Whitelisting emails

Whitelisting is a technique to help with the security of your emails, so that you can identify specific email addresses that are “safe”.  This approach has you identify those email addresses and tag them as “safe” so they don’t end up in your trash or spam.

 

In addition to the instructions below, check your spam, trash and "all mail" (for gmail), "unfocussed" (for outlook), "other" (for hotmail) folders.

 

ANDROID:

 

Gmail Whitelisting Steps

  1. Open Gmail on your computer and click the Settings “gear” icon (should be top right of the screen, then click on "See all settings" at the top.
  2. Go to the "Filters and Blocked Addresses" tab, in the horizontal menu at the top of the gmail screen.
  3. Click "Create a new filter".  This option will show up at the bottom of the list of any filters you already have.  You may need to scroll down if you already have a number of filters.
  4. In the "From" field, type @gcbt.org (to enable emails from all GCBT board members).
  5. Click "Create filter".
  6. Check the box for "Never send it to Spam".
  7. Click "Create filter" again to save. 

Outlook Whitelisting Steps

  1. Go to Settings “gear” icon and click on View all Outlook settings.
  2. Select Mail then Junk email.
  3. Under "Safe senders and domains," click "+ Add".
  4. Enter “@gcbt.org” and press Enter.
  5. Click Save. 

APPLE:

Apple Mail Steps

Using the "Move Message" action (often found within Rules or Filters) is an effective way to create a "whitelist" or safe-senders list. 

This technique ensures that messages from specific senders are automatically moved to your inbox and not sent to spam or junk folders. 

Here is how to create a whitelist using "move message" across different email platforms:

Apple Mail / Mac OS X Mail

  1. Go to Mail > Preferences and click the Rules tab.
  2. Click Add Rule.
  3. Name the rule (e.g., "Whitelist").
  4. Set conditions to: "If any of the following conditions are met: From contains".
  5. Enter the sender’s email address or domain (e.g., @example.com) in the field.
  6. Under "Perform the following actions," select Move Message to mailbox Inbox.