Tech Topic: Check the Outlook Junk Folder

Date: March 15, 2010

To: UCOP Community
From: Tara Brant, Manager, Technology Service Desk

Have you ever expected an e-mail message but didn’t get it? Perhaps a UCOP announcement? Sometimes legitimate e-mail ends up in the Junk E-mail folder.

What To Do

— Check your Junk E-mail folder periodically! If you see a message that isn’t junk,

• Right click on the message
• Select Junk E-mail
• Click on Add Sender to Safe Senders List
• Messages from that sender will now go to your Inbox

— Check your Deleted Items folder too, just in case...

Summary of Spam Filtering

UCOP uses two levels of spam filtering:

• At the server level when e-mail arrives at UCOP. Tumbleweed, our server-level spam filter, labels suspected spam as junk and diverts it from your Inbox. Tumbleweed forwards all other e-mail to your Inbox, both legitimate e-mail and messages it has labeled as “bulk,” which are items sent to a large number of people. You can “train” Tumbleweed to classify messages to your specifications. See Basic Steps for Managing the Spam Report, a report e-mailed to you from mailadmins@ucop.edu that lists all messages Tumbleweed has filtered.
• Within Outlook. At the desktop level, Outlook filters the external e-mail sent by Tumbleweed to the Inbox, or internal e-mail that comes directly from UCOP addresses. The TechDesk cannot control the Outlook spam filter, which occasionally and inexplicably directs e-mail from UCOP senders to Junk. So again, it’s important to check your Junk folder!

If you have questions, please contact the TechDesk at 987-0450 or TechDesk@ucop.edu.