How to Whitelist Email Contacts

Spam filtering is a modern marvel, saving us from mountains of frustration, clutter, predatory advertising, malware, and other ne'er-do-wells that most of us don't want to see in our inbox. The fact that it works so well is what keeps email valuable as a business tool - and continues to make our inboxes an desirable target for spammers. But spam filtering is a double-edged sword. It's not perfect. Real, legitimate, valuable emails sometimes get filtered too, causing us frustration and stopping us from reaching blissful email nirvana.

If you are looking for how to prevent important email from going to your spam folder, you're in the right place. Whitelisting is creating a list of contacts whose email should never go into your spam folder. This guide will show you how to easily whitelist trusted contacts in Gmail, various flavors of Outlook, and in AOL and Yahoo email systems.

Gmail

Don't be confused by Gmail's use of filters to whitelist contacts out of your spam folder. Gmail's filter system is powerful and easy to use!

1. At top-right, click the gear icon. Select See All Settings from the menu that appears.
2. Select Filters and Blocked Addresses from the tabs at the top of the window that appears.
3. Click Create a New Filter.
4. In the From field, add the email address you want to whitelist. To whitelist a whole domain, include the @ symbol and everything afterwards. For example: @thelonesgroup.com
5. Click Create Filter.
6. On the following screen, check the Never Send It to Spam checkbox. Click Create Filter to finish.

1. Click the gear icon at the top-right corner of your screen and a menu appears. Now click "See All Settings."

2. A window appears with tabs along the top. Click the "Filters and Blocked Addresses" tab, then click "Create a new filter".

3. In the "From" field, enter the email address or domain that you want to whitelist, then click "Create Filter" to continue.

This is the key step, where you tell Gmail what to never send to the spam folder. You can use a whole email address, like support@thelonesgroup.com or you can whitelist email from anyone at a certain domain by including the @ symbol and everything after it. For example: @thelonesgroup.com.

4. Check the box for "Never send it to Spam" and then click the final "Create Filter" button to finish.

Outlook for Office 365

Office 365's version of Outlook uses a Safe Senders list and anyone you add to this list will never get put in your junk folder. Here's how to do it.

1. At top-right click the gear icon.
2. At the bottom of the dialog box that appears, click the View All Outlook Settings link.
3. In the Settings window, click Mail and then Junk Mail. Click the +Add button shown under the Safe Senders and Domains title.
4. Enter each email address or domain to be whitelisted and click Save.

1. Top-right of your screen click the gear icon shown below.

2. At the bottom of the Settings tab click "View all Outlook settings" as shown here.

3. Navigate to "Mail", then to "Junk Email".

4. Click the "+Add" button and type in the email address or domain you want to whitelist.

For example, to whitelist a single email address you could enter support@thelonesgroup.com, but to whitelist everyone that uses email at our domain, you would enter thelonesgroup.com.

When you are done adding entries, click Save.

Outlook for Office 2019

This is the stand-alone desktop version of Outlook, still in use by many corporate offices. If you don't see the Junk button on your Home ribbon, you may need to open an email first to get to it.

1. From the Home ribbon (tab) of either your Inbox or an opened email, click the Junk button.
2. If viewing an email, simply select Never Block Sender, otherwise click Junk Email Options.
3. Click the Safe Senders tab.
4. Click Add and enter the email address to be whitelisted. To whitelist a domain, include the @ symbol and everything that follows, for example: @thelonesgroup.com.
5. Click OK to finish white listing the contact. Click OK again to close the Junk Email Options dialog.

1. From an email or your inbox, click the Junk button on the home tab.

2. Select "Junk E-mail Options"

If you are doing this while selecting an email from your inbox or if you started these instructions by opening an email, you can also click the "Never Block Sender" option instead and immediately whitelist that sender.

3. In the pop-up window, go to the "Safe Senders" tab.

4. Click the "Add" button and enter the email or domain to whitelist.

For example, to whitelist a single email address you could enter support@thelonesgroup.com, but to whitelist everyone that uses email at our domain, you would enter @thelonesgroup.com.

Optional: If you check the "Also trust email from my Contacts" option (see above illustration), anyone you have added to your address book will automatically be whitelisted too.

5. Click "OK" buttons to close each dialog window when done.

Outlook for Web

Also called OWA or Microsoft Exchange, Outlook for Web uses a "Safe Senders and Recipients" list for a whitelist.

1. At top-right, click the gear icon. Select Options from the menu that appears.
2. From the options menu at left, Under Mail, under Accounts, click Block or Allow.
3. Click on the Enter Sender or Domain Here box and add the email address you want to whitelist. To whitelist a whole domain, provide just the domain. For example: thelonesgroup.com
4. Click the plus (+) icon to add the address to your whitelist. Then click the Save button above.
5. Optional: Check the Trust email from my contacts checkbox if you want to whitelist email from everyone in your address book.

1. At the top right of your screen, click the gear icon, then "Options."

2. At left, navigate to Mail, Accounts, Block or Allow.

On this settings page you are going to click on the form field that contains the text "Enter sender or domain here." Type in the email address to be whitelisted. To whitelist email from anyone at a certain domain, type in the domain (that's everything after the @ symbol in the email address). Click the button that looks like a plus-sign (+) to add the address to your whitelist. See our example below.

Optional: If you want to never route email from your contacts list to your spam folder, check the "Trust email from my contacts" option at the bottom. This won't fix everything, you'll still need to add people to your address book, but it can save you this extra step here.

3. Press the "Save" button to save your Safe Senders list.

It is located near the top of this window of settings.

Yahoo Mail

You can create filters in Yahoo Mail to prevent email from going to your spam folder, and to do many other things too!

1. At top-right, click the gear icon, then click More Settings.
2. Click Filters at left.
3. Click + Add New Filters.
4. Give your filter a name.
5. Under Set Rules, leave the From option selected. Click the Select a filter criterion option and select Contains.
6. In the Type a filter value field, type the email address or domain. For example: @thelonesgroup.com.
7. Click the Save button.

1. To start, click the gear icon at located top-right.

2. Click the "Filters" tab, then click "+ Add new filters".

3. Give your filter a name.

4. Expand the "Select a filter criterion" list and select "Contains".

5. In the "Type a filter value" field, enter the email address or domain to be filtered.

For example, to whitelist a single email address you could enter support@thelonesgroup.com, but to whitelist everyone that uses email at our domain, you would enter @thelonesgroup.com.

6. Save your settings.

AOL Mail

America Online Mail does not offer a whitelist option. However, you can add a sender to your contacts to train AOL to not send their messages to spam. This does not guarantee that email from that sender will never go to spam, but it greatly improves the chance that email from that sender arrives in you inbox as intended.

1. From AOL Mail, select Contacts.
2. Click the New Contact icon.
3. Enter the contact's information. Be sure to include the email address of the contact in the Email 1 field.
4. Click the Add Contact button to finish.

If an email goes to your spam folder anyway, you can further train AOL by opening the email and clicking the OK icon at the top of the page to indicate that it is not spam. This will move the email to your inbox.