Junkless — Help & Setup Guide

Quick start (5 minutes)

1. Launch Junkless from Applications.
2. Add an IMAP account (see provider guides below).
3. Mark a few spam emails as spam — Junkless learns the patterns.
4. Junkless automatically flags similar emails so you can review and move them to Junk.

That's the entire workflow. The rest of this page is reference material.

How spam detection works

Junkless does not use AI or cloud services. When you mark a message as spam, Junkless learns its structural pattern — header anomalies, link patterns, sender behavior, body templates. New incoming messages are compared against your learned patterns plus built-in detection rules (header anomalies, brand impersonation, URL spoofing, BEC patterns, P2P payment fraud, and more). When the score crosses a threshold, the message is flagged as spam.

Each flagged message displays a confidence score so you can review detections at a glance.

IMAP account setup

Junkless requires an app password (or app-specific password) — your normal account password will not work for any major provider. The exact steps depend on your provider.

Gmail / Google Workspace

1. Enable two-step verification at myaccount.google.com/security.
2. Go to App passwords and generate one for "Mail" → "Mac".
3. In Junkless, add an IMAP account:
   • Server: imap.gmail.com
   • Port: 993 (SSL/TLS)
   • Username: your full email address
   • Password: the app password (not your Google account password)

iCloud Mail

1. Go to appleid.apple.com → "Sign-In and Security" → "App-Specific Passwords".
2. Generate a password labeled "Junkless".
3. In Junkless:
   • Server: imap.mail.me.com
   • Port: 993 (SSL/TLS)
   • Username: your full iCloud email address
   • Password: the app-specific password

Fastmail

1. Go to Fastmail Settings → Privacy & Security → App passwords.
2. Generate a password with "Mail (IMAP/POP/SMTP)" access.
3. In Junkless:
   • Server: imap.fastmail.com
   • Port: 993 (SSL/TLS)
   • Username: your full Fastmail email address
   • Password: the app password

Proton Mail (via Proton Mail Bridge)

Proton Mail does not expose a standard IMAP server. You need Proton Mail Bridge running locally.

1. Install and run Proton Mail Bridge.
2. Copy the IMAP credentials from Bridge.
3. In Junkless:
   • Server: 127.0.0.1 (loopback)
   • Port: shown in Bridge (typically 1143)
   • Username and password: as shown in Bridge

Outlook.com / Microsoft 365

1. Enable two-step verification at account.microsoft.com/security.
2. Generate an app password at account.microsoft.com/security/app-passwords.
3. In Junkless:
   • Server: outlook.office365.com
   • Port: 993 (SSL/TLS)
   • Username: your full email address
   • Password: the app password

Custom domain / self-hosted IMAP

Use the IMAP credentials provided by your hosting provider. Most setups use port 993 over SSL/TLS.

Marking messages

• Mark as spam: Select a message → click "Mark as spam" (or use the keyboard shortcut). Junkless learns the message's structural pattern.
• Trust sender (false positive): If a legitimate sender is flagged, click "Trust sender" to whitelist that sender for future scans.

Junkless learns from both signals. The more accurate your marks, the better the filter performs.

Reading detection results

Each spam-flagged message displays:

1. Score badge — a confidence score (higher = more likely spam).

If a legitimate sender is flagged, use "Trust sender" to whitelist them. You can also manage learned fingerprints in the fingerprint manager.

Troubleshooting

"Cannot connect to server"

• Verify you used an app password, not your account password.
• Check server hostname and port (most providers use 993 with SSL/TLS).
• Check whether your network blocks IMAP (some corporate or hotel networks do).
• Try toggling "Use SSL/TLS" off then on in account settings.

"Junkless missed a spam message"

• Mark it as spam in Junkless. The next similar message will be caught.
• If a specific pattern keeps slipping through, send the .eml file (saved from the message preview's download button) via the contact form — we use these reports to improve the detection rules.

"Junkless flagged a legitimate email as spam"

• Use "Trust sender" to whitelist the sender. You can also remove specific learned fingerprints via the fingerprint manager.
• For repeating false positives from a specific sender, you can add the sender to your provider's allowlist (Junkless respects IMAP whitelisting).

"Where is my data?"

• IMAP credentials: encrypted locally in Junkless's protected storage via OS-level encryption.
• Learned spam patterns: a local database inside Junkless's protected app storage.
• Email content: raw email bodies are not stored. Junkless keeps only derived filtering features (sender patterns, subject hashes, URL domains, etc.) locally.

To remove all Junkless data, first delete your accounts in Junkless, then uninstall the app. If any local data remains, you can manually remove Junkless's data folder from macOS storage.

Privacy

Junkless does not transmit your email or credentials to any server we control. See the full Privacy Policy.

Contact support

Please use the contact form to reach us.

When reporting an issue, please include:

• macOS version (e.g., macOS 14.5)
• Junkless version (Junkless menu → About)
• IMAP provider (Gmail / iCloud / Fastmail / etc.)
• A short description of what you expected vs what happened
• Optionally, a .eml sample if relevant (no need to include sensitive content)