Most of the time my important emails get through into my inbox, but sometimes they end up in my ALL MAIL folder scattered amidst the spam stuff.
I’ve tried highlighting said emails, instructing stupid gmail to MOVE it into my INBOX, but it never does it: The email sits languishing in the ALL MAIL compartment.
What am I doing wrong?
I don’t think you’re doing anything wrong. Gmail is stupid sometimes. My mail gets mixed all up. I have no pressing need for my sisters email or some one trying to get me to buy something to be sorted. But, if you are in business it could be real bad.
Not in business, but just booked some accommodation online for a trip next year. And despite having booked through this website umpteen times before, stupid@gmail.com still sends the confirmation letters to the ‘dump’ folder…when they finally get around to sending it at all. 
Gah…and yeah, happens all the bloody time.
If valid correspondence is getting marked as spam, then you need to go into the Spam folder and mark it “Not Spam”. Eventually Gmail should learn which messages are indeed not spam. Simply moving the messages around isn’t going to let the Gmail algorithm learn about not-spam.
Spam should not appear even in the All Mail view. If legitimate mail is going to Spam, follow Terminus Est’s advice.
Hilariously, Gmail marks its own security messages as spam at times.
Thank you, for this. I thought it had to be me being stupid sometimes. Gmail can annoy me like crazy, just the other night it was being bizarre.