Emails to a mailbox are missing because spam auto-delete is enabled
Description
If emails sent to a mailbox are not appearing, the cause may not be a delivery failure. In this case, messages were being received successfully, but the mailbox was configured to automatically delete messages identified as spam. This can make it appear that incoming mail has stopped working.
Symptoms
- Mails are no longer being receiving to specific mailboxes. However, test messages sent from an external provider are delivered successfully when checked in webmail, confirming that the mailbox itself is still receiving mail.
- Messages sent to an email address do not deliver in inbox or spam folder even after getting a successful message that it got sent.
Solution
- Log in to the hosting control panel and navigate to spam Filter settings on your cPanel or Email Filter for Specific mailbox filter
- Check whether an automatic spam deletion option is enabled, such as automatically deleting new spam above a set score.
- Disable automatic deletion so suspected spam is moved to the Junk or Spam folder instead of being permanently removed.
- Send a test email from an external email address and confirm whether it arrives in webmail.
- If the message appears in webmail but not in the user’s mail application, review the mail client settings and correct them if needed.
- Use the correct mail server details provided by your hosting service for IMAP and SMTP access.
- If you are unsure where to check these settings, contact Jolt support via www.jolt.co.uk/support/.
Example of Autodelete disabled on Spam Filter Setting
Example Mailbox Email Filter that Discards/Delete received messages that meet spam score 5 and above
NB: Where mail client settings need to be reviewed, confirm the incoming and outgoing server name, full email address as the username, the mailbox password, and the correct secure IMAP and SMTP ports.