SpamSieve not filtering Inbox in Outlook for Mac 16.8

I have two identical email accounts set up in Outlook for Mac: one is a Comcast IMAP account and the second is an Exchange server based account. Both use the exact same rules to filter spam through the regular inbox and deposit all good messages into the InboxSpamSieve. The Comcast account is working correctly but the Exchange account temporarily sends them to the InBoxSpamSieve folder then back up to the Inbox. I have deleted and reinstalled the rules but the issue persists.

I am using SpamSieve on two instances of Outlook and computers at my two homes, both on MacOS 14.3 Sonoma. It was successfully working on both computers until I upgraded to SpamSieve version 3.03 a few weeks ago.

Is there a known bug with Exchange servers that causes this or does it have something to do with having two identical machines set up the same way?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

I don’t understand. The messages are supposed to all go to InboxSpamSieve and then (the good ones) move to the Inbox. What’s happening that’s different from what you expected to happen?

That seems unlikely to be relevant since we haven’t changed how SpamSieve interacts with Outlook, but which version did you have before?

Are you following one of the setups for multiple Macs described here? Does the Log window on each Mac say anything interesting about the messages that didn’t end up where you expected?

Thanks for your responses, Michael. Mine always worked the opposite way from Outlook, eg all emails came into the inbox, and filtered messages ended up in the Inbox SpamSieve. The rules I have created are the same ones in the Outlook section of the manual and have worked that way on both Macs until the recent change I made. I will try the turn off auto train suggestion that you sent me in the link and see what that does; otherwise I’ll just run it on one. Appreciate your help.

PS: I had versions 2.X before and have used it for 4-5 years.

All versions of SpamSieve that used InboxSpamSieve have worked the same way: moving good messages back to the Inbox and spam message to Junk Email. If you had messages collecting in InboxSpamSieve that means there was a setup problem (i.e. the helper app wasn’t running) so that SpamSieve was not actually examining them.

Thanks for clarifying. If that’s the case, why is my Comcast/IMAP account receiving all incoming messages in my Inbox, then routing them to my InBox SpamSieve? The rules are set up exactly the same for both accounts. Do you have troubleshooting steps that I can take to correct this so that it’s functioning just like my Exchange server account?

Thanks again for your help!

That’s what the rules are supposed to do. The question is why the messages are not then being moved out of InboxSpamSieve. Nothing is supposed to collect there. If you have the mailbox name spelled InBox SpamSieve that could be the problem.

Please see Checking the Outlook Setup (Large Inboxes). You can also look in the Log window to see which messages SpamSieve is processing and whether that matches up with where you are seeing the messages in Outlook.