender is in my contacts, I have repeatedly marked the emails as “not spam”, and have created filters “never send to spam”. In fact when go into my spam folder and click “not spam”, it goes to my in box but after a few minutes, it reapears in my spam folder. Thanks,
    Steven

  18. I’ve tried these settings and my bank emails are still getting their subject prefixed as “[SUSPECTED SPAM] “.

    1. I’ve told gmail “NOT SPAM” (some time ago).
    2. I’ve added a contact with the email address (“noreply@mybank….”).
    3. Created the filter – actually had it for ages, and it is being actioned because it is applying the label & categorising each email as”Primary”.

    Grrhhh!!

  19. Tried all of these fixes and still didn’t work. Gmail still directing wanted emails to Spam folder.

  20. Since Februari 2019 mails from my email adress sent to an Gmail account comes there in the Spam folder. Gmail says “because the email adress doesnt meet there requirements”, whatever that may be.
    I use this email adress for many years without problems before.
    What can I do as owner of this private email adress that my mails will reach gmail users in their inbox.
    Will gmail correct this bug? I never send spam.

  21. I have 1 contact that keeps going to spam. I have set up the filter to say please do not send this contact to spam. The contact is in my contacts list. And STILL!!! It sends it to spam. Anyone else have this problem?

  22. I’ve followed all the steps above, yet I still have a few users whose old messages get sent back to SPAM by Gmail within a minute or two. I can see them disappearing from the inbox in real time. What is special about these senders? Could they have been accidentally blocked at some point?

    What else can I try?

  23. I have tried all of the suggestions provided. Made filters, removed the spam label from emails. The I have marked as important and clicked “not spam.” Sometimes the emails stay out of spam a few hours, then other times it is a few minutes before everything ends back in spam. Hundreds of emails are moved daily out spam, then they are moved back again.

  24. Gmail is sending mail to Spam. I have tried all of the ideas suggested in this article but I am unable to keep these messages from going to SPAM. Do you have any other suggestions?

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