Tales for the Perpetually Curious
Whitelisting Instructions
Because email servers are getting REALLY picky about what they allow you to see (and which, as a recipient, I really appreciate), they do sometimes block things I'm interested in.
If you're interested in my emails, you need to let your email provider know. You may or may not know this is called Whitelisting. (Someone should probably workshop that term...) Anyhow, below are the instructions I straight up stole from Kim Komando. I didn't want to send you somewhere with a bunch of ads, but if you want the original, click here:
Gmail
To begin, find a message from the contact you’re seeking to whitelist, and click on it. On the right, next to the left-pointing arrow icon for “Reply,” you’ll find an icon that’s three dots stacked on top of each other. Click on the dots icon.
In the dropdown menu you get from that click, you’ll find a few options of what to do with the contact, including blocking them (which would blacklist them in your email), and reporting them as spam. For our purposes today with whitelisting, select the option to “Add [EMAIL/NAME HERE] to Contacts list.” That’s it, you’re done! That contact is now whitelisted, unless you remove them from your contacts.
What if you don’t already have a message in your inbox from someone you want to whitelist? Just go to Google Contacts while logged into your email, and click “Create Contact” in the upper left corner. Add the email you wish to whitelist, and that email will always appear in your inbox now, and never in your spam.
Yahoo
Get to your Yahoo contacts by clicking the “Contacts” tab while you’re in the old view of Yahoo, or by clicking the square icon of a person’s bust beside three lines on the far right of the new view of Yahoo Mail. This icon is below your name in the top right, and beside the Yahoo calendar icon. In your now open contacts list, click “New Contact” at the top left, and add the email address you want whitelisted. Those emails are now guaranteed to end up in your inbox.
Another method of whitelisting within Yahoo is creating a filter. Click the “Settings” icon, which looks like a gear cog, on the far right of your Yahoo Mail window. Click “More Settings,” if you’re in the new Yahoo Mail view, or “Settings” if you’re in the old view, in the dropdown menu that appears. Click “Filters,” then “Add,” and enter a filter name—whatever you want to call it is just fine.
Now put in the email address you’re looking to whitelist in the “To/CC” or “Recipient” section, and make sure the menu next to the “Then move the message to this folder” text is set to “Inbox.” Click save, then click save again. That filter will now make sure that messages from that email address will always be in your Inbox.
The final way to whitelist emails within Yahoo is to have a message from the sender already in your “Spam” (also sometimes known in Yahoo as “Bulk”) folder. Click on the email, or click the box next to the message to activate the checkmark. Click the “Not Spam” button that appears at the top of your Inbox. That will put this message, and all other messages from the email address that sent it, in your Inbox. Yahoo will no longer see this contact as spam, effectively, if not directly, whitelisting it.
AOL
The best way to whitelist an email in AOL is to add it to your contacts. Click the “Contacts” link in AOL Mail, or open your AOL Address Book. Select “New,” and set the email you want to whitelist as “Email 1” in the contact sheet. Click “Create,” and you’re all set!
If you find an email you actually want to receive in your spam folder, go ahead and click on it, or highlight it by checking the box next to it, and select the “Not Spam” option that appears at the top. To be extra sure these emails won’t get back in your spam, click “Show Details” within the email also to see the email address, and add that to your contacts via “Add Contact” from the dropdown menu next to it. Anything in your contacts is whitelisted, so it’s always the easiest way.
Or, to keep your address book simpler, you can whitelist by manually managing your spam settings. Click on “Spam Controls” in the lower right side of your inbox, and in the “Mail & Spam controls” window that appears, click “Custom sender list,” and select “allow email from.” Input the email address you want to whitelist, and click “Save.” With some reverse blacklisting, you whitelist a contact!
Outlook Server
To get to the “Safe Senders” list, go to the Tools menu in Outlook, and click “Options.” There will be a few tabs—we want “Preferences,” then “Junk E-mail.” Junk E-mail will also give you several tabs, and the one you want is “Safe Senders.”
To add a contact to your Safe Senders list, and therefore whitelist them within Outlook, click “Add,” then input the email address you’re whitelisting in the “Add address” section. Click “OK,” and you’re done. Outlook will now see messages from this address as inbox-worthy, and you’ll never lose important correspondence.
Comcast
Within your inbox, click on the “Address Book” tab, and click “New Contact.” Input the email address you’re whitelisting, and click “Save.” That email address is now whitelisted to Comcast.
To instead whitelist by using an email filter, click the gear icon next to your name in Xfinity Connect. Click “Settings,” then under the “Mail” heading on the left, click “Filter Rules.” Click the “Add new rule” button in the top right, and name the rule whatever you want. Click the “Add condition” link, and select “Sender/From” from the condition dropdown menu. In the next dropdown, choose “Is exactly,” and put the email you want to whitelist in the text box beside it. In the “Actions” area, click “Add action, and pick “Keep.” That should tell Comcast not to put messages from this email into spam.
Comcast also offers an “Email Safe List,” which ensures you get emails from certain addresses no matter what. However, if you activate this feature, you will only receive emails from addresses you specifically put on the list, so you can’t get an email from a new person without it going right to spam. This is helpful with avoiding unwanted marketing emails, but isn’t great if people you know get new email addresses, or if you run a business through your email. This service probably isn’t the best for whitelisting within Comcast’s mail service. Focus instead on adding people to your contacts; that will whitelist them in a much simpler way, and give you less work in the long run!