How to Whitelist on Your Email Platform

Google Gmail

To keep important email messages out of your Gmail spam folder, you can add the sender email address to your Google Contacts and/or create a filter rule to prevent messages from specific senders going into the spam folder. If a desired email message is already in your spam folder, you can use an option to train the Gmail spam filter to not send those messages to your spam folder.
When you add a sender’s email address to your contacts, it tells Google you want to receive email from that sender. This method does not guarantee messages from the desired sender won’t be sent to spam, but it’s an easy way to make it more likely the desired email will arrive in your inbox. For a more reliable method, see the instructions below for creating a filter.

On a computer (web site)

  1. On your computer, go to contacts.google.com
  2. At the top left corner, select Create contact
  3. Enter the contact’s information, including the sender email address
  4. Select Save in the bottom right corner
  5. On an Android smartphone/tablet (mobile app)
  6. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Contacts app
  7. At the bottom right, tap Add
  8. Enter the contact’s name and email address
  9. Make sure you save the contact to the correct account. Next to your email account, tap the Down arrow and then select the account       that will receive the email messages you’re whitelisting.
  10. When you’re finished, tap Save
  11. Create a filter rule to keep desired email out of spam
  12. Gmail’s filters provide a lot of useful ways to manage your email and one of those ways is to set a rule to prevent email from a specific    email address from going to your spam folder. Filters are the closest thing Gmail has to a “safe sender” or “whitelist”.

Filters can only be created and modified from the online web version of Gmail, so you’ll need to go to your computer to complete the following.

  1. Open the Gmail website from your computer
  2. In the search box at the top, select the Down arrow
  3. In the From field, enter the sender email address
  4. At the bottom of the search window, click Create filter
  5. Select Never send it to Spam
  6. Click Create filter
  7. Mark an email as Not Spam

If a desired email message arrives in your spam folder, you can remove it from Spam and send a signal to Gmail that you want to receive that type of email in your inbox in the future. This method doesn’t guarantee messages from that sender won’t end up in spam in the future, but it is an easy way to move the email to your inbox and train Gmail at the same time.

  1. On your computer, open the Gmail website
  2. On the left, select Spam
  3. If you don’t see Spam, select More then find Spam
  4. Open the desired email message
  5. At the top of the page, select Not spam
  6. The message will be moved to your inbox
Microsoft Outlook

Add an email address to your Outlook contact list or safe sender list Outlook.com is now the home for Hotmail, Live Mail, and other Microsoft email products for consumers. If you’re finding email you want ending up in your junk mail folder, there’s a couple things you can do to prevent that from happening in the future. First, if the email is already in your junk folder, you can mark it as not spam to teach Outlook that you want to receive that message in the future. If you want to prevent desired messages from ending up in junk before they get there, you can use the safe sender list to designate specific sender’s email address, or whole domains, as “safe”. Email addresses in the Safe Senders List are never treated as junk email. We’ll outline the detailed steps for doing these things below.

Safe Senders list

By default, email addresses in your Outlook contacts are considered safe senders by the Junk Email Filter, but you can change this setting. Email messages from safe senders are never routed to the Junk E-mail folder

Add a sender to the Online (web) version of Outlook

To add people to your Safe Senders List, do the following:

  1. Sign into your Outlook.com account from a computer
  2. Select the Settings icon (gear icon) at the top-right corner
  3. Outlook settings icon
  4. Select View all Outlook settings
  5. Outlook.com “view all settings” screenshot
  6. Select Mail
  7. Select Junk email
  8. Under the Safe senders and domains header, select Add
  9. How to add safe sender in Outlook steps
  10. Enter the sender email address then press the [Enter] key on your keyboard
  11. Select the Save that appears in the bottom-right corner
  12. Now messages sent from that safe email address will end up in your inbox going
    forward.
                                                                                                                                             
Check blocked senders and safe senders list

If messages keep ending up in your junk folder from a safe sender, you may have accidentally added that sender to your blocked senders. You can check that list to make sure it’s correct.

Sign into your Outlook.com email account

  1. Select the Settings icon (gear icon) at the top-right corner
  2. Select View all Outlook settings at the bottom
  3. Select Mail, and then select Junk email
  4. If you see the sender’s email address listed under the Blocked senders and domains header, select Remove button (trash can) next to    it to remove it from the list
  5. Mark a message as “not junk”
  6. If a desired message is already in your junk folder, you can mark it as not spam. This will move the message to your inbox and teach        Outlook that you trust that type of message. You should also regularly check your junk folder to see if legitimate messages ended up       there that you didn’t notice. Messages in the junk mail folder are automatically deleted after 10 days.

Sign in to your Outlook.com (Live) account

  1. Select the Junk Email folder and look for the missing email
  2. Right-click the desired email and then select Mark as not junk. The message will automatically be moved to your inbox.

Yahoo Mail
Add a Yahoo Contact

When you add a sender’s email address to your contacts, it tells Yahoo you want to receive email from that sender. This method does not guarantee messages from the desired sender won’t be sent to spam, but it’s an easy way to make it more likely the desired email will arrive in your inbox.

  1. From Yahoo Mail, select the Contacts icon
  2. Select Add a new contact
  3.  Enter the sender’s information, especially the sender email address
  4. Select Save
  5. Unmark email as spam
  6. If a desired email message makes it to your spam folder, you can remove it from Spam and send a signal to Yahoo that you want to        receive that type of email in your inbox in the future. This method doesn’t guarantee messages from that sender won’t end up in             spam in the future, but it is an easy way to move the email to your inbox and train Yahoo at the same time.

From a mobile browser

  1. Go to Yahoo Mail in your mobile device’s web browser.
  2. Tap the Sidebar menu icon
  3. Tap the Spam folder
  4. Select the desired email from the sender
  5. Tap the Move icon
  6. Tap Inbox

From a computer

  1. Go to Yahoo Mail on your computer’s web browser
  2.  Select the Spam folder
  3. If you don’t see the “Spam” folder, select More below the “Sent” folder.
  4. Open the desired email from the sender
  5. Select Not Spam at the top of the page
  6. The email will return to your Inbox.

Unblock an email address

  1. Select the Settings icon
  2. Select More Settings
  3. Select Security and Privacy
  4. Hover over from an email address, then select the Delete icon
  5. Note: Using Yahoo Mail filters does not prevent email from going to your spam folder. All email goes through the spam filter before          going through other filters.  

AOL Mail
Add a Aol Mail Contact

When you add a sender’s email address to your contacts, it tells Aol you want to receive email from that sender. This method does not guarantee messages from the desired sender won’t be sent to spam, but it’s an easy way to make it more likely the desired email will arrive in your inbox.

  1. From Aol Mail, select Contacts Image of Aol contacts icon
  2. Select the New Contact icon Image of Aol Add Contact icon
  3. Enter the contact’s information, especially the email address of the sender in the Email 1 field
  4. Select Add Contact

Unmark email as spam

If a desired email message makes it to your spam folder, you can remove it from Spam and send a signal to Aol that you want to receive that type of email in your inbox in the future. This method doesn’t guarantee messages from that sender won’t end up in spam in the future, but it is an easy way to move the email to your inbox and train Aol at the same time. 

  1. Go to Aol Mail on your computer’s web browser
  2. Select the Spam folder Image of Aol spam folder
  3. Open the desired email
  4. Select the Not Spam (OK) icon Image of Aol not spam icon at the top of the page
  5. The email will return to your Inbox.

iCloud Mail
Add a iCloud Contact

When you add a sender’s email address to your contacts, it tells iCloud you want to receive email from that sender. This method does not guarantee messages from the desired sender won’t be sent to the junk folder, but it’s an easy way to make it more likely the desired email will arrive in your inbox.

  1. In Contacts on iCloud.com, select the Add (+) button in the sidebar, then choose New Contact
  2. Enter information for the new contact, especially the contact’s sending email address.
  3. Select Done
  4. Mark email as not junk
  5. If a desired email message was sent to your junk folder, you can mark it as “not junk” so that any future messages from the same            sender go to your inbox:

On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 7 or later

  1. Open the Mail app
  2. Open the message in the Junk folder
  3. Tap the folder icon at the bottom
  4. Tap Inbox to move the message 

On your Mac

  1. Open the Mail app
  2. Select the desired message
  3. Select the Not Junk button in the Mail toolbar or drag the message to the Inbox in the sidebar

At iCloud.com

  1. In Mail on iCloud.com, click the Junk folder in the sidebar.
  2. (If you don’t see the sidebar, see Show or hide the sidebar in Mail on iCloud.com)
  3. Select the message
  4. Select Not Junk in the notification bar at the top of the message window or drag the message to the Inbox in the sidebar
  5. If you notice that multiple email messages are being delayed, bounced, or not delivered, contact iCloud Support. Make sure to check      your Junk folder for email messages that were incorrectly marked as junk mail. To check your Junk folder at iCloud.com, choose the        Mail application and click the Junk folder in the sidebar. Email messages in the Junk folder are automatically deleted after 30 days.

Other Possibly Email Platforms
Cox

If you’re not getting the emails you’re expecting in your inbox, the first thing is to check your Spam folder. If you find messages in your Spam folder that shouldn’t be there, you can mark them as not spam to help teach the Cox Webmail spam filtering software that you think that type of message is legitimate. To mark a message as not spam:

  1. Sign into your Cox Webmail account on a computer
  2. Select the WebMail Inbox
  3. Select your Spam folder
  4. Find and select the desired message
  5. Select the Not Spam button
  6. If you don’t see a not spam button, select the menu in the email message (three dot/line menu), then select not spam.
  7. You should check your spam folder routinely for legitimate messages as your spam folder is emptied regularly. Marking a message as    not spam won’t guarantee that future messages from that sender won’t be marked as spam, but the more you do it, the more likely it    will be that the message will be delivered to your inbox. For more surefire ways, see the other options below.

Add sender to Exceptions List

In your Cox WebMail preferences, you’ll find a blocked senders list that shows the senders or domains you’ve blocked (if any) from sending you messages. In the same place, you can enter single email addresses or entire domains (e.g. domain.com) that you allow to send you email. Essentially, this is Cox Mail’s version of a white list (or safelist).

  1. Sign in to your Cox Webmail account on a computer
  2. Go to the WebMail Inbox
  3. Select Preferences
  4. Under General Email Preferences, select Blocked Senders
  5. Enter the sender or domain you want to allow in the Exceptions List.
  6. Select Add
  7. Select Save
  8. Send spam to your inbox

If you’ve tried all the above but the messages you want are still landing in your spam folder, you can modify the way Cox handles spam by changing your preferences for spam emails to have them marked as spam, but still delivered to your inbox.

  1. Sign in to your Cox Webmail account on a computer
  2. Select the gear ⚙ icon in the top right, then Settings
  3. On the left, select Inbox (if not already expanded) then select Spam settings
  4. Select the Mark as Spam and deliver to Inbox option
  5. Select Save