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Fine-tuning the filter

As we mentioned on the main page, any spam filter introduces the possibility of your not receiving what you consider to be legitimate email. To reduce the possibility of this occurring, you'll need to periodically fine-tune the filter on your Gmail account. You do this by logging in to your gmail account and then correcting any of the two types of errors that might occur:

the filter falsely identifies legitimate email as spam (false positives)
the filter falsely identifies spam as legitimate email (false negatives)

As you continue to do this, the filter "learns" how to better filter your mail. You might also find whitelists useful in ensuring that you don't lose legitimate messages.

Finding legitimate email that has been identified as spam (false positives)

Log into your account at www.gmail.com. Now click on your spam folder in the side-bar on the left, check any messages that are not spam, and click the button at the top that says "Not Spam".

Figure 1. Identifying false positives

The next time you check your mail, these messages will appear in your inbox.

Finding spam that has been identified as legitimate email (false negatives)

Log into your account at www.gmail.com, go to "All Mail" (in the side-bar on the left), click the check-box next to any messages that are spam, and then click the button at the top that says "Report Spam".

Figure 2. Identifying false negatives

This will move the messages into your Spam folder, and help improve the spam filters so that these types of messages are less likely to show up in your inbox.

Gmail setup	Mail app setup
Fine-tuning the spam filter	Whitelists & blacklists
FAQ