Changing Mac Mail Auto Sorting of Emails (Go to Inbox and not Trash)

How to Stop Mac Mail from Sending New York Times and WSJ Emails to Trash

On your MacBook Pro running macOS 27.0.1 (Golden Gate), you can usually fix this by changing a Mail rule or unblocking the senders. Here’s how.

1. Check Mail Rules first

This is the best place to start if you remember setting up automatic sorting.

1. Open Mail.
2. In the menu bar, select Mail >> Settings >> Rules.
3. Look for a rule mentioning The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, a newsletter, or a sender’s email address.
4. Select the rule and click Edit.
5. If the action says Move Message to Trash, change it so the messages are no longer sent there. You can direct them to the Inbox if you prefer, or disable or remove the rule altogether.

If you find separate rules for the two newspapers, be sure to check both.

Apple's instructions: Change or remove rules in Mail on Mac.

2. Check whether you blocked the senders

If you do not find a relevant rule, you may have accidentally blocked the email addresses.

1. Open Mail >> Settings and look for the blocked-sender settings.
2. Depending on your macOS version, look under Blocked or Blocked Contacts in the relevant settings.
3. Look for the email addresses used by the NYT and WSJ newsletters and unblock them if necessary.
4. Check whether Mail is set to move messages from blocked senders to Trash.

Tip: These newspapers may use different email addresses for different newsletters, so check the actual sender address on a message in Trash.

Apple's instructions: Change blocked-sender settings in Mail on Mac.

3. Make sure the messages are not being treated as junk

If the emails are landing in Junk rather than Trash:

1. Open the Junk mailbox.
2. Select a legitimate NYT or WSJ message.
3. Click Not Junk or Move to Inbox, if available.
4. If necessary, review Mail >> Settings >> Junk Mail.

Apple's instructions: Change junk-mail settings in Mail on Mac.

4. Restore emails already in Trash

Once you ha’ve corrected the setting:

1. Open the Trash mailbox.
2. Find the NYT and WSJ messages you want to keep.
3. Select them and choose Message >> Move to >> Inbox, or drag them into your Inbox.

This restores existing messages. Correcting the rule or unblocking the sender should address future messages, too.

If you cannot find messages you expected to receive, see Apple's guide: Find missing email messages in Mail on Mac.

5. If the problem continues

Your email provider may have its own filtering rules that operate independently of Mac Mail.

iCloud Mail: Visit iCloud.com/mail and check Settings → Rules.

Gmail or another provider: Sign in through the provider's website and review its filters and blocked-sender settings.

For iCloud-specific instructions, see Apple's guide: Set up filtering rules in iCloud Mail.

Greetings,

Thanks for the detailed instructions, which I leveraged to resolve my problem. Apparently the issue occurred when I moved the NYT and WSJ messages to Trash while working on my MacBook Air in a remote location. So, when I looked to restore them by dragging them to the Inbox on my MacBook Pro (on which I normally spend my time), the unblocking of future messages didn't occur. It was only after I found and dragged the same NYT and WSJ addresses on my MacBook Air to the Inbox that all future messages on all devices were no longer automatically sent to Trash. Thanks for your help!