I had a friend tell me that all of my emails to her went straight into spam too. She swears she never marked them as junk, but I still think that's the most likely solution.

Have you tried right clicking on the email while it's still in the spam mailbox and marking it as "not spam?"

Yes, Ally De. I marked them 'not spam' and moved them to my inbox. When I was dealing with just the one friend, I looked over my contact info for him to make sure there was nothing weird about it, I looked at the emails that went to spam and there was nothing weird about them -- they contained no links or certainly not suspect links, they contained no content other than text, and there was nothing suspect in the content of the email messages. We exchanged many emails to try to see what caused one to go to spam, but nothing did.

So weird! Well, it's the same thing my friend reported was happening on her end too. I don't know if that's any consolation - but apparently you aren't alone. :)

Which internet provider do you use?

Is it different from the people emailing you?

Actually, it is good to know I'm not alone. :)

carolb, my first friend and I have the same internet provider. This other friend and my sister are both in different states from me and each other, and I am certain that my sister uses a different provider from me. I suspect the friend uses a different provider from us all.

Look at the subject line. Stuff like "Important information..." may be perfectly legit, but it's classic spam stuff. It's difficult to whitelist all the possibilities without letting lots of spam in.

Here’s one thing I found that might be helpful. I know you don’t care about the in-depth stuff, but maybe the tester could highlight an issue.

Use an online mail tester. Before you hit send, use an online mail tester or email spam checker. This will highlight issues that could get your email categorized as spam. Services like Mail-Tester, Mailgenius, or Glockapps can be invaluable for this, offering everything from quick spam score evaluations to in-depth analytics and sender reputation assessments.

Bunny, we checked for "baiting" kind of phrases like that, but there were none. I do think the content of the emails is triggering some filter to think they're spam. Actually, I just now remembered that I also found two emails in spam several months ago that were from businesses I regularly order from. One of those emails was an order confirmation. :p

Fun2BHere, that's a brilliant idea! I never thought about email spam checkers even existing. lol!

Thanks, everyone, for the comments and help! I suspect it's something I'll have to just live with and I need to try to remember to check my spam folder every now and then.

party music does your friend email you from a computer or from a phone? Do you read emails on a computer or on a phone? I have one niece who emails from her iphone to my DH but he never gets them - not in spam or anywhere. He uses hotmail. I use both hotmail and gmail for different purposes and she can send the same email to me and I will get it in both of my providers.

For certain things, iphone and android do not play well together but I'm not sure what the answer is for your email problems. As a family we have switched to Signal for texting so that all photos and videos will work for our mix of iphones and android.

I'd make sure you have your email service up to date with the latest version or whatever they call it. Long ago I had a Yahoo account for one specific group but never used it much and not for many - 15? - years. I will still occasionally get an email from the to the account I used as a recovery email.

I think it's a good practice to give your spam folder a once-over at least daily, maybe more if you're expecting something important. Sometimes one or two emails from the same person come through okay and the third goes to spam. It's not always clear why it's so, but I often see a word or two in the subject line that are innocuous in context, but trigger something.

FWIW, I check my junk folder on Hotmail daily, and empty it afterward. I often get work emails in there, and confirmation emails too since they can come from a varying number of different addresses that are not in my address book. Hotmail seems very good at remembering which are marked as safe too.

I only rarely look at my gmail junk folder, tho. I use that address mainly for personal emails, and when I have looked through it, there's never anything important.

DLM2000, I'm fairly certain that friend #1 uses his phone for email, and it's more complicated because he owns his own business and domain, including email domain. I tend to use either a desktop computer or my ipad for yahoo email access, though I do use my phone for access on rare occasions. If he uses his phone, and I use my computer or ipad, then there's a chance we're using different internet providers for that access, but I don't see why that would matter.

An operating system incompatibility is possible, I suppose. I use apple products (ipad/iphone), and my computer runs linux, and friend #1 and my sister both use android phones for most of their access.

I think my yahoo email is up to date, but I will check!

Thank you, all!

That reminded me that I often have trouble sending emails from my phone to myself - esp. with gmail. I use a Mac desktop, and Android phones. Sometimes they go through, and sometimes they just seem to vanish.

I've been having a similar problem with my Yahoo account, with emails from both my husband and a longtime friend. They often end up in my Spam folder or they never even arrive. One usually emails from laptop, the other from iphone. Haven't figured out a solution yet.

Sorry to hear you're having unexplained problems too, Bluebell! Not getting the email at all *could* be because it never actually got sent. Have the person check their mail Outbox, or whatever it's called. For some reason, when I send email from my iphone, an occasional email will get stuck in the outgoing mailbox. I'm never given a reason why it wasn't sent, and if I hit send again it always goes through smoothly. No idea why that happens!

Bunny and carolb, I'm adding "check spam folder" to my 'to do' list. :)

Can you mark that person as VIP? I think that would keep them out of spam. Can't remember if thats an option withYahoo.

Interesting, I have a yahoo mail account, but I've never used it, other than for my Flickr account. I just checked it, and this is what is recommended to keep wanted emails out of the spam folder - is this what you did?

Mark emails as Not Spam

1. Open the Spam folder. If you don't see the "Spam" folder, click More below the "Sent" folder.
2. Select the email.
3. Click Not spam to move the message into your inbox, and future messages from this sender will be delivered to the inbox.

That's basically how my Hotmail works too.

Party, my husband and I have experimented a lot trying to figure this out and I have verified with my own eyes the messages in his Sent folder. After 25+ years, I’m about ready to abandon that account. Thanks for the suggestion!

dedtired, I don't see a way to make anyone a VIP in yahoo or via my contacts.

carolb, that's how I've been handling it. Repeatedly. :p It's frustrating to now see additional contacts' emails going to spam. BUT, my new habit is to check my inbox, followed by checking spam/junk box and deleting whatever I find. :O)

bluebell, I hope you do figure out why those emails get lost in the ether! worst case, if it's not delivered it should bounce back to you within a few days, so it almost sounds like somebody's mail server isn't configured right.

cyn427, I tried that repeatedly and my first friend's emails would still occasionally go to spam. It's just too weird. Especially when it's just one email in the middle of a long exchange! lol!