How to WhitelistReach the inbox   Structure CMS

Safe Senders / Updated 2026

Make sure the email you want lands in your inbox.

Spam filters do important work, but they get it wrong sometimes — and the messages you actually asked for end up buried. Whitelisting tells your email app that a sender is trusted. Pick your email service below and follow a few quick steps.

A whitelist (also called a safe senders list) is simply the set of senders your email app always trusts. Add a sender to it — usually by saving them to your contacts or creating a rule — and their messages stop getting filtered into Spam or Junk. Throughout the steps below, sender@theirdomain.com stands in for the address you want to keep; use the real one, or just the domain like @theirdomain.com.

The fastest fix that works almost everywhere

Add the sender to your Contacts / address book, and if a message already landed in Spam or Junk, open it and choose Not spam (or move it to your Inbox). Nearly every email service treats both as a strong "I trust this sender" signal. The service-specific steps below make it permanent.

Choose your email service

Gmail
On a computer (most reliable — creates a permanent rule)
  1. Open Gmail and click the gear icon (top right), then See all settings.
  2. Open the Filters and Blocked Addresses tab and click Create a new filter.
  3. In the From field, enter sender@theirdomain.com (or the whole domain, @theirdomain.com).
  4. Click Create filter.
  5. Check Never send it to Spam, then click Create filter again to save.
On the Gmail app (iPhone / Android)
  1. The mobile app can't create filters, so add the sender as a contact instead: open a message from them and tap their profile picture or name.
  2. Tap Add to contacts (the person-with-a-plus icon).
  3. If a message is in Spam, open it and tap Report not spam to move it to your inbox.
Tip: Adding the sender to your Google Contacts on top of the filter gives Gmail an extra trust signal. Filters can only be created from the desktop site.
Apple Mail & iCloud Mail

Apple doesn't have a named "safe senders" list — saving a sender to Contacts (and optionally as a VIP) is what tells Mail to trust them.

iPhone / iPad
  1. Open a message from the sender and tap their name or email address at the top.
  2. Tap Create New Contact (or Add to Existing Contact) and tap Done.
  3. Optional: open that contact and tap Add to VIP so their email is prioritized to a dedicated VIP mailbox.
Mac
  1. Open a message, hover over the sender's name, and click the dropdown arrow.
  2. Choose Add to Contacts. To prioritize, choose Add to VIP instead.
iCloud.com (webmail)
  1. Open a message, click the sender's name, and choose Add to Contacts — or click the star to Add to VIPs.
If it's already in Junk: open the message and choose Mark as Not Junk, then move it to your Inbox.
Outlook.com, Hotmail & the new Outlook app

This covers Outlook.com, Hotmail and Live.com accounts, plus the new Outlook for Windows and the Outlook mobile app. The Safe Senders list is managed in your web/app settings.

Add to Safe senders
  1. Click the gear icon (Settings), top right.
  2. Go to Mail → Junk email.
  3. Under Safe senders and domains, click + Add safe sender.
  4. Enter sender@theirdomain.com (or @theirdomain.com) and press Enter.
  5. Click Save at the top.
On the Outlook mobile app: the Safe Senders list can only be edited from the web settings above. As a quick fix, open a message in Junk, tap the … menu, and choose Move to inbox / Not junk.
Classic Outlook for Windows (desktop app)

For the installed classic Outlook desktop program. (Using the redesigned "new Outlook"? Follow the Outlook.com steps above instead.)

Add to Safe Senders
  1. On the Home tab, in the Delete group, click Junk.
  2. Choose Junk E-mail Options.
  3. Open the Safe Senders tab and click Add.
  4. Type sender@theirdomain.com (or @theirdomain.com) and click OK.
  5. Click OK again to close the options.
Shortcut: if a message is already in Junk, right-click it → Junk → Never Block Sender, which adds them to Safe Senders automatically.
Yahoo Mail
Add to Contacts (quick)
  1. In Yahoo Mail, click the Contacts icon in the right-hand sidebar.
  2. Click + Add a new contact.
  3. Enter the name and sender@theirdomain.com, then click Save.
Create a filter (always lands in your inbox)
  1. Click the gear icon (Settings) → More Settings.
  2. Choose Filters → Add new filters.
  3. In the From field, enter sender@theirdomain.com or @theirdomain.com.
  4. Under "Choose a folder to move to," select Inbox and click Save.
If it's in Spam: open the message and click Not Spam so Yahoo learns the sender is legitimate.
AOL Mail
Add to Contacts
  1. Click Contacts in the left navigation panel.
  2. Click the New Contact icon.
  3. Enter sender@theirdomain.com and click Add Contact / Save.
If a message is in Spam: open the Spam folder, select the message, and click Not Spam to move it to your inbox and trust the sender going forward.

Send people here

If you publish a newsletter, point your readers to this page so their email apps keep your messages in the inbox. Paste this line into your footer:

<p>To keep receiving our emails, <a href="https://howtowhitelist.com/">please add us to your address book</a>.</p>