How to Mark Emails as Spam or Not Spam in Roundcube

Roundcube lets you report emails as spam or mark legitimate emails as "not spam" to help improve spam filtering on your server. This guide explains how to use the spam reporting features effectively.

Marking an Email as Spam

When you receive a spam email that was not caught by the server filter:

1. Log in to Roundcube Webmail.
2. Open the email (or select it from the list without opening).
3. Click the Spam button (usually a ! or flame icon) in the toolbar.
4. The email will be moved to the Junk folder.
5. The server learns from this action and is more likely to filter similar emails in the future.

Marking an Email as Not Spam

When a legitimate email is incorrectly placed in your Junk folder:

1. Open the Junk folder in the left sidebar.
2. Select the email that is not spam.
3. Click the Not Spam button (or Ham button) in the toolbar.
4. The email will be moved back to your Inbox.
5. The server learns from this action and is less likely to filter similar legitimate emails.

Understanding How Spam Reporting Works

• When you mark an email as spam, the server spam filter (Apache SpamAssassin) learns from the content, sender, and headers.
• The more you train the filter by marking spam and not spam, the more accurate it becomes over time.
• Spam reporting is account-specific. Your actions only affect spam filtering for your email address.

Using Keyboard Shortcuts

Roundcube supports keyboard shortcuts for quick spam management:

• Select an email and press the J key to mark as spam (junk).
• Select an email and press the N key to mark as not spam.
• You can check and enable keyboard shortcuts in Settings → Preferences → Mailbox View.

Best Practices

• Regularly check your Junk folder for false positives (legitimate emails marked as spam).
• Always mark spam rather than just deleting it. Deleting does not help the filter learn.
• Do not mark automated emails you signed up for (newsletters, notifications) as spam. Unsubscribe from them instead.
• Periodically empty your Junk folder to save disk space.

Important Notes

• Marking emails as spam only improves filtering for future emails — it does not block the sender permanently. To permanently block a sender, set up an Email Filter or add them to the SpamAssassin blacklist in cPanel.
• The learning effect may take time. Marking a few emails as spam will not immediately block all similar emails.

Troubleshooting

Spam button is not visible:

• Your hosting provider may not have the mark-as-spam plugin enabled. Contact support.

Legitimate emails keep going to Junk:

• Mark them as "Not Spam" multiple times to train the filter.
• Add the sender to your SpamAssassin whitelist in cPanel under Spam Filters.
• Check your email filter rules — a filter may be redirecting legitimate mail.

Spam is not being filtered at all:

• Ensure Apache SpamAssassin is enabled in cPanel under Email → Spam Filters.
• Check the spam threshold score — it may be set too high.