Are emails going places you don't want them to?

Here are two possibilities:

1. One of your filters might contain a rule with an error in it.
2. Your filters might be lined up in the wrong order.

Rules

Problems often occur if you combine "does not contain" with asterisks (*) and/or "contains" or "begins with." As much as possible, keep rules simple.

Sometimes, when making filters for the first time, people create an empty filter at the top of their list and save it by accident without changing anything about it. This sends all messages to your Inbox, bypassing any other filters you might have. Do you have an empty filter? If so, delete it.

You can see where your mail is being directed and how your filters are working by looking for the numbers in parentheses beside your folders. These numbers notify you of new mail. In this example, you've got two new emails in your Friends folder. Is this where you wanted them to go? Check your filters.

Filter Order

The order of your filters affects how emails are filtered. For best results, put your "narrowest" filters at the top and your "broadest" filters at the bottom. "Narrowest" means your most selective filter; "broadest" means the filter that could apply to the most emails. When an email matches a filter, it goes where that filter tells it to go. None of the lower filters even get to look at it!

This example shows why the order of your filters matters.

Let's say your sister has an email account with "NeatMail." If your first filter is an "@neatmail" filter (any address that contains "@neatmail"), and your second filter is a Family filter (any address that contains your last name), the @neatmail filter sends her emails into the folder you specified for the @neatmail filter—instead of into the folder you specified for the Family filter, every time. This is because the @neatmail filter comes first.

To change the order of your filters, click a filter name to highlight it, then click the Up or Down buttons to the right to push the filter up the list or to drop it down.