How to Check Your Spam Folder and “Whitelist” Emails
Learn about: Whitelisting – How to check my spam folder
What is “whitelisting” emails and how do I do it?
Whitelisting emails is a way of ensuring that you receive legitimate emails from senders you want to receive email from. Spam and junk filters from the various email providers can be very zealous in ensuring that we do not receive emails from scammers, phishers, fraudsters, and desperate marketers.
That is a good thing! However, sometimes the spam and junk filters misidentify an email you would like to receive as a suspicious email and send it to the spam or junk folder where you may never see it.
When you whitelist an email, you are telling your email provider that emails from a particular sender or a particular domain are emails that you want to receive in your primary inbox so that you do not miss them. Whitelisting ensures that the emails you want to see end up on the “nice” list instead of on the “naughty” list.
Click on the links below to learn how to add ScienceBod to your email whitelist.
Gmail – Yahoo! Mail – AOL Mail – Outlook Web App – Office 365 Outlook – Apple iOS – Android
How to whitelist email in Gmail
Whitelisting an email in Gmail is a simple two-step process illustrated in the image below. Open your Gmail inbox. Locate the email from ScienceBod.com. It will be from Matt Worthy, the founder of ScienceBod.com. Open the email.
After the email is open, 1) hover over Matt Worthy’s name. That will cause his contact details to appear in a small pop-up window as depicted in the picture below. Then, 2) click on “Add to Contacts” to save Matt Worthy (matt@sciencebod.com) to your Gmail contacts list. This will prevent ScienceBod.com emails from ending up in your Spam folder.
You can also whitelist ScienceBod.com in GMail before opening the email. To do so, hover over Matt Worthy’s name next to the subject line in the inbox. A small pop-up menu will appear with Matt Worthy’s email contact information. Select “Add to Contacts” to save ScienceBod to your Gmail contacts list.
If you cannot find the email from ScienceBod or if you want to add ScienceBod to your Gmail contacts list via an alternate method, you can do so by adding “matt@sciencebod.com” directly to your Gmail Contacts app. To do so, click on the Google apps selector in the upper right hand corner of the Gmail inbox:
Clicking on the Google apps selector will open the menu for Google apps. Then, click on “Contacts”.
When you click on “Contacts”, the Google Contacts app will open. Click on “Create Contact” and add “matt@sciencebod.com” to your Gmail contacts.
How to whitelist email in Yahoo! Mail
Whitelisting in Yahoo! Mail requires that you create a “rule” that will cause Yahoo! to route all emails from “matt@sciencebod.com” to your Yahoo! Mail inbox instead of your Spam folder or anywhere else. This will ensure that you receive the latest ScienceBod.com emails and offers.
To whitelist ScienceBod in Yahoo! Mail, click on the “gear” icon labeled “Settings” in the upper right hand corner of the Yahoo! Mail inbox.
Clicking on the Settings gear icon will open the Settings menu. Click on “More Settings” at the bottom of the Settings menu.
The “More Settings” menu will open. On the left side of the screen are several additional settings to choose from beginning with “Personalize Inbox” and “Notifications”. A little more than halfway down is the selection for “Filters”. Filters allows you to establish rules to filter your Yahoo! Mail inbox. Click on Filters.
When you click on Filters, the Filters menu will appear. If you or anyone else has already added filters to your Yahoo! Mail inbox, they will appear here. There are no already-existing filters in the image below.
You will see the “Add new filters” selection below the heading section for “Your filters”. Click on “Add new filters”.
After clicking “Add new filters”, the “Edit Filter” menu will appear that will allow you to add a new “rule” to your email filters so that emails from ScienceBod will appear in your Yahoo! Mail inbox. There are a few steps to follow so there is a picture below with all of the places that require input from you highlighted in pink.
To add the new rule for ScienceBod, begin by typing “ScienceBod,com” (or whatever you want to name this rule – it’s up to you) in the blank for “Filter name”.
Next, expand the selection for “From” by clicking on the “greater than”, or sideways “carrot” symbol next to “From”.
In the pull-down menu that appears when you expand the “From” section, select “contains” as the rule for the ScienceBod filter you are creating.
Type “matt@sciencebod.com” as the criteria for the rule in the blank below the pull down menu where you just selected “contains”. This will ensure that any email from matt@sciencebod.com goes to your inbox instead of to spam.
We’re almost done! Toward the bottom of the “Edit Filter” menu is the section “Choose a folder to move to”. In the pull-down menu below “Choose folder to move to”, select “Inbox”.
Finally, click on the blue “Save” button at the bottom of the “Edit filter” menu. Congratulations! Your new rule for ScienceBod is all set.
How to whitelist email in AOL Mail
Whitelisting in AOL Mail requires that you add ScienceBod as a safe sender. To do this, add ScienceBod to your AOL Mail Contacts.
Click on the “Contacts” selection in the menu on the left side of the AOL Mail inbox.
Your AOL Mail contacts will now appear. At the top of your AOL Mail contacts are icons allowing you to add a new contact, a new distribution list, print, and “More”.
Click on the “New Contact” icon.
A “New Contact” form will now appear allowing you to add ScienceBod to your AOL Mail contacts as a safe sender. All of the emails from ScienceBod will come from Matt Worthy, the founder of ScienceBod.com, using the email address “matt@sciencebod.com”.
Fill out the appropriate blanks in the “New Contact” form. The only blank you need to ensure is correct is the blank for “Email 1”. Enter “matt@sciencebod.com” as the email address for ScienceBod.com emails. You can enter whatever information you want in the other fields.
After you have entered the information, make sure you click “Add Contact” to add ScienceBod to your AOL Mail safe senders list.
How to whitelist email in the Outlook web app
To whitelist email from ScienceBod from the Outlook web app, first click on the “gear” icon in the upper right corner of the Outlook mail inbox to open the Settings menu.
From the bottom of the Settings menu, click on “Mail”. This will open the Options menu for mail in the Outlook web app.
Once the Options menu is open, look for “Accounts”. Under “Accounts”, click on “Block or allow”. This will open the “Block or allow” interface where you can tell the Outlook web app which senders you want to receive email from and which senders you want to block email from.
Under “Safe Senders and Recipients”, type “matt@sciencebod.com” and then click the plus symbol. That will add email from ScienceBod to your Safe Senders list. Email from sciencebod.com will come from this email address.
How to whitelist email in Office 365 Outlook
To whitelist email in Office 365 Outlook, click on the “Home” tab at the top of Outlook interface. Then click on “Junk” to expand the Junk menu. At the bottom of the Junk menu, click on “Junk E-mail Options”.
That will open the Junk Email Options menu in a separate window.
From the Junk Email Options menu, click on the “Safe Senders” tab. Then click the “Add…” button. When the “Add address or domain” window opens, type “sciencebod.com” into the blank. Then press the “OK” button.
This will ensure that mail from ScienceBod.com is delivered to your inbox instead of to Junk.
How do I check my spam folder?
If you didn’t receive a confirmation email from ScienceBod.com, check your Spam or Junk mail email folders. Email providers have become more aggressive about filtering unsolicited emails. That can cause legitimate emails to be flagged as spam.
Click on the links below to jump to the instructions for checking the Spam or Junk folders for your email provider.
Gmail – Yahoo! Mail – AOL Mail – Outlook Web App – Office 365 Outlook – Apple iOS – Android
Gmail
Gmail may filter your emails into one of several places including the Spam mail folder. Click on the Spam folder to check inside for the missing email.
Gmail might also filter your emails into one of the tabs across the top of the interface. Those tabs are labeled Social, Promotions, and Forums. Promotions is where Gmail sends many emails that are thought to be lost. Click the tabs to review the contents of each section to attempt to locate the missing email.
Here are some additional tips from Google on how to locate a missing email on the Gmail platform.
Yahoo! Mail
Yahoo! Mail might send an email to the Spam folder. Click on the Spam folder to check if the email was sent to Spam.
If the missing email isn’t in the Spam folder, there are some other possible solutions. Click on this link from Yahoo! Help to find out how to know if the email from ScienceBod.com may have been blocked or filtered to another folder.
AOL Mail
AOL Mail’s spam folder is located along the left side of the interface. Click on the Spam folder to check for the missing email.
Outlook Web App
The Outlook web app’s spam folder is located along the left side of the interface. In Microsoft parlance, the Spam folder is called “Junk”. Click on the Junk folder to check for the missing email.
Here’s some additional information from Microsoft about how to manage the Junk Mail folder in the Outlook web app.
Office 365 Outlook
Microsoft Office 365 Outlook’s interface for the desktop/laptop version of Outlook is very similar to Outlook’s webmail interface. The spam folder is located along the left side of the interface. In Office 365 Outlook, the Spam folder is called “Junk”. Click on the Junk folder to check for the missing email.
Here’s some additional information from Microsoft about how to manage the Junk Mail folder in Office 365 Outlook.
Apple iOS
First, open the iOS Mail app. The icon looks like this:
Apple iOS allows a user to quickly access the primary inbox of each account set up under the iOS Mail app. Pictured below is the screen that appears after a user opens the Mail app. It lists all of the email accounts set up under the Mail app. Tapping on the account will open the primary email inbox for that account.
The Mail app calls the Spam folder, the “Junk” folder. In order to find the Junk folder for the account you are looking for, you must scroll down until you find the detailed mailbox for the account you are looking.
Each account has its own detailed mailbox. Keep scrolling until you arrive at the detailed mailbox for the account the email was sent to. Once you find the detailed mailbox for the account, tap on the Junk folder for the account to determine if the email from ScienceBod.com was routed there.
Once the Junk folder is open, you will see the Junk email messages.
Find the message from ScienceBod.com. Slide the message to the left to see the options.
Tap the gray More button. It is indicated by an ellipse, or “…” symbol.
Then, tap the “Mark” button.
Tap the “Mark as Not Junk” button. The message from ScienceBod.com is moved to your inbox. Subsequent messages from ScienceBod.com will no longer be marked as junk.
Here is more information from Apple about Junk mail and how to handle it.
Android
Since Android is a Google-created operating system, the email app common to Android users is the Gmail app. The Gmail app icon looks like this:
Tap on the Gmail app icon to open the Gmail app. When the app opens, the home screen will look something like the image below. Tap on the “hamburger” button in the upper left corner to open the detailed mailbox for your Gmail account. The hamburger button is outlined in yellow and a yellow arrow is pointing at it in the picture.
Pictured below are also the Promotions and the Social folders on the main screen. Occasionally, Gmail will misroute emails to these folders.
After you tap on the hamburger icon, the detailed mailbox for your Gmail account will appear. This is where the Spam folder can be located and checked to find a lost email.
The Spam folder will open displaying all of your Spam messages. Find the message from ScienceBod.com that was misrouted to Spam.
Notice the exclamation mark icons next to each message. This is Gmail’s way of highlighting the fact that your are in the Spam folder and that caution should be observed to avoid phishing, fraud, or other malevolent sorts of emails.
Long press on the message from ScienceBod.com. A check mark inside a circle will appear next to the message after you have long-pressed on it.
Then press “Not Spam” in the menu that appears at the bottom of the screen.
The message from ScienceBod.com will be moved to your Primary inbox. Further messages from ScienceBod.com will also arrive in your Primary inbox.
Here is additional information from Google about how to locate missing emails in the Gmail app.