. While the main reason for this problem is typically related to the user’s email behavior, it’s clear that Outlook is among the most commonly targeted providers.

—provided that Outlook’s spam detection identifies them properly. If you are having trouble finding the folder, 

You’ll also learn about the features of the Outlook spam folder

 and ways to minimize unwanted mail. If spam has become overwhelming, this article will also provide a secure 

Skiff Mail provides top-tier spam protection alongside powerful privacy features, ensuring a clean and secure inbox

Optimize your email experience with Skiff

Many people struggle to find Outlook’s spam folder because the provider uses a different name—Junk Email or simply Junk. Whether you’re using the desktop, browser, or mobile version, you’ll find it among other folders (Drafts, Sent Items, Scheduled, etc.).

location of the Junk folder in the desktop version

open the folder list by tapping your profile icon

 in the upper-left corner of the screen. You’ll see the Junk folder further down the list, as shown below:

When you open the folder, you’ll see all the emails that Outlook’s spam detection algorithm sorted automatically. 

, though, so spam might sometimes make its way to your main inbox, and legitimate emails might be categorized as spam.

Luckily, you can minimize this issue through a few

While you don’t have complete control over Outlook’s spam detection, you can mitigate errors by:

Blocking malicious senders and whitelisting legitimate ones

How to block and whitelist senders in Outlook

If spam emails are flooding your inbox, deleting them might not be enough to fix the issue—you want to ensure the sender can’t message you in the future. You can do this by 

Click the gear icon in the upper-right corner of the screen

Type in the address you want to block and press 

If Outlook mistakenly sends legitimate emails to spam, you can follow the same steps to 

You can also block a sender directly from their email

, which may be a more convenient option than adding them to a block list. Follow these steps to do so:

Click the three-dot icon in the upper-right corner of the email

While blocked senders can no longer message you, this doesn’t mean you’ll stop receiving spam from them altogether. 

Junk mail is typically sent using botnets

—large networks of devices controlled by an individual or small group of people. They might have many devices and 

separate addresses from which they send spam

, so block each whenever you receive junk mail.

, you’re signaling to Outlook’s spam detection that similar emails shouldn’t be allowed into your main inbox. Doing this improves the detection measures and should result in 

assume you’re reporting a phishing email

 by default. If this isn’t the case (e.g., the email is only a 

), you can click the down-facing arrow next to the button and choose 

This email classification begs an important question—how do you differentiate between phishing and regular spam? Doing so typically isn’t a problem, as 

Stay on the lookout for these red flags, and 

report all phishing attempts to improve Outlook’s detection algorithm

What to do if Outlook spam emails are overwhelming

 and free of unwanted messages, it may indicate that your email address has been added to multiple spammers’ databases. In this case, you should consider wiping the slate clean by 

. Spam emails are not only frustrating but potentially dangerous, and to avoid them, you need an email provider that implements

Unfortunately, Outlook hasn’t proven itself particularly reliable in this regard. Microsoft has fallen victim to 

, exposing users’ sensitive information to 

 that doesn’t leave room for such risks and lets you stay in control of your data. While some security features can make this happen, 

Several factors make E2EE the only truly secure email encryption method:

Emails are turned into unreadable ciphertext 

The only person who can decrypt the message is the 

they’d only see strings of random characters

 protocol and owns your encryption keys, compromising your 

. To ensure your correspondence remains confidential, 

Skiff Mail's advanced end-to-end encryption and robust spam protection keep your inbox secure and clutter-free

Enhance your email security with Skiff Mail

 that combines end-to-end encryption with various additional measures to keep your emails safe and 

. Its E2EE protocol involves the use of two separate keys:

—Used for encryption and shared with the recipient

—Used for decryption and safely stored on the recipient’s device

the decryption key never leaves the recipient’s device

, nobody but them can read your emails—including attackers, third parties, and even 

Your account and personal information are 

further safeguarded with the following features

, so anyone can enjoy peace of mind knowing their 

 from threats. The rich free plan encompasses everything an average user needs for a pleasant emailing experience, most notably:

If you’re a crypto enthusiast or investor, you can 

leverage Skiff Mail’s integration with numerous wallets

Skiff intuitively integrates all the above features into a

, and the codebase is publicly available.

, you get free access to three additional end-to-end encrypted platforms:

—Lets you create unlimited documents and keeps their contents and key metadata end-to-end encrypted

—Supports files of all types and offers optional integration with the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS)

—Automatically syncs with Skiff Mail and features a built-in video conferencing tool

, so your data stays protected wherever you are.

Outlook spam folder—Location and spam protection measures

Today, we’re announcing a complete redesign of the search experience across Skiff on the web, desktop, and mobile. With search filters, instant results, and an improved user experience, finding your emails, pages, and files has never been easier.

Searching through email content in an end-to-end encrypted email provider is no easy feat. Because Skiff does not have access to any user emails, all search queries have to be performed client-side. To make this possible, we’ve developed innovative search indexing algorithms that work in the browser, in Skiff’s Windows and macOS apps, and in our iOS and Android native apps.

Search on the web now features an inline search bar on top of your inbox that supports adding filters for email subject, content, date received, label, folder, and to/from. Adding filters enables you to see instant and precise search results across tens of thousands of emails.

Searching through email subjects and content inside the Skiff Mail mobile apps has been rebuilt from the ground up. Now, like Skiff Mail clients on the web, your device will create an index of emails locally - ensuring instant search results across to/from fields, email content, and email subjects, even while offline.

If you’ve been using the Skiff Mail mobile apps for a while, you may see an indexing progress indicator appear when you next open the app.

Skiff Pages and Drive also have new and improved search experiences. Now, in addition to searching title and content, see file paths displayed for all search results.

If you’re looking to learn more about how search works in Skiff, check out our technical blog post, “

” In it, we walk through why searching through end-to-end encrypted data is difficult and provide examples of products and search algorithms that index or search through encrypted data.

Even more features on Skiff’s paid plans

Looking to upgrade for personal, professional, or corporate use? Check out 

, which allow for additional custom domains, more workspace users, and extra storage space.

 communities - or write to us at support@skiff.org. We also keep feature requests on our 

 and recommend voting on your top choices.

Search reimagined in Skiff

 may be sufficient for casual everyday use, some users might find it too limiting. It lacks integration with other productivity tools like Notes and Calendar, and there’s no support for third-party tools and add-ons.

Email organization could also use some refining, most notably the platform’s approach to labels. 

You can only flag emails under different colors

 without the ability to set up custom labels.

 on the market to help you explore the available options and choose the best 

Coupled with powerful encryption, Skiff Mail integrates with Drive, Pages, and Calendar for a secure work environment

Get seamless communication and collaboration

Excluding personal preferences as a subjective factor that varies significantly among users, there are four universal attributes of an email client you should consider when browsing different options:

A poorly designed user interface can cause various bottlenecks and damage productivity. Your email client should ensure seamless correspondence by eliminating clutter and intuitively placing all the necessary functions.

features of a well-designed email client include

—Packing an email client with too many functions, accent colors, and commands makes it hard on the eyes, so your email client should feature a clean, simple interface

—You should have a clear overview of your inbox while composing an email so that you can reference specific threads when needed. 

 is an example of a platform that doesn’t do this well—when you’re composing a new email, it opens an immovable window that blocks your inbox

—Your email client should make it easy to compose emails and manage incoming mail by adapting the layout depending on your actions and highlighting the most relevant commands

As mentioned, Apple Mail isn’t the most robust solution when it comes to email management and organization. This may not be a problem if you only email occasionally, but frequent and advanced users need a rich set of organization tools.

should also take some of the organization off your plate

. For instance, it should automatically filter out 

spam, phishing, and other useless and potentially harmful emails

. Most email clients aren’t foolproof regarding spam detection, but you can still find a platform that minimizes the manual work necessary to remove unwanted mail.

Smart inboxes are another useful feature, the implementation of which can vary significantly between platforms. 

 that shows you the most important mail based on the sender and your correspondence history. 

automatically categorizes promotional and social emails

Due to the recent explosion of AI-powered solutions, some email clients have implemented machine learning to 

let users organize and manage their emails more easily

. The results have been somewhat mixed as the technology is still new, but you can experiment with such options to see if you’ll find them helpful.

Apple is well-known for its cohesive but closed ecosystem. Many Mac apps and platforms—including email clients—are exclusive to macOS and don’t support 

Opting for such an email client makes it hard to stay on top of your correspondence. You won’t always be near your laptop, so your email platform should offer cross-platform support to ensure you can 

see and respond to important emails on the go

The good news is that this criterion doesn’t significantly narrow your pool of options, as 

 offer at least a web app you can access from most devices

. Of course, having a dedicated app is still preferable, as mobile web apps might be inconvenient and hard to navigate.

Many Mac users stick to Apple Mail because it’s pre-built and 

. There are no premium versions that would keep essential functions behind a paywall, so you get most features an average user needs.

Luckily, you don’t need to invest in order to 

there are various options with rich free plans

. When comparing them, make sure the provider 

doesn’t charge for the most important features

assess the value for money that you get with each provider

, as it can vary significantly between different 

While email security largely depends on your provider, using a third-party client means more room for privacy invasion unless they’re committed to keeping your data confidential. Many email clients store your conversations and data on their 

your data into strings of unintelligible characters

. It should stay in this form while traveling between servers (encryption in transit) and being idle on them (encryption at rest).

While combining these two encryption types gives you 

. Typically, the provider creates and stores the keys, which means 

they can decrypt your data and read plaintext copies of emails

. As the name implies, this encryption method protects your emails all the way between you and the recipient. More importantly, 

encryption keys are created and stored on your device

, so even the email platform can’t see your messages.

Email clients offering this level of security are few and far between, but searching for privacy-first platforms should uncover some options worth exploring.

Skiff Mail uses the strongest encryption available and couples it with a myriad of neat features for personal or business use

Get an impenetrable email service

Three alternatives to Apple Mail you should consider

To shorten your search for the best alternative to Apple Mail, we’ve compiled a list of three top contenders:

Spark is considered one of the best email clients for Mac, as confirmed by its Apple Editors’ Choice award on the Mac App Store. It’s free to use and comes with various welcome features, most notably:

 that separates incoming mail into several categories (Personal, Seen, Notifications, etc.)

+AI Compose feature that lets you write, edit, and reply to emails

. This feature isn’t available with the free plan, though, so you’ll need to upgrade to a premium tier to use it.

 depending on whether you only need Spark for yourself or your team:

—$6.99/user per month (billed annually)

may only be worth it if you need advanced features

, such as the gatekeeper option that scans the email from a new sender to let you decide whether you want to engage with it or remove it immediately. This is more of a nice-to-have than something you’ll need, as 

you can make the same assessment without a dedicated feature

Spark is available on most Apple devices (including the Apple Watch), Android, and Windows. Unfortunately, 

, which might be an issue if your app crashes.

Canary Mail is another multi-platform email client with a well-optimized macOS version. It features a clean, modern design without much clutter, enabling a smooth emailing experience. It also comes with a few helpful organization features, most notably:

 that helps you keep your inbox neat more easily

 for staying on top of promotional correspondence

Canary Mail’s standout feature is Sidekick AI

, which performs several accommodating actions. Besides helping you compose an email, 

it can summarize a received message to give you the highlights

. It also prioritizes your incoming emails based on your prior behavior, helping you see all important messages.

The main downside of Sidekick AI is that 

only the composing feature is available with the free plan

. To unlock the other two, you must upgrade to the Pro plan, which costs $20 per year. Canary Mail also offers the

While Canary Mail uses end-to-end encryption, only the 

 users can access it. Besides, the platform uses the Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) protocol, which is 

You do get SecureSend with a free account, which Canary Mail claims is also a form of end-to-end encryption. 

This feature is in beta as of this writing

, though, so its effectiveness is yet to be determined.

Skiff Mail is a privacy-first email provider and a client offering users complete control over their data through end-to-end encryption. The platform uses two separate keys to keep each email confidential:

 that is safely stored on the user’s device

All emails are encrypted on your device before leaving it, so 

even Skiff’s team can’t access unencrypted copies

 without leaving any personal information

), thanks to the zero-knowledge login feature. Your login credentials are encrypted using the Secure Remote Password algorithm for additional security.

 and security measures, Skiff Mail offers various features that help you 

create a streamlined workflow in a safe online environment

Folders, labels, and filters for easy email organization

, you can use all of the above features regardless of your tech skills or knowledge.

, so the codebase is fully transparent and undergoes rigorous auditing. You can find Skiff’s cryptographic libraries on 

, so you can keep your correspondence safe wherever you are.

 if your device is already compromised by malware

, though the same goes for other email clients.

Alternative to Apple Mail—three options reviewed

 use Yahoo Mail, making the company a major industry player—despite the questionable security protocols associated with this email service. Like other industry giants, Yahoo sparks concerns regarding email privacy and data mining business practices.

you should learn how to encrypt emails in Yahoo and keep your online correspondence safe from prying eyes. 

What email encryption protocols are the most secure

Which encrypted Yahoo Mail alternative is the best

Skiff Mail leaves no room for vulnerability with its default end-to-end encryption

Get built-in email encryption

How to send an encrypted email in Yahoo Mail

Yahoo Mail doesn’t have a great track record regarding 

 and security. You cannot encrypt an email in Yahoo, at least not natively, through the platform.

Yahoo uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption

between you and the recipient's email server. Every email you send via Yahoo Mail has TLS enabled by default, so there are no additional steps—the encryption is applied automatically.

it won’t prevent unauthorized access when your messages are at rest on a server

. That kind of protection requires a stronger email encryption method.

What type of email encryption is the best?

Most email service providers use one of the following encryption protocols:

Compared to TLS, the S/MIME protocol ensures a higher level of security by encrypting the contents of the emails, which can only be accessed with a unique decryption key. If 

 gained access to an email server, they’d still need the key to read your messages.

Gmail, Outlook, and other mainstream email platforms provide S/MIME with higher-tier subscriptions. 

Unfortunately, this protocol requires installing a separate S/MIME certificate

—a complex and time-consuming process for the average email user.

S/MIME isn’t the most secure encryption protocol because 

the decryption keys are stored on the provider’s servers.

 If someone compromised these servers, they could decrypt your emails as well.

The most effective method of protecting your online correspondence is end-to-end encryption (E2EE). 

Eli MacKinnon