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Emails going to junk in Outlook? How to fix it

There are two different problems here: good emails landing in your Outlook junk folder, or your emails landing in other people's. The fixes are different, so start with the one that's yours.

If emails you want are going to your junk folder

Mark them as not junk

Open your Junk Email folder, select the message, and choose Not junk. Outlook moves it to your inbox and learns from it.

Add the sender to Safe senders

In Outlook on the web and the new Outlook, go to Settings → Mail → Junk email and add the address or the whole domain under Safe senders and domains. In classic Outlook for Windows, it's Home → Junk → Junk E-mail Options → Safe Senders. Adding the sender to your contacts helps too.

At work? It may not be Outlook

If your company uses Microsoft 365, some filtering happens before mail reaches you, and messages may sit in quarantine rather than junk. Your IT admin can release them and allow a sender for everyone.

If your emails are going to junk for Outlook users

If customers on Outlook, Hotmail or Microsoft 365 keep finding your emails in junk, your domain is probably missing authentication, and Microsoft has become much stricter about that. For Outlook.com and Hotmail, Microsoft requires domains that send more than 5,000 messages a day to pass SPF and DKIM and publish DMARC, and smaller senders are judged on the same signals.

1. Check your records. Run your domain through the free check to see your SPF, DKIM and DMARC.
2. Turn on DKIM for your domain. If you send from Microsoft 365, it's off for your own domain by default. See our Microsoft 365 guide. On Google Workspace, see the Google Workspace guide.
3. Have exactly one SPF record listing every service that sends as you.
4. Add DMARC. A TXT record named _dmarc, starting with v=DMARC1; p=none;. See our DMARC guide.
5. Check for a block. If emails bounce rather than going to junk, read the bounce: codes like 550 5.7.515 mean authentication, and S3150 means a Microsoft blocklist. See getting off a blacklist.

Once authentication passes, ask a regular customer to mark one of your emails as Not junk. That helps Outlook learn your mail is wanted.

Questions

Why are emails going to my junk folder in Outlook?

Outlook's filter decided they look like spam, often because the sender's domain isn't properly authenticated, or because the message looks like bulk mail. Mark wanted messages as Not junk and add the sender to Safe senders and domains in your junk email settings.

How do I stop Outlook sending emails to junk?

Add trusted senders under Settings, Mail, Junk email, Safe senders and domains, and mark wanted messages as Not junk. In a Microsoft 365 workplace, messages may be held in quarantine instead, which your IT admin can release.

Why are my emails going to junk for Outlook users?

Usually because your domain is missing DKIM or DMARC, or SPF is broken. Microsoft checks these for every message and has tightened its rules for Outlook.com and Hotmail. Set up all three, then ask a regular contact to mark your email as Not junk.

Why do emails go to junk in Outlook but not Gmail?

Each provider filters differently. Microsoft weighs sender authentication and reputation heavily, so a domain with weak or missing DKIM and DMARC can reach Gmail inboxes but still land in Outlook junk.

Related: Microsoft 365 emails going to spam · email blacklist removal · emails suddenly going to spam.