Secure Your Inbox: How to Whitelist Email Addresses in Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and Apple Mail for Max Protection
In today’s digital age, email security is extremely important.
An effective way to enhance your email security is by whitelisting trusted senders, like your favourite brands, friends, and work colleagues.
When you whitelist an email address, it ensures that emails from specific contacts are always delivered to your inbox, reducing the risk of missing important messages, or flash sales on popular products.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through the process of whitelisting emails, depending on who your email service provider is.
Secure Your Inbox: How to Whitelist Email Addresses in Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and Apple Mail for Max Protection
In today’s digital age, email security is extremely important.
An effective way to enhance your email security is by whitelisting trusted senders, like your favourite brands, friends, and work colleagues.
When you whitelist an email address, it ensures that emails from specific contacts are always delivered to your inbox, reducing the risk of missing important messages, or flash sales on popular products.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through the process of whitelisting emails, depending on who your email service provider is.
Before we continue, scroll down to whichever email service provider you use, such as Gmail, Outlook (or Hotmail), Yahoo Mail, or Apple Mail (iOS). If you are using email on your Mobile, the process to whitelist is different than when using a desktop computer, so make sure you’re following the right set of instructions.
Whitelisting in Outlook (Desktop)
1. Open Outlook: Log in to your Outlook account.
2. Access Settings: Click the gear icon in the upper-right corner and select “View all Outlook settings.”
3. Mail > Junk email: Navigate to “Mail” and then “Junk email.”
4. Safe Senders and Domains: Under “Safe senders and domains,” add the email addresses or domains you want to whitelist.
5. Save Changes: Click “Save” to apply your whitelist settings.
Whitelisting in Outlook (Mobile)
- Open the email you want to whitelist.
- Tap the three dots at the top of your screen.
- Select “Move to Focused Inbox.”
- In the popup, choose “Move this and all future messages” and tap “Move to Folder.”
Whitelisting in Gmail (Mobile Version)
Step 1: Unmark an Email as Spam (if applicable)
1. If an email has been mistakenly classified as spam and is residing in your spam folder, open the email.
2. Within the email, locate and tap the “Report not spam” option. This tells Gmail that this email is not spam.
Step 2: Mark an Email as Important
1. Open the email you wish to whitelist.
2. Tap the three dots (ellipsis) located in the upper right corner of the email.
3. From the menu that appears, select “Mark as important”
Whitelisting in Gmail (Desktop Version)
Part 1:
1. Open Gmail: Log in to your Gmail account.
2. Access Settings: Click on the gear icon in the upper-right corner and select “See all settings.”
3. Filters and Blocked Addresses: Navigate to the “Filters and Blocked Addresses” tab.
4. Create a New Filter: Scroll down to the bottom and click “Create a new filter.”
5. Specify Criteria: Enter the email address or domain you want to whitelist in the “From” field.
6. Create Filter: Click “Create filter.”
7. Choose Action: Select “Never send it to Spam” and “Always mark it as important.”
8. Create Filter: Click “Create filter” again to confirm.
Part 2:
1. Open the email you wish to whitelist.
2. Tap the three dots (ellipsis) located in the menu at the top.
3. From the menu that appears, select “Mark as important”
Whitelisting in Yahoo Mail (Desktop)
1. Open Yahoo Mail: Log in to your Yahoo Mail account.
2. Access Settings: Click the gear icon in the upper-right corner and select “More Settings.”
3. Filters: Navigate to “Filters.”
4. Add Filter: Click the “Add” button to create a new filter.
5. Specify Criteria: Enter the email address or domain you want to whitelist.
6. Choose Action: Select “Inbox” as the folder where the emails should be delivered.
7. Save Filter: Click “Save” to save your filter.
Whitelisting in Yahoo Mail (Mobile)
1. Click the contact book in the right-hand menu.
2. At the bottom of the sidebar, click +Add new contact.
3. Enter the name and email that you want to whitelist.
4. Click Save.
Whitelisting in Apple Mail (Mobile)
Apple Mail does not offer a dedicated whitelisting feature, but you can still ensure important emails find their way to your inbox by marking them as “Not Junk.” Here’s how to do it:
1. Open the Mail app on your device and navigate to the Mailboxes screen.
2. Select the “Junk” folder to access your junk email folder.
3. Within the “Junk” folder, locate the email you want to whitelist.
4. Swipe left on the email to reveal additional options.
5. Tap the “More” button.
6. Next, tap the “Mark” button.
7. You’ll now see options like “Mark as Not Junk,” “Move to Important,” or “Move to Inbox.” Choose any of the 3.
Whitelisting in Apple Mail (Desktop)
- In the top menu, go to Mail > Preferences.
- Click the Rules tab.
- Select Add Rule.
- In the Description field, enter a name like “Whitelist: shawfiremedia.com.”
- Under “If,” choose: “If any of the following conditions are met.”
- In the first dropdown, select From, then choose Ends with in the second dropdown.
- In the text field, enter the domain you want to whitelist — include the “@” for accuracy. For example: @shawfiremedia.com (this will only whitelist exact matches, not subdomains).
- To whitelist more domains, click the + icon and repeat the previous step.
- Under Perform the following actions, set the dropdowns to: Move Message → to mailbox → Inbox (or another folder of your choice).
- Click OK to save the rule.