Outlook's Junk Mail filter... is it not working properly anymore?

[Scryder]

So I've noticed in the last couple month that Outlook's (formally Hotmail) junk mail filter has been acting funny. It's moving emails from genuine senders in the Junk Mail folder and actual spam into the Inbox.

The other week it moved an email I actually pinned in the Inbox into Junk Mail... when I went looking for it I couldn't find it anywhere. My first thought was I must've accidently deleted it. Nope. Finally went through each item in Junk... and there it was! It was frustrating, as I knew I pinned it, and I was blaming myself for losing it.

Today, I saw what was obvious to me a spam about an antivirus subscription expiring in my inbox, while at the same time an email from my ISP and a newsletter I actually subscribed to in the Junk Mail folder.

Hotmail's junk mail filter has not been this bad over the decades I've used it, till this year. It's been pretty decent altogether. I assume this has something to do with either the spammers getting better at bypassing the algorithm. Or some crappy new algorithm that MS is testing. Whatever it is, I'm a little concerned that if I don't keep a sharp eye on Junk and Deleted folders, some actual emails might get missed.

Anyone else notice this?

[Zhaoman]

Yeah I've always had this problem on and off with Outlook.com
My suspicion is that their algorithm might flag a sender as junk if you don't open an email from a certain sender once or twice. So I've had plenty of legit emails go into my junk from various people, invoices, reminders etc. It's just something I noticed over the years. However I've never had it move a flagged email from inbox to junk, that is new and pretty disturbing if you ask me!

[Scryder]

That's what's worrying me, the fact that I pinned to look up later and a less than a week later it ending up in Junk. I'd have thought the pinning told it that I want to look at it again. I can understand the algorithm has some time learning... maybe it's like all things modern, it's getting too smart for it's own good.

Oh, just looked again and I have an email from my utilities company in Junk Email folder from last week...I didn't even see that. And a message saying this at the top:

This message was identified as junk. We'll delete it after 6 days.

Looks like I need to train my junk mail algorithm again!

I don't mind some things ending up there, but yikes...

[Scryder]

Ok, so think I've figured out what's happening. It looks like the Junk Mail code is not running live, but periodically. Today I saw another email that I moved to a subfolder yesterday in the Junk Email today.

Keep an eye on that folder if you use Outlook.com folks!

[Jonj1611]

I am using Outlook desktop and still it allows obvious spam through

[Dilwar]

I have found that Outlook gets about 98% of spam emails, although it does catch a lot of legit emails which you will have to manually approve. Not a problem usually but some junk one's do get through for a bit and then moved to junk later.