Junk email message settings aren't synchronized when you use Outlook 2013 to connect to an Outlook.com account

Original KB number:   2861826

Symptoms

When you use Outlook 2013 to connect to an Outlook.com account, the junk email message settings aren't synchronized between Outlook 2013 and Outlook.com.

Cause

This issue occurs because Outlook 2013 uses Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) to connect to the Outlook.com account. However, the EAS protocol does not support the synchronization of the Safe Senders and Blocked Senders lists in the Junk E-mail Options dialog box.

There are several options that you can use to manage the junk email message settings on Outlook.com. To work around the issue that's described in the Symptoms section, use one of the following workarounds.

Workaround 1: Block or enable senders on Outlook.com

Instead of configuring the Safe Senders and Blocked Senders lists on each Outlook 2013 client that you use, you can configure the Safe senders and Blocked senders lists on Outlook.com.

If you block or enable senders on Outlook.com, the Safe Senders and Blocked Senders lists in the Outlook 2013 clients are not updated. However, email messages are processed by the Outlook.com service. Therefore, if an email message is blocked by the Outlook.com service, the email message is not delivered to the Outlook 2013 clients.

To use this workaround, add the information from the Safe Senders and Blocked Senders lists in each Outlook 2013 client that you use to the Safe senders and Blocked senders lists on the Options webpage on Outlook.com. To access the Options webpage, click More mail settings on Outlook.com. Then, remove the lists from each Outlook 2013 client. If you want to back up the lists before you remove them, click the Export to File button in the Junk E-mail Options dialog box in Outlook 2013.

Workaround 2: Manually add or remove email messages

If you manually move an email message to, or remove an email message from, the Junk E-Mail folder in an Outlook 2013 client, the email message is also moved on Outlook.com. Similarly, if you move an email message to or remove an email message from the Junk folder on Outlook.com, the email message is also moved in Outlook 2013. When you manually move an email message to or remove an email message from the junk email message folders, the Outlook.com service uses this information to improve its junk email message criteria.

Workaround 3: Block or enable senders in Outlook 2013

If you use the Safe Senders and Blocked Senders lists on an Outlook 2013 client, the lists are maintained only on that client. If the Outlook 2013 client blocks an email message according to the Blocked Senders list, the email message is moved to the Junk E-Mail folder on the Outlook 2013 client. When the Outlook 2013 client is synchronized with Outlook.com, the email message is also moved to the Junk folder on Outlook.com. However, the Blocked senders list on Outlook.com is not updated to include the sender of the blocked email message.

More information

Because Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010 use Outlook Hotmail Connector to connect to Outlook.com accounts, this issue only occurs in Outlook 2013.