Sometimes, the emails you actually want to read, go directly to your spam and promotions folder. This means you could lose out on some important information – but there’s an easy way to fix it.
How to whitelist emails with instructions for all major email providers.
Gmail
Go to the email from the sender/person you want to whitelist and:
· Click on the three dots in the top right-hand corner of the email (right next to Reply)
· Click on “Add Lilach Bullock to contacts list”
Yahoo
Go to the email from the sender/person you want to whitelist and:
· Hover your mouse over the sender’s name or email address to display the contact card
· Click on Add to Contacts
· Enter any additional information required
AOL Mail
Go to Contacts in the left panel and:
· Click on New Contact from above your contacts list
· Enter all the details required for that contact
· Click on Add contact to save your settings
Apple Mail
Go to the email from the sender/person you want to whitelist and:
· Click Message from the Mail menu
· Click on Add Sender to Address Book
Outlook Mail
Go to the email from the sender/person you want to whitelist and:
· Right-click on the name of the sender
· Click on Add to Contacts
Outlook (Newer Version)
Go to the email from the sender/person you want to whitelist and:
Right click on the name of the sender
Click on Add to Outlook Contacts
· Fill in the details required and click Save
Comcast/Xfinity
Go to your Contacts screen and:
· Click on the + sign in the right-hand corner of the Connect Address Book
· Tap on New Contact option
Netzero
Open the Address Book tab from the top navigation bar and:
· Ensure the Contacts tab is selected and click on Add Contact
· Enter all the relevant information
Windows live Hotmail
Go to the email from the sender/person you want to whitelist and:
· Click on Add to Contacts next to the sender’s email
Mozilla Thunderbird for Mac
Click on your Address Book and:
· Make sure Personal Address Book is highlighted
· Click on New Card
· In the new tab, under Contacts, enter the email and any extra information
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Mozilla Thunderbird for PC
Click on your Address Book and:
· Make sure Personal Address Book is highlighted
· Click on New Card
· In the new tab, under Contacts, enter the email and any extra information needed
Android Devices
Go to the email from the sender/person you want to whitelist and:
· Tap on the picture of the sender
· Tap OK when asked to add to contacts
iOS Devices
Go to the email from the sender/person you want to whitelist and:
· Tap on the sender’s name in the From field
· Tap on Create New Contact
Related: AI marketing consultant
The mistakes that quietly break your whitelist
Most people treat whitelisting like a light switch: add the email address, done, problem solved. It isn't that simple, and that's exactly why so many businesses do it and still end up in spam three months later. The mistakes are rarely about knowledge, they're about assumptions.
- Whitelisting the display name instead of the actual email address. People see "ABC Company" in their inbox and add that to their safe senders list through the interface without checking the address behind it. Spoofed emails often use the same display name with a completely different address, so the whitelist does nothing and the real sender still gets filtered.
- Only doing it at inbox level, not gateway level. If your organisation runs Mimecast, Proofpoint, or a Microsoft 365 filtering policy on top of the mailbox, a personal safe sender rule can be overridden entirely by the gateway before it ever reaches the inbox. People whitelist in Outlook and assume that's the whole system, when it's one layer out of two or three.
- Confusing "add to contacts" with "whitelist." Adding someone to your address book is not the same as marking them safe. Several email clients treat these as separate settings, and this mix-up is one of the most common reasons people think they've fixed the problem when they haven't.
- Whitelisting a domain that sends from multiple subdomains. Marketing platforms often send from something like mail.brandname.com or a third-party ESP domain, not the root domain people expect. If you whitelist brandname.com only, campaign emails sent from a different subdomain slip straight past it.
- Ignoring SPF, DKIM and DMARC failures. A whitelist doesn't override authentication. If a sender's domain fails these checks, some filters will still flag or reject the message no matter what's on your safe senders list. This mistake happens because people assume whitelisting is the final word, when in a lot of systems authentication takes priority.
- Doing it once and never retesting. Senders
Related reading: Introducing GetEmails: 10x Your Email List Growth in a Totally New Way and The Ultimate Guide to Having Cleaner Email Lists to Improve Deliverability.
Published and maintained by the Lilach Bullock team, covering marketing, AI and business growth.
