How to get Gmail to stop flagging a message as spam?

May 14, 2007 5:14 AM

How can I get Gmail to stop flagging a daily email as spam?

I use sitelutions for dynamic DNS for my home computers and webserver. I created my own update scipts, where at the end of the update I receive an email with the new IP information. About two months ago gmail started flagging these messages as spam. I changed the format of the message, but they still end up in my spam folder, not my inbox. I've been using their "not spam" button to move the message out, but every day the new message is flagged and tagged as spam. What can I do?

posted by jazon to computers & internet (12 comments total)

Add the email address that the mail comes from to your contacts.
posted by AlisonM at 5:26 AM on May 14, 2007

Or, on the chance the Gmail really hates your email, create a filter to move it to the inbox or apply a label. (I can't get to gmail right now, so I'm not sure if you can move things to the inbox, but the label thing should work)
posted by niles at 5:45 AM on May 14, 2007

niles, I imagine if you label it something, it'll just dump it in your Inbox automagically. I can't fathom a mail client putting labelled mail in your Junk folder.
posted by booticon at 5:51 AM on May 14, 2007

Gmail does put labeled mail in the junk folder. I've had an ongoing problem with a web form that Gmail insists is spam, no matter what I do. Since it's a web form the To: address is not consistent, so adding it to contacts is not an option. Ultimately, I set up a gmail filter to forward that form mail to a non gmail account in order to be confident I'd actually receive it.
posted by COD at 6:08 AM on May 14, 2007

my first guess would be that its something to do with the home IP address that is actually sending the mail, see if you can set up your script to go through an authenticated or more trustworthy mail server and see if that helps.
posted by yeahyeahyeahwhoo at 6:21 AM on May 14, 2007

COD, are wildcards for the e-mail (*@mailserver.com) an option?
posted by booticon at 6:29 AM on May 14, 2007

Email sent to [e-mail] will go through normally to [e-mail]. Then, you can create a 'to' filter that identifies messages sent to that particular address.

This is useful for mailing lists, as well.
posted by sindark at 6:35 AM on May 14, 2007

For more information, just Google 'plus addressing.'
posted by sindark at 6:36 AM on May 14, 2007

As an aside, labeled email absolutely can (and should) go to your spam folder. I use my gmail account to aggregate 3 different POP accounts. Messages from those other three accounts get a "domain.com" label specific to their account of origin.

One of the points of using Gmail is so that I can let it's excellent spam filters deal with the spam from those other accounts, even though all that spam will have a label.
posted by chrisamiller at 9:44 AM on May 14, 2007

I mistyped - the "from" address changes with every form submission - not the "to" address. As far as I know, wildcards are allowed.

The plus addressing doesn't help him on Gmail because Gmail does not have an option in the filters to move an email to the inbox. You can star it or label it, but Gmail will still dump it into the spam folder. You can skip the inbox with a filter, but not force something into it. It's a glaring oversight from Gmail IMHO. That is why I ended up forwarding to a non-Gmail address for my one troublesome form.
posted by COD at 9:47 AM on May 14, 2007

Yeah I was thinking about the label thing too - my answer will only work if it always always comes from the same email address. Here's the gmail help page about it:

"If you find that some senders' messages are consistently being mislabeled as spam, you can prevent this by adding their email addresses to your Contacts list. Gmail will always deliver messages from members of your Contacts list to your inbox."

(if that link doesn't work, I just searched "spam" under gmail help, its the 5th result.)
posted by AlisonM at 11:33 AM on May 14, 2007

The message does come from the same address.

I thought that the from address was in the contacts list, but it appears it isn't. I'll add it and see if it improves things.
posted by jazon at 10:39 PM on May 14, 2007