Whether you are using a Mac or a PC running Microsoft Windows, you need an anti-virus. Even though Mac users are less prone to become infected than Windows users, this does not make Mac users invulnerable. Furthermore, while our faithful Macs are immune to nasty Windows viruses, we can still store them in our hard drives and inadvertently send them to someone who has a Windows machine and infect them. For this and many reasons I decided to install Sophos Anti Virus for the Mac.
After a short while I started getting messages alerting me about threats detected. There were so many popping up – what was causing them and how do fix this annoying behavior?
The pop-up that was constantly showing up
After some research it was clear that this message was triggered by my Spam Folder in the Mail app. All this junk mail was coming through, many with attachments loaded with viruses and the anti-virus was popping each and every time.
Venturing forth into the anti-virus’ preferences, I found nothing to dismiss these threats automatically. The solution was actually very simple: don’t display the Junk folder in the IMAP folders.
To do so, visit Gmail and log on with your email account. Click on the cog icon in the upper right and select Settings. Tick the Labels and look for your Spam folder:
Uncheck the ‘Show in IMAP’ option.
If you quit the Mail app and then reopening, once it syncs with the IMAP server you should see that the Junk folder should be empty and now all those messages that were triggered by Spam will no longer show up (if you do receive an anti-virus alert, it’s now really worth looking into):
Junk folder should show nothing.
Furthermore this adds a layer of security to your computer as the Spam mails are withheld at the Gmail servers and never arriving to your computer. Every now and then I would recommend heading back to Gmail web interface and peeking into the Junk mail folder to make sure it’s filtering spammers correctly.
