How to Track Down Missing Emails?

As communication technology has evolved over the years, email has rapidly grown in popularity and is now undoubtedly one of the most widely used methods of online communication. Although most people have a general understanding of how email services work and can perform the basics such as sending, forwarding, and replying with relative ease, there are still many features of email services that cause confusion. Today we will delve into some of these features, explaining how some of the different types of mailboxes work and where to look when you’re expecting an email but haven't received it.

Inbox

This is the main mailbox where all of your emails that haven’t been flagged as spam or junk end up. This mailbox primarily contains all of your important emails and should be the first place to look when checking your email. Unfortunately, some legitimate emails are accidentally marked as spam or junk by accident so they may not always end up in your inbox.

Junk/Spam

The junk mail folder or spam folder is used to store unwanted emails, preventing them from making it to the user’s main inbox. This helps decrease the volume of emails that a user has to look through, since some users may receive hundreds of emails on a daily basis with only a handful being legitimate. As previously mentioned, the systems used to detect junk mail are not always perfect so some legitimate emails may be marked as spam and on the other hand, some unwanted emails can slip through the cracks and enter your main inbox. Because of this, it is important to check your junk or spam folders on a regular basis, especially when you are expecting an email but can not find it in your inbox.

Clutter

Clutter is an email sorting system used by Microsoft Outlook. The main purpose of clutter is to distinguish between high and low priority emails so you can better identify important messages and reply to them sooner. Clutter uses an artificial intelligence system that analyzes your habits and behavior when using Outlook to get a better understanding of the types of emails you like to see and the ones you tend to ignore.

Unfortunately, the clutter feature has been discontinued by Outlook although some users may still have this feature. If you do have this feature, clutter is another place to check on a regular basis since important emails can also end up here by accident.

To enable the clutter folder within Outlook check "Separate items identified as clutter" and click “Save”.

Antispam

Antispam is a service similar to junk/spam and can be seen as another layer of defense, filtering out unwanted emails. Also similar to junk/spam, antispam is not always perfect and can filter out important emails by accident stopping them from reaching your main inbox. Because of this, it is very important to check your antispam on a regular basis to make sure you’re not missing any legitimate emails.

To access antispam head to antispam.emporia.edu and login with your ESU username and password.

Taylor Nelson
Student Media Producer
Web and Digital Strategies