You’re waiting for an important email, but no matter how many times you refresh your account, the email doesn’t materialize. It could be that the sender has forgotten to send it, but if you know that’s not the case, it’s time to look for issues in your own account. Luckily, fixing the problem might be simple once you learn a technique sometimes called white listing.
Email Folders
Email providers – like Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo Mail – go to a lot of work to prevent your inbox from being flooded with spam and scams. One way they do this is by sorting incoming emails into different folders based on what they appear to be.
Depending on the email provider you use, the folder names and divisions will vary slightly. For example, Gmail gives you three main folders: Primary, Social and Promotion. You can also have Updates and Forums folders. In Outlook, you get two main folders: Focused and Other.
In addition to these main folders, you have a folder called Junk or Spam. This is where the emails identified as unwanted go. Many of the emails the end up here will be fishing scams or other cons that you want to avoid. Because these emails are generally unwanted and possibly dangerous, the folder may be somewhat hidden. To find it, you might need to find the folder menu and click to see more options.
Sometimes the email provider makes a mistake. An email you want may get misclassified. If you haven’t received an email you’re waiting for, check your other folders, including the spam or junk folder.
White Listing
If you can’t find the email you’re waiting for, or if your email provider keeps misclassifying emails as junk, you can fix the problem by white listing the sender.
White listing means you’re identifying the sender as safe or approved. How you do this will depend on the email provider you use. In general, try going to “settings” or “options” and look for a way to add a safe sender or create a safe list. Sometimes adding the sender as a contact works, too.
Gmail works a little differently. To white list a sender, you can use the filter function. Start the process by going to the gear icon in the upper right corner.
- Select “settings.”
- Select “Filters and Blocked Addresses.”
- Select “Create a new filter.”
- Enter the search criteria. This could be a key word or the sender.
- Tell Gmail what to do with it. Options include “Never send it to Spam” and “Always mark it as important.”
If you’re sending emails, make sure recipients are adding you to their contacts or list of safe senders, too. As you know, we at Western Asset Protection send many emails to keep brokers informed. If you’d like to make sure you receive everything white list our primary sending address: support@westernassetprotection.com.
