How to stop admin accounts from receiving alerts when employees move files out of their junk folder

In Microsoft 365, to prevent admin accounts from receiving emails or alerts when employees move a file out of their junk folder, you need to adjust your organizational settings. This might involve reviewing audit log settings, modifying alert policies, or fine-tuning mail flow rules.

You can have a Managed IT Services company LME help with this or if you want to fix it, you can:

1. Check Alert Policies

Alert policies in Microsoft 365 can generate notifications for specific activities, including actions on junk mail.

• Steps to adjust alert polices:
  1. Go to the Microsoft 365 Defender portal: https://security.microsoft.com/
  2. Navigate to Email & Collaboration > Policies & Rules > Alert Policies.
  3. Look for any alert policies related to mail actions (e.g., “Junk mail folder operations”).
  4. Edit the policy to either disable it or modify its recipient list to exclude admin accounts.

2. Disable User Reported Alerts

Office 365 has an alert setting that User reported alerts should go to Microsoft and Admins.

• Steps to fix User Reported Settings:
  • Go to the Microsoft 365 Defender portal: https://security.microsoft.com/
  • Navigate to System > Settings>Email & collaboration
  • Select User reported settings
  • Modify Reported message destinations to “Microsoft Only”

3. Review Audit Logs

If the notification is related to audit log activities, you may want to limit the scope of logging or disable notifications for specific actions.

• Steps to adjust audit logs:
  1. Go to the Microsoft Purview compliance portal: https://compliance.microsoft.com/.
  2. Navigate to Audit > Audit Search.
  3. Check the configuration of audit logging to see if there are any automatic alerts configured for junk folder actions.
  4. Modify or disable unnecessary alerts.

4. Mail Flow Rules

If mail flow rules (transport rules) are triggering notifications, you need to review and adjust them.

• Steps to check Mail Flow rules:
  1. Go to the Exchange admin center: https://admin.exchange.microsoft.com/.
  2. Navigate to Mail Flow > Rules.
  3. Look for any rules that notify administrators about junk folder activities.
  4. Edit or disable these rules.

5. User Activity Alerts

User activity alerts may be configured to send emails for certain mailbox actions.

• Steps to adjust activity alerts:
  1. Go to the Microsoft Purview compliance portal.
  2. Navigate to Alerts > Activity alerts.
  3. Review any existing activity alerts for actions like moving items from the junk folder.
  4. Disable or adjust the alert as needed.

6. Modify Admin Notification Settings

If none of the above options resolve the issue, check the general notification settings for admin accounts:

• Steps modify admin notifications:
  1. Go to the Microsoft 365 admin center: https://admin.microsoft.com/.
  2. Navigate to Settings > Org settings > Services.
  3. Review notification settings related to email actions.

By reviewing and adjusting the configurations mentioned above, you can prevent admin accounts from receiving unnecessary emails about junk folder actions.