When an incoming mail is identified as junk/spam email by either a blacklist filter or spam auto-filter, either one of the following two actions will be performed by the filter depending on your choices:
If you choose the first action (discard the message) when setting up the filter, you CANNOT get back the filtered messages because they will NOT be delivered to your mailbox at all. Therefore, think carefully before choosing this action in your junk mail filters.
If you choose the second action when setting up your filters, the matched messages will be moved to a special mail folder named AUTO-PURGE which created in your mailbox on the mail server. This folder is an IMAP folder so that it can be accessed only when your email client software (e.g. MS Outlook Express, Eudora, etc.) is set up with IMAP server configuration. (Please refer to here if you are not sure whether you are using POP or IMAP configuration)
If your email software is set up with POP3 server configuration, you need to use the WebMail system to access the AUTO-PURGE folder in order to read those filtered messages. For the operation of listing messages in another folder (AUTO-PURGE in this case) in WebMail, please refer to here.
If your email client software has been set up to use IMAP configuration to access your email account, you can directly access the AUTO-PURGE folder within your email program. Please note that you may need to reset/refresh your mailbox list in your email program in order to make the AUTO-PURGE folder visible. For detailed procedure please refer to the User Guide of your email software.
It must be pointed out that there is no perfect tool to identify all junk/spam mail, and that it is possible that some messages you needed are mis-identified as junk messages. Therefore, messages that moved into the AUTO-PURGE folder by your filters may, in fact, not be junk mail. As messages in the AUTO-PURGE folder will automatically be purged after 30 days, you are recommended to access the AUTO-PURGE folder regularly with either WebMail or IMAP email client, and move back those messages you needed back to the Inbox if your email software is set up as POP3 client, or other appropriated IMAP folder if your email software is set up as IMAP client.
For the detailed procedure of moving/saving/filing messages to another folder/mailbox in WebMail, please refer to the WebMail User Guide. For other IMAP email client software please refer to its User Guide.
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IT.ServiceDesk@cityu.edu.hk
