You've signed up for my email list, thank you so much. My subscribers mean the world to me and I'm thrilled to have you. I want to make sure that you receive your monthly emails from me. Do you know how to whitelist an email address with Gmail, Outlook or Yahoo! Mail?
Services like these are rightly careful about the mail you receive. They regularly block email to protect you from unwanted or malicious emails sent as phishing, scams, or spam.
Often though, they make mistakes, blocking email you want because they've mistaken it for email you don’t want–particularly when, like mine, it's coming from the sort of email service an author uses.
But they've also created a method by which you can alert them to emails you want and don't want–by manually asking them to unblock, or “whitelist” an email address i.e. add an email address to your safe-senders list.
Below find information on how to do that for three of the most popular email providers: Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo! Mail. If you use a different provider, you will need to contact them directly.
IMPORTANT: For all providers, do NOT enter email addresses in both the Sender AND Recipient fields as providers will then only filter emails that meet both criteria
How to whitelist an email address with Gmail
Sign in to your account at Gmail.com
Add the address to your contacts
Add the email address that is sending you email (e.g. info@ornaross.com ) to your Gmail Contacts. Google will usually deliver email from addresses that are in your Contacts.
Mark messages as ‘Not spam’
If Gmail has marked emails you wish to whitelist as spam, tell Gmail the emails are not spam.
- In Gmail, navigate to the spam folder.
- Search for emails from the domain you wish to whitelist
- Select all the emails shown.
- Click More and then Not spam.
Create a filter for the address
Create a filter to tell Google to whitelist email from a domain or online group.
- Click the cog icon in the top-right corner, and then Settings
- Click on Filters and then Create a new filter
- Enter the email address you want to whitelist in the From field
- Click Create filter with this search
- In the box headed When a message arrives that matches this search select Never send it to spam
- Click the Create filter button.
To whitelist all email from a domain, enter the domain in the From field. See also Google’s help on Legitimate mail is marked as spam
How to whitelist an email address with Outlook.com
For Outlook.com, Windows Live Mail, Hotmail and MSN Mail, sign in to your account at Outlook.com and do the following.
Add the address to your contacts
Add the email address that is sending you email (e.g. info@ornaross.com ) to your Outlook.com Contacts. Outlook.com will usually deliver email from addresses that are in your Contacts.
Add the address to your safe senders
- Click the cog icon in the top-right corner and then More mail settings
- Select Safe and blocked senders and then Safe senders
- Add add the domain of the email you want to whitelist to the list of Safe senders
- Return to Safe and blocked senders and then select Safe mailing lists
- Add the email address of the online group you want to whitelist to the list of Safe mailing lists
To whitelist all email from a domain, add the domain to the list of safe senders. See also Outlook.com’s help on I didn’t receive an email someone sent me
How to whitelist an email address with Yahoo! Mail
Sign in to your account at Yahoo! Mail and do the following.
Add the address to your contacts
Add the email address that is sending you email (e.g. info@ornaross.com ) to your Yahoo! Mail Contacts. Yahoo! will usually deliver email from addresses that are in your Contacts.
Create a filter for the address
-
- Mouse over the Settings menu icon and select Settings
- Click Filters and then Add
- Enter a Filter Name
Either
- enter the domain of the email you want to whitelist in the Sender field, or
- enter the email address of the online group you want to whitelist in the Recipient field
- Select Inbox as the folder to deliver the email to
- Click Save and then click Save again.