Forum Discussion

sjcgb's avatar
sjcgb
Tuning in
4 months ago
Solved

all messages from gmail going to spam

Hello, all emails coming from gmail addresses are automatically going into my VM spam folder. Marking them as 'not spam' (and refreshing the page) makes no difference for new gmail messages. Only gm...
Gmail
Spam folder
  • coenoby's avatar
    coenoby
    3 months ago
    sjcgb wrote:

    So if it's not a general VM issue, what could it be about my setup that is making VM mark my Gmail receipts as spam and not yours?

    Sorry, I did not spot that email header you posted.

    Putting that header through this email header analyser https://mxtoolbox.com/EmailHeaders.aspx (it's a universal  checker so it's independent of VM)  comes up with the following errors:

    the red crosses indicate there are issues with the DKIM record.

    And specifically:

    Dkim Signature Error:
    DKIM-Signature	
d:Required tag not found	
s:Required tag not found	
h:Required tag not found	
bh:Required tag not found	
b:Required tag not found - more info

     

    Dkim Signature Error:
    There must be at least one aligned DKIM-Signature for the message to be considered aligned. - more info

    Edited to add:

    spf=softfail (185.151.28.75;gmail.com);
dkim=pass header.d=gmail.com;
dmarc=pass header.from=gmail.com (p=none sp=quarantine dis=pass)

    The spf "softfail" indicates that the email should be flagged as spam

    VM do seem very hot on their SPF, DMARC and DKIM checks on incoming emails so it's not surprising VM view that email as being suspicious. It's understandable VM play safe because they want to protect their email customers from getting spoofed emails from scammers.

    Perhaps you could raise those errors with your domain provider or the email forwarder if you are using a separate organisation to do that.

    However, using email forwarding to manage email on a private domain is always prone to problems like this and not just those with VM email accounts.

    People using email forwarding regularly report that their private domain emails suddenly stop arriving because of a change somewhere in the email authentication process. It's been regularly reported here and on the forums of other email providers for many years.

    I have just had a look at the UK2 website (it seems that is who you are with) and they offer email packages from 50p a month. You need to think about looking into moving over to using one of the offerings. Ideally you want one that offers a webmail service and also supports IMAP/SMTP as well. That will allow you to use an email app or client to manage your private domain emails. There is always the option to run your own email server but using an email package from your domain supplier is a good option for a non techie.😉

    Also, bear in mind that the whole future of the VM email is uncertain. VM stopped issuing new email accounts more than 2 1/2 years ago and they have just started a big push to closing VM email accounts that are not linked to a VM broadband package. Clearly they do not see their email service as being a long term part of the business plan moving forward so moving to more professional setup with your private domain would seem to make perfect sense.

    Sorry to go on but I hope that's all useful food for thought.

    Coenoby

coenoby's avatar
coenoby
Very Insightful Person
3 months ago
sjcgb wrote:

all emails coming from gmail addresses are automatically going into my VM spam folder.

Only gmail messages are going into the spam folder, all others are going into the inbox just fine.

I've just sent a couple of test emails from my Gmail account to my VM and Ntlword email accounts and both messages went into the inbox. So it does not seem to be a general problem with VM sending Gmail messages going to spam.

Marking them as 'not spam' (and refreshing the page) makes no difference for new gmail messages.

Yes, that's the way the VM mail system works.

Flagging an email as "Not spam" merely moves that specific email out of the spam folder. It has no effect on any similar incoming messages that arrive. Unlike many email services there does not seem to be a way to train the VM spam filter to your expectations of whether particular types of email are, or are not, spam.

Also there is no way to set up a rule in your webmail to stop specific types of email from going to spam.  That's just one of the limitations of VM email.

My public email address is (I think it's called) an alias using redirection to my VM address from a seperate domain server

Just to keep it simple are these incoming Gmail messages;

  • actually addressed to your VM email address or
  • are they addressed to a different, (possibly a private domain) email address and being auto- forwarded to your VM address?

I'm thinking it's the second of those options.

Coenoby

 

  • sjcgb's avatar
    sjcgb
    Tuning in
    3 months ago

    Hi coenoby and thanks for thinking about this in detail. Yes, they are addressed to a private domain email address and automatically forwarded to my VM address. This is an arrangement that has been working fine for 30 years!  (not always to VM but VM for the last 3 yrs).

    So if it's not a general VM issue, what could it be about my setup that is making VM mark my Gmail receipts as spam and not yours?

    I've posted a copy of headers earlier in the string . Is there anything else I should be checking?

    Thanks

    Steve 

    • coenoby's avatar
      coenoby
      Very Insightful Person
      3 months ago
      sjcgb wrote:

      So if it's not a general VM issue, what could it be about my setup that is making VM mark my Gmail receipts as spam and not yours?

      Sorry, I did not spot that email header you posted.

      Putting that header through this email header analyser https://mxtoolbox.com/EmailHeaders.aspx (it's a universal  checker so it's independent of VM)  comes up with the following errors:

      the red crosses indicate there are issues with the DKIM record.

      And specifically:

      Dkim Signature Error:
      DKIM-Signature	
d:Required tag not found	
s:Required tag not found	
h:Required tag not found	
bh:Required tag not found	
b:Required tag not found - more info

       

      Dkim Signature Error:
      There must be at least one aligned DKIM-Signature for the message to be considered aligned. - more info

      Edited to add:

      spf=softfail (185.151.28.75;gmail.com);
dkim=pass header.d=gmail.com;
dmarc=pass header.from=gmail.com (p=none sp=quarantine dis=pass)

      The spf "softfail" indicates that the email should be flagged as spam

      VM do seem very hot on their SPF, DMARC and DKIM checks on incoming emails so it's not surprising VM view that email as being suspicious. It's understandable VM play safe because they want to protect their email customers from getting spoofed emails from scammers.

      Perhaps you could raise those errors with your domain provider or the email forwarder if you are using a separate organisation to do that.

      However, using email forwarding to manage email on a private domain is always prone to problems like this and not just those with VM email accounts.

      People using email forwarding regularly report that their private domain emails suddenly stop arriving because of a change somewhere in the email authentication process. It's been regularly reported here and on the forums of other email providers for many years.

      I have just had a look at the UK2 website (it seems that is who you are with) and they offer email packages from 50p a month. You need to think about looking into moving over to using one of the offerings. Ideally you want one that offers a webmail service and also supports IMAP/SMTP as well. That will allow you to use an email app or client to manage your private domain emails. There is always the option to run your own email server but using an email package from your domain supplier is a good option for a non techie.😉

      Also, bear in mind that the whole future of the VM email is uncertain. VM stopped issuing new email accounts more than 2 1/2 years ago and they have just started a big push to closing VM email accounts that are not linked to a VM broadband package. Clearly they do not see their email service as being a long term part of the business plan moving forward so moving to more professional setup with your private domain would seem to make perfect sense.

      Sorry to go on but I hope that's all useful food for thought.

      Coenoby

      • sjcgb's avatar
        sjcgb
        Tuning in
        3 months ago

        Dear Coenoby, thank you so much for your considered, quick and detailed reply, it's so much appreciated! It must the the clearest, most straightforward and understandable response to an IT issue I've ever had. Thank you. And thank you for offering your help on this forum.

        I shall take these points up with the UK2 support people (who are always quick to respond and willing to help) and trust that they can finally get it all sorted out.

        I had been looking at their email offers thinking that might be the best way of resolving it and your comments now make that more likely. The point for me about a domain associated email address was not just vanity (!) but to allow the family to all share a simple address and make it easier for others to remember. With modern tech contact lists and auto-complete address bars that's not so relevant now!

        If UK2 can't fix this authentication issue that's the way I'll go and thank 30yrs of previous broadband providers for their free email addresses. Thanks again for taking the time to help. 

        Steve