Microsoft Outlook is known for offering excellent protection from spam emails. However, sometimes emails that you receive from the trusted senders are considered as spam by Outlook and are moved to the ‘Junk E-mail’ folder. This issue can occur with those emails marked as having a Spam Confidence Level (SCL) value of -1 in Microsoft Exchange Server.
Causes:
This problem usually occurs when Outlook is unable to determine whether a secure connection is used or not. This may happen when any of the following conditions are true.
- You are not using Outlook Anywhere to connect to the Microsoft Exchange.
- Encryption is disabled between Exchange and Outlook.
When Outlook is not able to verify whether the email was delivered through a secure connection, it ignores the SCL value of -1 and considers the email as if it had an SCL value of 0, i.e., Spam.
Solution:
To fix, you will need to determine that Outlook is set up to use Outlook Anywhere (RPC over HTTPS). Once determined the status, follow the steps provided below according to your findings.
When Using Outlook Anywhere:
If you are using Outlook Anywhere, you will need to install the appropriate Microsoft Outlook Hotfix.
For Outlook 2010:
To install the hotfix for Outlook 2010, go to the link https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/hotfix/kbhotfix?kbnum=2863918&kbln=en-US and follow the onscreen instructions to complete the installation process.
For Outlook 2013:
To install the hotfix for Outlook 2010, go to the link https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/hotfix/kbhotfix?kbnum=2878323&kbln=en-US and follow the onscreen instructions to complete the installation process.
Once the installation process is done, Outlook will start considering Outlook Anywhere to be a secure connection for the processing of Junk emails.
NOTE: Outlook Anywhere is also referred to as RPC over HTTPS (Secure HTTP). As HTTPS itself is an indication, Outlook Anywhere connects to Exchange through SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) connection.
When Not Using Outlook Anywhere:
If you are unable to install the latest version of Outlook 2010 or Outlook 2013 and you are not even using Outlook Anywhere, you can fix this issue if your Mailbox is set up on Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 or a previous version.
To resolve this problem, you will need to try activating RPC encryption between Exchange and Outlook. For this, follow the step-by-step instructions provided hereinbelow.
- On your computer, go to the Control Panel window and open the Mail item.
- Click on the Show Profiles option and select your profile. Once you have selected your profile, click on the Properties option.
- Next, click on the E-mail Accounts and select Microsoft Exchange Server account.
- Then, click on the Change option and select More Settings option under the dialog box which contains your mail server and username.
- After that, go to the Security tab in the Microsoft Exchange Server and select the option – “Encrypt data between Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange”. Then, click OK.
NOTE: If the checkbox is unavailable, you are most probably connected to Microsoft Exchange Server 2013, or you might be using a mailbox in Office 365. In this case, you will not be able to enable RPC encryption. Remember that Outlook Anywhere connections are protected as they are encrypted through Secure HTTP (HTTPS).
- After clicking OK (in step 5), click on the Next and then on the Finish button.
- Finally, select Close and then OK option to complete the process.
And this is how you can prevent your trusted emails from going to Junk in Microsoft Outlook. If you are not able to do this on your own, you can simply dial MS Outlook customer service helpline number to get instant solution to junk email issue.