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Does Apple Mail have a Safe Senders list?

Apple Mail continues to place emails in my junk folder, which are from people I regularly email back and forth with. Is there a safe senders list somewhere? I don't to have to make a contact for a bunch of emails just to keep them from going into junk.


Posted on Sep 27, 2021 3:38 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 27, 2021 4:32 PM

Thank you for the responses. After considering multiple options, I solved this by creating my own Whitelist as a rule.  Here is how I did it.


Creating the Rule

1) Go to: Mail —> Preferences —> Rules

2) Add Rule, and name the new rule “Whitelist”

3) For the new rule:

  • Choose if Any of the following conditions are met.
  • Choose From in the first drop down and Ends With in the second drop down.  Then in the text field to the right of the Ends With drop down, type the email address OR domain of email addresses you want to go to your inbox instead of Junk. 

Example 1: John@abc.com (sends John’s emails to your inbox) .

Example 2: @abc.com (sends emails from anybody whose email address ends @abc.com to your inbox including John).

4) In the Perform the following actions section, choose Move Message in the first drop down and Inbox in the second drop down. NOTE: Even if Inbox is already selected in the second drop down, you still need to click the second drop down and choose Inbox again for Apple Mail to register the choice.


Adding Additional Emails to the Rule

1) Each time you need to add a new email address to your whitelist go to: Mail —> Preferences —> Rules, find your Whitelist rule, and select Edit.

2) Find an email address or domain of email addresses you added to the rule previously, and click the + symbol to the right of it.

3) Repeat Step 3) for the additional email address or domain of email addresses.





5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 27, 2021 4:32 PM in response to AZsport115

Thank you for the responses. After considering multiple options, I solved this by creating my own Whitelist as a rule.  Here is how I did it.


Creating the Rule

1) Go to: Mail —> Preferences —> Rules

2) Add Rule, and name the new rule “Whitelist”

3) For the new rule:

  • Choose if Any of the following conditions are met.
  • Choose From in the first drop down and Ends With in the second drop down.  Then in the text field to the right of the Ends With drop down, type the email address OR domain of email addresses you want to go to your inbox instead of Junk. 

Example 1: John@abc.com (sends John’s emails to your inbox) .

Example 2: @abc.com (sends emails from anybody whose email address ends @abc.com to your inbox including John).

4) In the Perform the following actions section, choose Move Message in the first drop down and Inbox in the second drop down. NOTE: Even if Inbox is already selected in the second drop down, you still need to click the second drop down and choose Inbox again for Apple Mail to register the choice.


Adding Additional Emails to the Rule

1) Each time you need to add a new email address to your whitelist go to: Mail —> Preferences —> Rules, find your Whitelist rule, and select Edit.

2) Find an email address or domain of email addresses you added to the rule previously, and click the + symbol to the right of it.

3) Repeat Step 3) for the additional email address or domain of email addresses.





Sep 30, 2021 5:01 PM in response to AZsport115

NOTE: Most Macs have a Rule in Apple Mail already called News From Apple which runs first. The purpose of this rule is to change the background color of the email in your inbox so that you recognize it as being from Apple. However, the rule inexplicably by default has a second action: Stop Evaluating Rules


This means that after the News From Apple rule runs, it will stop running any new rules you have created. Any rule you have set to run after News From Apple will not run unless you remove the Stop Evaluating Rules action from the rule itself.


You can do this by editing the News From Apple rule, and clicking the minus ( - ) symbol at the bottom of the rule on the line which contains the Stop Evaluating Rules action.

Sep 27, 2021 4:00 PM in response to AZsport115

AZsport115 wrote:

Apple Mail continues to place emails in my junk folder, which are from people I regularly email back and forth with. Is there a safe senders list somewhere? I don't to have to make a contact for a bunch of emails just to keep them from going into junk.


Junk mail not working


https://support.apple.com/guide/mail/if-junk-mail-filters-arent-working-mlhlp1145/mac


https://support.apple.com/guide/mail/junk-mail-preferences-cpmlprefjunk/mac


https://support.apple.com/guide/mail/reduce-junk-mail-mlhlp1065/mac



Identify and filter junk mail in iCloud - Apple Support


https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/mail/junk-mail-advanced-settings-cpmlprefjunkadd/mac


https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/mail/viewing-preferences-cpmlprefview/mac




Mail advanced junk mail settings on Mac - Apple Support

https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/mail/junk-mail-advanced-settings-cpmlprefjunkadd/mac



If Junk mail is not working for you as expected you can turn it off in Mail>Preferences>Junk.

You have the option of installing a third party spam filter. ex.

https://c-command.com/spamsieve/

Sep 27, 2021 3:50 PM in response to AZsport115

I don't to have to make a contact for a bunch of emails just to keep them from going into junk.

Yes, that would be how to make a “safe senders” list for Mail.

You may want to investigate why they are going to junk. Then, you may be able to fix it. If it is Mail, you might be able to train it by moving them to the Inbox. However, if is your email server moving them, you’d have to resolve that with them. If it is another server marking them with X-Spam headers, you can try disabling the “Trust Junk email headers” setting in the Junk preferences.

Does Apple Mail have a Safe Senders list?

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