Outlook offers significant configuration options for handling incoming messages. In this guide, you will find instructions on blocking senders, marking senders as safe, setting up forwarding, and creating or removing inbox rules.
Blocking or Marking a Sender as Safe
If spam messages appear in your inbox, you can block the sender or domain. Conversely, if you notice legitimate emails ending up in your Junk Email folder in Outlook, you can mark the sender of these emails as safe. Blocking or marking a sender as safe is a quick and straightforward process, but it has limited configuration options. If you require a more complex rule, please see Creating an Inbox Rule.
In addition to blocking or marking a sender as safe, you may follow the steps detailed in this guide to report an email as malicious, or to report a false positive or false negative: https://www.uvm.edu/it/kb/article/proofpoint.
Blocking a Sender
Outlook on the Web
Right click an email from a sender you wish to block, then select Block > Block sender
This will add the sender to your Blocked Senders list, found in the Blocked senders and domains section of your settings.
Outlook for Microsoft 365
Right-click on an email from a sender you wish to block, and then select Junk > Block Sender
This will add the sender of the selected email to your Blocked Senders list.
Managing Blocked Senders
Outlook on the Web
- Click the Gear icon near the upper-right corner to open the Settings menu
- Within the Mail tab on the left side, select Junk email
- To block a sender or domain, click + Add under Blocked senders and domains, type in the address or domain name you wish to block, and then press the Enter key
Other optionsFrom here, you may also:
- Edit an entry by clicking on the Pencil to the right
- Delete an entry by clicking on the Trash can to the right
- Click Save at the bottom of the window to confirm your changes
Outlook for Microsoft 365
- Select the Home tab, and then expand the Junk drop-down and click Junk E-mail Options
- Select the Blocked Senders tab
From here, you can manually add an address or domain to the Blocked Senders list using the Add… button, or you can Edit or Remove entries in your Blocked Senders list
Marking a Sender as Safe
Outlook on the Web
- Click the Gear icon near the upper-right corner to open the Settings menu
- Within the Mail tab on the left side, select Junk email
- To mark a sender or domain as safe, click + Add under Safe senders and domains, type in the address or domain name you wish to mark as safe, and then press the Enter key
Other optionsFrom here, you may also:
- Edit an entry by clicking on the Pencil to the right
- Delete an entry by clicking on the Trash can to the right
- Click Save at the bottom of the window to confirm your changes
Outlook for Microsoft 365
If you have an email in your junk folder from the sender in question, you can select the message first, and then in step 1 you can simply click Never Block Sender instead of Junk Email Options. If you do this, you can skip the rest of the steps.
- Select the Home tab, and then expand the Junk drop-down and click Junk E-mail Options
- Select the Safe Senders tab and click Add
- Enter the address or domain name you wish to mark as safe and click OK
- Click OK at the bottom of the Junk Email Options window to confirm your changes
Forwarding
UVM Information Security Policy states that Protected University Information must NOT be stored on any non-UVM device or service (e.g, Gmail).
Protected University Information includes but is not limited to: Protected Personal Data (PPD), Personally Identifiable Information (PII), Protected Health Information (PHI), and Protected Student Information (FERPA). Read the policy here.
Outlook on the Web
- Log in to Outlook on the Web at mail.uvm.edu
- Click the Gear icon near the upper-right corner to open the Settings menu
- Within the Mail tab on the left side, select Forwarding, and then check the box marked Enable forwarding
- Enter the address you would like to forward your email to, and then click Save
Creating an Inbox Rule
Inbox rules can automatically move mail from your inbox to a selected folder, categorize messages by custom criteria, and much more.
If you’re attempting to forward mail to a College of Medicine address, please see the Forwarding section above. Do not use inbox rules to forward mail.
Outlook on the Web
- Click the Gear icon near the upper-right corner to open the Settings menu
- Within the Mail tab on the left side, select Rules, and then click + Add new rule
Other optionsFrom here, you may also make changes to your existing rules using the icons to the right:
- Adjust the order that the rules are applied using the Up and Down arrows
- Edit a rule by clicking on the Pencil
- Delete a rule by clicking on the Trash can
- Enter a name for your rule
- Choose a trigger condition, and then choose an action that should take place when the condition is met
You can choose multiple conditions and/or actionsOnce you’ve chosen a condition or action, links to Add another condition or Add another action will appear.
- When you’re done, click Save
Outlook for Microsoft 365
- Select the Home tab
- Expand the Rules drop-down and click Manage Rules & Alerts
For rule suggestions based on the selected email, click Create Rule insteadIf you have an email selected and you’d like to create a rule that applies to messages like that one, click Create Rule instead of Manage Rules & Alerts. This will bring up a simplified rule creation window tailored to the selected message. For more general rule creation, click Manage Rules & Alerts and continue with these steps.
- In the Rules and Alerts window, click New Rule
- Some popular rules have templates you can select; otherwise, select one of the blank rules at the bottom and click Next
Editing rule descriptions
Any conditions, actions, and exceptions that contain underlined values require you to make more specific selections. For example, a condition that triggers on a message arriving “from people or public group” will require you to specify the person or public group. Click on the underlined value to open a window that will let you select the appropriate choice(s).
- On the first page of the Rules Wizard, select any conditions that you would like to trigger the rule, make any necessary edits, and then click Next
- On the next page, select any actions that you would like to perform when the rule triggers, make any necessary edits, and then click Next
- On the third page, select any exceptions to the rule that you would like to add (if any), make any necessary edits, and then click Next
- On the final page, specify a descriptive name for the rule, ensure Turn on this rule is checked, and then click Finish
You should now see the rule with a check mark next to it in the list of Email Rules.
Removing Client-Side Rules
In Outlook (and other email clients), it’s possible to create rules that only affect the client on which they are configured. This typically happens if you try to create a rule that can’t be processed by Exchange, such as one that prints an email. If you try to create a rule like this, Outlook will warn you that the rule will be client-side only, and it will ask you to confirm.
Client-side rules will not carry over to a new computer, device, alternate email client, or Outlook on the Web. Additionally, it’s difficult to troubleshoot mailbox issues when IT does not have a complete view of the rules impacting your account. Thus, it’s highly recommended to use only server-side rules.
Outlook for Windows
- Select the Home tab
- Expand the Rules drop-down and click Manage Rules & Alerts
- Remove any client-only rules by selecting them, clicking Delete, and then clicking Yes in the confirmation window
Identifying Client-0nly RulesClient-only rules will say “(client-only)” to the right of the rule’s name.
Outlook for macOS
- Select the Home tab, and then expand the Rules drop-down and click Edit Rules…
- Under the Client Rules section, look in each subsection for rules; remove rules by selecting them and then clicking the minus () sign
- Click Delete when prompted
