Outlook how to whitelist an email address

Do you hate when Outlook sends some important emails to the junk folder without your knowledge? If so, you are just a few steps away from ending your struggle. Outlook allows users to whitelist specific email addresses by adding them to the Safe Senders list.

Once you've added them, emails from those contacts or email domains will not go to your junk folder. In this article, we will show you how to whitelist email addresses or email domains on Outlook desktop and Outlook web clients.

How to Whitelist Email Addresses in Outlook Desktop Client

Here are the steps for whitelisting email addresses in the Outlook desktop client so that they land directly in your inbox:

1. Navigate to the Home tab in Outlook.
2. Click the More commands dropdown, represented by three horizontal dots, on the ribbon's right.
3. Go to Junk > Junk E-mail Options...

4. Navigate to the Safe Senders tab in the Junk E-mail Options window.
5. Click the Add button, enter the email address or domain you want to whitelist, and click OK.

6. Follow the same steps to add another email by clicking on the Add button.
7. When all email addresses have been successfully added, click Apply to save the changes and click OK to confirm.

You can also add bulk email addresses to Outlook's Safe Senders list if you want to whitelist addresses in bulk. Here are the steps you need to follow:

1. Make a list of all the email addresses you want to whitelist in a text file.
2. Go to Junk > Junk E-mail Options...

3. Navigate to the Safe Senders tab inthe Junk E-mail Options window.
4. Click Import from File button.
5. From your computer, select the file where you collected the email address.

6. Click OK after hitting Apply.

How to Whitelist Email Addresses in Outlook Web Client

Follow the below steps to whitelist email addresses in the Outlook web client:

1. Visit the Outlook website and click Sign in in the top-right corner.
2. To sign in, enter your login credentials.
3. In the top-right corner of the screen, click the gear icon and select View all Outlook settings.

4. Click the Junk email tab in the Settings window.
5. Under Safe senders and domains, click Add.
6. Enter the email address or domain you want to whitelist, and press Enter. After that, click Save.

7. Repeat the process to whitelist another email.

In the Outlook web client, we cannot whitelist email addresses in bulk, as we can in the Outlook desktop client. So, you will need to add all emails one by one following the same process described above. Find out the other differences between Outlook desktop client and Outlook web client.

Whitelisting Email Domains Can Be Risky

Outlook allows users to whitelist entire email domains, rather than whitelisting all of the email addresses associated with the same email domain one by one. If you whitelist one email domain (such as @microsoft.com), all email addresses associated with that email domain will also be whitelisted.

While it makes it easy to whitelist all email addresses with the same email domain, such as the ones of your academy fellows and teachers, it can sometimes be risky to do so. For instance, hackers may find a way to create an email account with the same email domain as your academy, the one you've whitelisted.

Once they do that, they may send you phishing emails, but since you have whitelisted the email domain, Outlook will not mark it spam. Therefore, the scam email may reach your inbox directly. It increases the chances of becoming a victim of phishing email scams. Find out the top signs of a phishing scam.

Never Miss an Important Email Again

Hopefully, you now understand how whitelisting email addresses in Outlook works and why you should avoid whitelisting entire email domains.

By adding the email addresses to the Safe Senders list, you will never miss an important email again. If someday you receive an important email in Outlook with blank content, you can fix it quickly.