How to Add Approved Senders to Gmail

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Allow trusted senders to bypass the spam folder in Gmail or Google Workspace

Written by Nicole Levine, MFA

Last Updated: November 6, 2024 Fact Checked

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Adding to Contacts

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Adding to a Safe Senders Filter

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Adding Approved Senders in Google Workspace

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Do important emails keep slipping through to your spam folder? To make sure messages from safe senders reach your inbox, add their email addresses to your contacts or create an approved sender filter for one or more addresses or domains. If you're a Google Workspace admin, you can create or edit an approved senders list to ensure messages are delivered to your users. Read on to learn how!

Adding to the Safe Senders List in Gmail

To add an approved sender to a personal Gmail account, add their email address to your contacts.
You can also create a filter in See all settings > Filters and Blocked Addresses for trusted email addresses and domains and select "Never send it to spam."
On Google Workspace, edit or create an approved senders list in Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail > Routing , then allow the list through the spam filter.

Method 1

Method 1 of 3:

Adding to Contacts

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1
Add the contact from an existing email (optional). One way to ensure someone's emails are approved to arrive in your inbox is to add the person to your contact list. If you have an email from the person you want to add (and you're using a computer), you can skip the rest of this method and quickly add the contact right from the email. Here's how:
- Sign in to Gmail in a web browser.
- Open the email from the sender you want to approve.
- Hover your mouse cursor over the sender's name or icon.
- Click the Contacts button (the icon of a person and a plus +) at the top-right corner of the window.
- Now that the person is a contact, Gmail shouldn't block their messages.
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Click the Apps button and select Contacts . If you don't have a message from the person you're adding, you can manually add them in Google Contacts. The Apps button is the 9 squares at the upper-right corner of Gmail. When the Google Apps list opens, click the blue Contacts icon. ^{[1]
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- If you're using a mobile device like an Android, iPhone, or iPad, you can use Google Contacts instead. On Android, open the Google Contacts app and go to + > Create a contact . On an iPhone or iPad, go to https://contacts.google.com in a web browser and go to + > ' Create a contact . Then, skip to step 4 .
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Clicking the blue "+ Create contact" button brings up a menu, and you'll see Create a contact as one of the two options.
You can add as much information for this contact as you want, but make sure you add the email address you want to whitelist.
It's in the upper-right corner. Now that you've added the sender to your contacts, Gmail shouldn't send their messages to your Trash folder.

Method 2

Method 2 of 3:

Adding to a Safe Senders Filter

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If you want to ensure emails from approved senders always arrive in your inbox instead of the Trash folder, you can create safe sender filters for individual email addresses or domains . You'll need to be using Gmail on your computer to do this.
The gear icon is at the upper-right corner of your Inbox.
Any Gmail filters you've already added will appear here.
It's a blue link below any existing filters.
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Type the email address or domain into the "From" box. Enter the email address you want to approve in the "From" field at the top. To add multiple email addresses to your safe senders list, separate each email address with a comma.
- If you want to approve all emails sent from a specific domain (for example, anyone at wikihow.com), just enter "@(domain name)" (e.g., @wikihow.com ).
This takes you to a screen with multiple checkboxes.
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Select "Never send it to Spam" and click Create filter . This ensures that emails from this address will always arrive in your inbox.
- You can add additional email addresses to your safe senders list at any time by returning to Filters and Blocked Addresses and clicking edit next to the filter.

Method 3

Method 3 of 3:

Adding Approved Senders in Google Workspace

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If you manage a Google Workplace for an organization, you can create an approved sender list to allow trusted senders from specific email addresses or domains. If you already have an approved sender list, it's easy to add additional addresses at any time. Log in to the admin console at https://admin.google.com to get started. ^{[2]
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To get there, click the menu ☰, go to Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail > Routing . ^{[3]
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If you already have address lists, you'll see them listed here.
If you already have an approved senders list, hover your mouse over the list and click Edit . If not, click Add address list .
You might name this list something like "Approved Senders," "Safe List," "Whitelist," or similar.
Alternatively, if you want to add multiple email addresses, select Bulk add addresses .
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Enter the email address(es) you want to approve and click Save . If you're adding multiple addresses, separate them with commas. Now that you have an updated approved senders list, you'll need to allow those senders through the spam and phishing filters if you haven't already.
- The "Require sender authentication" option, which is enabled by default, ensures that email addresses in the list are only delivered if they're authenticated. To be authenticated, the message's "From:" address must match the "Return-path" address and have a valid DKIM signature with a domain that matches their email address. You should keep this setting on to ensure nobody spoofs the email addresses of your approved senders. However, if certain emails aren't being delivered, you may need to disable it. ^{[4]
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To get there, click the menu ☰, go to Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail > Spam, Phishing and Malware , and select your organizational unit.
The option you'll see depends on whether you've created any rules thus far.
You might call this something like "Approved Senders," "Safe Senders," or "Allow List."
This option makes it possible to allow all addresses on your approved sender list through the spam filters so they'll be delivered to your users.
You can select multiple lists if you'd like. Once you've added a user to your approved senders, it can take up to 24 hours for the changes to take effect, though it doesn’t usually take that long.