Adding Senders to Outlook 2010 Safe Sender List

To save time having to choose to download pictures in Microsoft Outlook messages from outside the Metalogix GAL, I often add addresses to the Outlook safe senders list. Unfortunately, I have found that this isn’t as straightforward as it used to be in Outlook 2007.

The Outlook 2007 method for adding a sender to the Outlook 2010 safe list does not work for me. Despite the follow note in the Outlook documentation, I do not get the option when I right-click a message or go up to the Junk E-mail option in the ribbon.

“To quickly add a sender, domain name, or mailing list name to the Safe Senders or Safe Recipients Lists, right-click the message you consider safe, and then on the shortcut menu, point to Junk E-mail, and then click Add Sender to Safe Senders List, Add Sender's Domain (@example.com) to Safe Senders List, or Add Recipient to Safe Recipients List.”

It appears that the option has simply been removed from the context menu and wasn’t added to the ribbon. You might be tricked into thinking that “Never Block Sender” achieves the same effect, but I’ve tried it and that option does not add the sender to the safe senders list.

The longer method (from the same documentation page) will work, but it’s cumbersome:

1. On the Home tab of the ribbon, click the dropdown arrow next to Junk
2. Select Junk Email Options...
3. Click the Safe Senders or Safe Recipients tab.
4. Click Add.
5. In the Enter an e-mail address or Internet domain name to be added to the list box, enter the name or address you want added, and then click OK.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each name or address that you want to add.

In previous versions of Outlook:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. On the Preferences tab, under E-mail, click Junk E-mail.
3. Click the Safe Senders or Safe Recipients tab.
4. Click Add.
5. In the Enter an e-mail address or Internet domain name to be added to the list box, enter the name or address you want added, and then click OK.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each name or address that you want to add.

These is however, a faster way to do it. If the message contains images—which is my main use case anyway—you can use the “Click here to download pictures” bar to quickly add the sender to the safe list. To do this, right-click on the bar at the top of the message preview and choose “Add Sender to Safe Senders List.” Quick and easy. Now you don’t need to choose to download images from senders you trust.

Update: As you can see in the comments below (thanks Drake!), there is also a way to automatically add people you mail to the Safe Senders list:

“From the Junk E-mail Options window, navigate to the Safe Senders tab and check the Automatically add people I e-mail to the Safe Senders List option. You can also Add E-mail from addresses or domain names on your Safe Senders List and this will never be treated as junk e-mail.” - From www.oracle-forums.com