My emails suddenly started going to junk. What changed?
Something changed, even if you didn’t change it yourself. The usual causes are a new tool sending email in your name, one big email send, a move of your website or domain, or someone getting into your email account. Google and Microsoft have also tightened their rules since 2024. Work through the checks below in order, starting with the quick ones.
Check your own email first. Free, about 90 seconds. You get a grade and a plain-English list of what's working and what isn't.
Why this happens
Email providers judge every message on how your business has behaved lately. Your settings, how many emails you send and how people react to them all count. A single change can tip it, such as a newsletter sent from your everyday address or a website move that dropped your email settings. So can a scammer using your account.
Work through these in order
- Look in your Sent folder for emails you didn’t write. If you find any, change your email password now and turn on two-step sign-in. Then let your contacts know to ignore anything odd from you.
- Run the free check below. It shows whether a setting is missing and whether your business is on a spam blocklist.
- Think back over the last few weeks. Did you start using a new tool, like a booking system, a new invoicing app or a customer list? Move your website? Change who manages your domain? Any of these can do it.
- If your website or domain moved, ask whoever did it whether the email settings came across. They sometimes get left behind.
- If you sent a big batch from your normal address, use a newsletter tool next time. Your everyday email usually recovers once you’re back to sending normal amounts.
If that didn’t work
Ask a customer who got one of your emails in junk to forward it back to you as an attachment. That copy carries hidden details your IT person can read to see exactly why it was filed as junk.
To hear about it next time before your customers do, SenderFix Monitor checks your settings and the spam blocklists every day and emails you if something changes.
What this guide can’t do for you
It covers the common causes. It can’t tell you which of your tools is the one that’s failing, or give you the exact settings for your business and the company that manages your domain. That’s what the Email Fix does. We check every tool that sends email for you and give you steps written for your setup. If we can't find what's wrong with your email settings, you get your $299 back. The guarantee covers your email settings. No settings can fix email sent to people who didn't ask for it, like bought lists or mass emails.
See what's wrong with your email, free
Type in your business's web address (the part after the @ in your email). You'll get a plain-English answer: what's working, what isn't, and what to do next.
Common questions
Has my email been hacked?
Usually not, but it's the first thing to rule out. Check your Sent folder for messages you didn't write. If you find any, change your password and turn on two-step sign-in right away.
Will it fix itself?
Sometimes, after a one-off big send, once you go back to normal. A missing setting won't fix itself, which is why it's worth running the free check.
Why is it only going to junk for some people?
Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo and company email systems each make their own decisions. It's common for one of them to start filtering you before the others do.
For your IT person or web developer
You can forward this page as it is. Everything below is written so someone who doesn't work with email settings every day can follow it.
Email that used to reach the inbox has started going to junk. Check these in order.
1. Rule out a compromised account
Microsoft 365: in entra.microsoft.com go to Identity → Monitoring & health → Sign-in logs and filter by the user, looking for sign-ins from unfamiliar locations. Google Workspace: in admin.google.com go to Reporting → Audit and investigation → User log events. Also check the mailbox for forwarding rules nobody set up. If anything looks wrong, reset the password, sign out all sessions and turn on multi-factor sign-in.
2. Compare the DNS records with what they should be
Run the free check at senderfix.com. If the website or DNS host changed recently, compare the current SPF, DKIM (selector._domainkey) and _dmarc records with the old host's records. Moves often bring over the website records and drop the email ones.
3. Read the headers of a junked message
Ask a recipient to forward a junked message as an attachment. In the headers, check the Authentication-Results line for SPF, DKIM and DMARC results. For Microsoft recipients, the X-Forefront-Antispam-Report header shows the spam confidence level (SCL); 5 or higher means it was filed as junk.
4. Check sending volume
If a large send went out from the main mailbox, move bulk mail to a newsletter service sending from its own authenticated setup, and keep the main mailbox to normal person-to-person email.
Related guides
Written by the SenderFix team. Last updated .