Outlook & Email
Managing Junk Mail and Blocked Senders
This guide shows you how to mark unwanted emails as junk, block senders from emailing you again, and ensure legitimate emails are not incorrectly filtered in Outlook.
Time needed
5 minutes
Platform
Microsoft 365
Guide steps
3 clear sections
Before you begin
You are signed in to Outlook on the web or the desktop app.
Follow along
Step-by-step guide
Mark an email as junk
- Instruction 1: In Outlook on the web: right-click the email and select Mark as junk. The email moves to the Junk Email folder and the sender is reported to Microsoft's filters.
- Instruction 2: In Outlook desktop: right-click the email, click Junk, then click Block Sender or Mark as Junk.
- Instruction 3: Use 'Mark as junk' for newsletters and spam. Use the Report button (if available) to report genuine phishing attempts — see the 'Recognizing and Reporting Phishing Emails' guide.
Action map
Mark an email as junk
- 01
In Outlook on the web: right-click the email and select Mark as junk. The email moves to…
- 02
In Outlook desktop: right-click the email, click Junk, then click Block Sender or Mark…
- 03
Use 'Mark as junk' for newsletters and spam. Use the Report button (if available) to…
Visual guide
Use this visual action map alongside the written instructions above.
Open Outlook help & learning for Managing Junk Mail and Blocked SendersBlock a specific sender
- Instruction 1: In Outlook on the web: right-click the email from the sender you want to block, then click Block.
- Instruction 2: Confirm by clicking Block in the pop-up. Future emails from that address will go directly to Junk Email.
- Instruction 3: In Outlook desktop: right-click the email, click Junk, then click Block Sender. Future emails from that address are moved to Junk.
Add a sender to the safe senders list
- Instruction 1: If a legitimate email has been incorrectly moved to your Junk folder, right-click it and select Not junk (web) or Junk > Not Junk (desktop).
- Instruction 2: Tick Always trust email from this sender to add them to your safe senders list so their future emails go to your Inbox.
- Instruction 3: To manage your full safe senders and blocked senders list: in Outlook on the web, go to Settings > View all Outlook settings > Mail > Junk email. Here you can add or remove addresses from both lists.
Quick fixes
Troubleshooting
Legitimate emails from a known contact keep going to junk
Add the sender to your safe senders list as described in Step 3. If the problem continues, your organisation's email security filter (not just Outlook's junk filter) may be blocking the sender. Contact the helpdesk to have the sender whitelisted at the tenant level.
I am still receiving emails from a blocked sender
Spammers frequently change sending addresses. Blocking one address does not stop them from using a different one. Consider blocking the entire domain (e.g. @spammerdomain.com) — in Outlook on the web go to Settings > Junk email and add the domain to the blocked list.
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