Suddenly see "Bulk" and "Bulk Mail" folders for each of my att.net IMAP accounts in Outlook

Experienced this also and would appreciate an answer to the OP.  Thank you.

Yes, looking forward to a response. I'm seeing the 2 separate folders for every att.net account on all of our PC's with Outlook.

Would like to remove the "Bulk" folder for spam emails which does not disable the links in the emails.

Would like all spam emails to go to the "Bulk Mail" folder which does disable links in the email, as to not infect my laptop when deleting.

We're here to assist with your email, @DataLady37!

Can you please inform us of how are you accessing your email? Such as Yahoo, Apple Mac, or Thunderbird. This information is vital to us providing you with a resolution.

We look forward to hearing from you!

CalebP, AT&T Community Specialist 

In addition to Data Lady's response, I wanted to add I noticed these two folders appear out of the blue, unannounced, this week on Apple mail client and Outlook.  Thank you.

OP here - I access email with Outlook across 3 different PC's, and I've noticed the emergence of the new "Bulk" folder across all PC's.  The "Bulk" folder does not seem to disable links or have an "Empty Folder" option, while the original "Bulk Mail" folder does.  So for behavior of the emails, "Bulk Mail" acts more like what I would expect.  However, any new 'spam' goes directly to the "Bulk" folder.  If I find an email in my Inbox and then manually right-click ==> Block Sender, that email goes to "Bulk Mail".  It's the newly created "Bulk" folder that I don't want or need.  And any new spam should go directly to "Bulk Mail".  I don't care about the folders on my iPhone (Apple mail) client since I rarely act on or manage email from my phone.  Thank you.

I think the logical explanation is that we have two incredibly flaky pieces of software, Outlook and Yahoo Mail and no telling why either one does the bizarre things they do.

All of my Outlook IMAP setups have always called the Yahoo Spam folder as "Bulk". 

Thunderbird has also always called it Bulk (and in case you're wondering, no Bulk Mail folder has yet to appear in my Thunderbird installations).

Are either of you Bobinator over on techguy.org? 

His scenario is the opposite of yours but matches my experience, that Bulk was always Spam.

Regardless, for reasons unknown (because Yahoo) the two pieces of software conspired under the cover of darkness to change the folder relationship and the other version of a bulk folder appeared. 

But as I'm fond of saying, a new bizarre Yahoo issue so it must be just another day that ends in "y".

@tonydi then is there a way to set up my Yahoo Mail (through the web) to route SPAM mails to the 'BULK MAIL' folder in my Outlook (instead of to 'BULK')?  That would solve all my problems.  Thanks.

Not in Yahoo Mail but I suppose you could write a filter for Outlook to do the move when it pulls down the email. 

I'm not sure I'd get too invested in chasing this because if this is yet another "oops" issue at Yahoo it could just as easily revert back to the way it was before.

any update on this… I have mail in Outlook that I can’t even find online?  It’s like the bulk folder doesn’t  exist but if you try to add it.. it says it does… but it is in the client and the client gets new messages

Let's see what we can do about your missing mail in Outlook, mrcoolbreeze.

Try troubleshooting using the section titled 3rd Party Mailbox - (Outlook, Apple Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird) from our Login and Email Solutions guide.

• Test using webmail - If you are able to sign in to your email via the web, the issue points to the app or mailbox you are using.

• Mailboxes - We recommend using the latest version. Updates and changes may prevent it from working properly. 

• Rebuild Mailbox profile - In some instances, rebuilding the profile fixes some issues. You may lose email doing this.

• Change your settings from POP to IMAP. 

If you need further assistance, let us know.

Aminah, AT&T Community Specialist

i think my problem is you have multiple people complaining of the same issue and I don’t see anything but a canned response… also have tried this all… when your web mail interface is NOT showing a folder that is there.. it is your issue… not the clients

Thank you for your feedback, @mrcoolbreeze. We are still investigating the root cause of the sudden appearance of this folder and we really appreciate everyone's patience. 

Temporarily, we suggest looking into the settings on your AT&T network webmail and try to adjust the filters there and taking a look at how to filter spam email to see if your rules can be optimized to mitigate what we are seeing.

In the past, we have seen some 3rd party mail clients interact in ways that send emails to trash and spam folders inaccurately. Or even sometimes delete folders. We highly recommend temporarily discontinuing the use of these clients until a solution is found. 

Thank you again for your patience, and please let us know if this helps.

Wesley, AT&T Community Specialist

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