How to Make Emails Stop Going to Junk: iPhone & iPad Mail

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Keep your most important messages out of the spam folder

Written by Nicole Levine, MFA

Last Updated: October 15, 2025 Fact Checked

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• Marking Emails as Not Junk
|
• Adding Senders to Contacts
|
• Tips

|Show more |Show less

Are you tired of finding important email messages in your iPhone's Junk folder? While the Mail app on your iPhone or iPad is great at keeping spam out of your inbox, sometimes it moves the wrong messages to Junk. Fortunately, you can restore those messages or add trusted senders to Contacts to prevent emails from the same sender from being flagged as spam in the future. This wikiHow article will teach you how to stop emails from going to the Spam or Junk folder on your iPhone or iPad by flagging them as "Not Junk."

How to Stop Emails Going to Junk on iPhone

While you can't turn off spam filtering on your iPhone, you can teach the Mail app to stop flagging important emails as junk. Go to your mailboxes, tap Junk, tap a message to restore, then select Inbox. The Mail app will flag the email as Not Junk, and future emails from the sender will arrive in your inbox.

Steps

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

Marking Emails as Not Junk

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1. 
   1
   Open the Mail app and tap the left-pointing arrow. It’s at the top-left corner of Mail. This opens the Mailboxes menu.

   • There is no way to disable the junk filter on your iPhone. The only surefire way to prevent certain messages from being categorized as spam is to move the messages back to your inbox, which marks them as "Not Junk."
   • If this method isn't working for you, you can also try adding trusted senders to your contacts.
2. 
   2
   Tap the Junk folder. It’s the icon of a mail bin with an “X” inside.
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3. 
   3
   Tap a message incorrectly marked as junk. Icons will appear at the bottom of the screen.
4. 
   4
   Tap the folder icon. It’s the second icon from the left at the bottom of the screen. This opens the "Move this message to a new mailbox" menu, which displays a list of folders.
5. 
   5
   Tap Inbox. This moves the selected message to the Inbox. Future emails sent by the same email address should now arrive in your Inbox rather than the Junk folder.

   • This will only affect emails from the same exact email address. If a sender changes their email address (even if it's from the same domain name), their future messages may be flagged as spam again.
   • You may have to repeat this process a few times to prevent the Mail app from miscategorizing a sender as a spammer.
   • If a sender's messages keep showing up in your Junk folder, try adding their email address to your contacts. If that doesn't help, contact iCloud support at . Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Start now under "Get Support."
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Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

Adding Senders to Contacts

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1. 
   1
   Open an email from someone whose messages get categorized as junk. While Apple doesn't list this trick as an official way to keep important messages out of your inbox, it's a popular method for all email services.
2. 
   2
   Tap the sender's name or email address. At the top of the message, you'll see the sender's name or email address. Tapping it opens the email headers, which show who the message comes from and is addressed to.
3. 
   3
   Tap the sender's name again and select View Contact Card. Now, when you tap the sender's name, a menu will expand–tapping View Contact Card opens a window that allows you to add this person as a contact.

   • You can also add contacts in the Contacts app.
4. 
   4
   Tap Create New Contact. Alternatively, if you already have this person in your phone contacts, tap Add to Existing Contact, then select a contact.
5. 
   5
   Name and save the contact. Fill out as much info as you'd like, then tap the checkmark at the top-right corner to save the new contact. Once the email address is added to your contacts, the iPhone Mail app will be less likely to filter that person's messages to Junk.
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Tips

• You can also mark messages as Not Junk when signed in to iCloud.com on your computer. Just open the Mail app on the iCloud website, open the email in the Junk folder, and then click Not Junk at the top.
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• Use our guide to spotting and reporting spam texts to stop scammers in their tracks.
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