How to whitelist an email address (safe senders list)

When you whitelist an email address, you are telling your email provider that you trust the sender. This ensures that important updates, invoices, or newsletters bypass the spam folder and land directly in the inbox.

Below are step-by-step instructions for whitelisting an email address across the most popular email clients.

Quick tip

If you ever find an expected email in your Spam or Junk folder, simply opening the email and clicking "Report as Not Spam" or "Move to Inbox" is the fastest way to teach your email provider's algorithm to trust that sender in the future.

Gmail (Google Mail)

Method 1: Add to contacts

1. Open the email from the sender.

2. Hover your mouse over the sender's name at the top left of the email.

3. Click the Add to Contacts icon (the person silhouette with a plus sign).

Method 2: Create a filter

1. Click the Gear icon in the top right corner and select See all settings.

2. Go to the Filters and Blocked Addresses tab.

3. Click Create a new filter.

4. In the From field, type the email address you want to whitelist.

5. Click Create filter.

6. Check the box that says Never send it to Spam.

7. Click Create filter again to save.

Outlook / Hotmail / Live

Method 1: Add to contacts

1. Open the email from the sender.

2. Hover over the sender's profile picture or name.

3. Click the Add to contacts button on the profile card that appears.

Method 2: Create a filter (safe senders)

1. Click the Gear icon (Settings) in the top right corner.

2. Select Mail > Junk email.

3. Under the Safe senders and domains header, click + Add.

4. Enter the email address or domain name you want to whitelist.

5. Press Enter and click Save at the bottom of the page.

Yahoo! Mail

Method 1: Add to contacts

1. Open the email from the sender.

2. Click on the sender's email address at the top of the email.

3. Click the three dots (...) icon next to their details and select Add to contacts.

4. Enter a name and click Save.

Method 2: Create a filter

1. Click the Gear icon (Settings) in the top right, then click More Settings.

2. Select Filters from the left-hand menu.

3. Click Add new filters.

4. Name your filter (e.g., "Whitelist").

5. Under From, select contains and type the email address or domain.

6. Under Move the message to, choose Inbox.

7. Click Save.

Apple Mail (iCloud / iOS / Mac)

Method 1: Add to contacts

On iPhone/iPad: 

1. Open the email

2. Tap the sender’s name in the From field

3. Select Create New Contact.

On Mac:

1. Move your mouse over the sender's name at the top of the email

2. Click the small arrow that appears next to it

3. Select Add to Contacts.

Method 2: Create a filter (rules)

Note: Mail sorting rules are best set up on iCloud Web or the Mac desktop app to apply across all your Apple devices.

On iCloud Web:

1. Log into iCloud.com.

2. Go to Mail.

3. Click the Gear icon (Settings) above your mailbox list.

4. Select Rules > Add a Rule.

5. Set the condition to If a message is from [Email Address] and the action to Move to Inbox.

On Mac App:

1. Go to Mail > Settings (or Preferences) > Rules.

2. Click Add Rule.

3. Name the rule.

4. Set it to "If From contains [Email Address]".

5. Set the action to Move Message to mailbox: Inbox.