Email Whitelisting Guide - FAQs

Detailed guide with photo illustrations

What Does Whitelist Mean?

Whitelisting is a key step in email security best practices. It involves instructing your mail service to always allow specific emails. By adding an address to a special list, emails will reach your inbox without being marked as spam.
Whether you are using Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, or other email providers, whitelisting an email will benefit you.

Steps to Whitelist an Email in Gmail

If Gmail is your email provider, preventing specific messages from ending up in your spam folder is straightforward. By setting up spam filters, you can ensure future communications from a particular sender are never marked as spam. Here's how you can quickly whitelist emails in Gmail through the web client:

1. Log into your Gmail account.
2. Click the Settings gear icon in the top-right corner, then select "See all settings."
   
   
   
   
3. Navigate to the Filters and Blocked Addresses tab to view your existing filters. Then, select "Create a new filter."
   
   
   
   
   
   💡 Tip: To whitelist a specific sender, enter the entire email address. To whitelist all emails from a particular domain, simply enter the domain (e.g., “@yahoo.com”). This ensures that all emails from that domain are approved.
   
   
4. In the "From" section, type the email addresses or domains you wish to add to the Gmail whitelist. Click "Create filter" to confirm.
5. Click Create filter to confirm.
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Check the box next to "Never send it to Spam" to add the address to your Gmail safe sender list. 
7. Click "Create filter" again to save your settings.
   
   
   

Utilizing Gmail's filter settings, you have the ability to star emails, assign a specific label, mark them as important, or take other actions.

Whitelisting in Gmail mobile app

Although the Gmail mobile app doesn't support creating advanced filters, you can still whitelist senders from your spam folder:

1. Open the Gmail app.
2. Navigate to the Spam or Junk folder.
3. Tap on the message you want to view.
4. Select the option "Report not spam." From now on, you'll receive emails from this sender in your inbox.

Steps to Whitelist an Email in Outlook

To whitelist an email domain or a specific address in Outlook.com, you need to add it to the Safe senders group. A whitelisted address will bypass Outlook's spam filters and go directly to your inbox. Here’s how you can add an address or domain to the Safe senders list:

1. Sign in to your Outlook inbox on the web.
2. Click the gear icon in the top right corner to access Settings.
   
   
   
   
3. On the left sidebar, select Mail, then navigate to Junk email.
4. Under Safe senders and domains, click +Add to include a contact in the allowed list.
   
   
   
   
5. Enter the email address or domain name you want to whitelist. Be sure to include the "@" character for domain names.

Alternatively, you can add an individual address directly to your Outlook Contacts if they have sent you an email. This method is quicker and more efficient than manually entering the information.

Whitelisting in the Outlook mobile app

You can whitelist emails in Outlook using your mobile device by following these steps:

1. Open the Outlook mobile app.
2. Open an email from the sender you want to whitelist.
3. Tap the three dots at the top.
4. Select "Move to Focused Inbox."
5. In the pop-up window, choose "Always Move" to save your preference.
   
   

Steps to Whitelist an Email in Yahoo Mail

If you want to add a sender or domain to the Yahoo Mail whitelist, the process is simpler compared to other email providers. If you've already received a message from the address and it ended up in the Spam folder, open the email and mark it as "Not Spam."

Once you mark the email as not spam, Yahoo's spam filter will automatically allow future messages from that address into your inbox.

However, if the sender hasn't yet sent you a message, follow these steps to whitelist the address:

1. Navigate to the Settings icon and click on "More Settings" from the Yahoo Mail menu.
2. Select "Filters" and click "Add new filters" to enter information about the domain or sender.
   
   
   
   
3. Here, you can enter any text you want to whitelist in future emails. This could be an email address, a domain name, or specific content you expect to see in the message body.
   
   
   
   
4. Fill in the details and save the filter.
   
   

Whitelisting in Yahoo Mail mobile app

Follow these simple steps:

1. Open the Yahoo Mail mobile app.
2. Tap the Inbox folder icon at the bottom left.
3. Select Spam from the options.
   
   
   
   
4.  Find and open an email from the sender you wish to whitelist.
5. Tap Move, then select Inbox.
   
   
   

Steps to Whitelist an Email Address in AOL

Many people searching for AOL whitelisting instructions may be puzzled by the absence of a traditional email whitelist. Instead, AOL automatically considers all email addresses in users' address books as trustworthy. Essentially, the contact list in AOL functions similarly to the whitelists in Gmail and Outlook.

To whitelist an email address in AOL, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your AOL account.
2. Open Contacts from the left navigation pane.
3. Click the New Contact icon and enter the necessary information.
   
   
   
4. Click the Save button at the bottom.
   
   
   

The whole process is simple, and removing existing contacts is just as easy. Simply select the address you wish to delete, click "Edit contact," and then click "Delete contact" at the bottom of the page.



If you want to block a deleted contact, navigate to Settings → Security and privacy → Blocked addresses. From there, you can add the contact to your email blacklist or even choose to block all senders except for those in your contacts.

Steps to Whitelist an Email Address in Zoho

Due to its enterprise-focused design, Zoho takes extensive measures to protect its users from spam emails, which are a major source of phishing scams. Zoho provides a range of effective tools to ensure that illegitimate messages are blocked and legitimate ones are delivered.

One such tool is the Zoho whitelist. Here’s how you can add an email address to it:

1. Log in to Zoho Mail.
2. Go to Settings.
3. Navigate to Anti-Spam and click on the Email Address option.
4. In the Allowlist / Blocklist Emails tab, click + Add.
5. Enter the email address and click Add again or press the Enter key.

Steps to Whitelist an Email Address in ProtonMail

ProtonMail is a secure email provider that employs end-to-end encryption to safeguard its users from spammers, hackers, and other unauthorized entities. It features an intelligent spam detection system capable of automatic email filtering.

Although ProtonMail’s spam detection is generally reliable and accurate, it can occasionally misplace a legitimate message in the spam folder. To prevent this, users can whitelist trusted email addresses by adding them to the ProtonMail whitelist.

To do this:

1. Log in to your ProtonMail account.
2. Click the Settings gear icon in the top right corner, then select the "All settings" button.
3. Navigate to the Filters tab.
4. Under Spam, block, and allow lists, click the "Add address or domain" button. Then select Allow.
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Enter the sender’s email or domain name and click Add address.