Blocking or allowing a sender

Use a sender rule to send unwanted incoming mail to Junk or help legitimate mail stay out of Junk. You can apply the rule to one receiving mailbox or, with the appropriate access, every address on a mail domain.

Blocking a sender sends matching mail to Junk. It does not reject the message before delivery or unsubscribe you from a mailing list. Allowing a sender helps authenticated mail reach Inbox, but it does not guarantee delivery or make every message from that address safe.

These controls are for Cedros-hosted mail and require permission to manage mail settings. Business-wide controls also require permission to edit site settings. The mail service must be ready and the receiving address must be available to your account. A sender rule in Cedros does not update a block list or filter in Gmail or another provider.

Block a sender for one mailbox

1. Open Email → Inbox → Settings. The page is titled Your mail.
2. In Your mail rules, open the ⋯ menu beside Add rule. Its accessible name is More rule actions.
3. Select Block a sender…. The New rule dialog opens with Send to Junk selected.
4. In From this sender, enter the full sender address, such as offers@example.com. To match a whole sender domain, enter @example.com. Use your actual sender, not these examples.
5. If Runs on mail to appears, choose the receiving address. Check the summary even when there is only one available address.
6. Select Save rule and wait for Rule saved. Check the saved row for the sender, Send to Junk, and the correct Applies to address.

The sender is the address shown in the message's From field, not just its display name. Copy the full email address from a relevant message and check it before saving. A familiar display name can hide a different address.

Use an exact address when only one sender is unwanted. A domain rule such as @example.com matches every sender at that exact domain; it does not also match @news.example.com. Do not use a broad public email domain when you mean to block one person.

A rule for a shared receiving address affects mail for everyone using that mailbox. Coordinate the change with the team.

Allow a legitimate sender

1. Open Email → Inbox → Settings → Your mail rules.
2. Open More rule actions and choose Always allow a sender…. The dialog opens with Never send to Junk selected.
3. Enter the full address in From this sender, or use an @example.com domain only if the rule should cover every sender at that domain.
4. Choose Runs on mail to, if shown, and check the receiving address in the summary.
5. Select Save rule, wait for Rule saved., and verify the saved sender, action, and address.

Despite the Never send to Junk label, Cedros only applies the allow action when its receiving mail server has verified that the message passes DMARC, the sender-domain authentication check. If authentication fails or the trusted result is missing, the allow rule leaves the existing classification unchanged. This helps prevent someone impersonating an allowed address from bypassing Junk filtering.

An allow rule does not recover messages already in Junk. It also does not override a separate content rule that archives or trashes mail, recover mail that was never delivered, or change filtering at another provider. Test a new genuine message after saving.

If you already have a block rule for the same sender and receiving address, edit that rule to Never send to Junk instead of leaving contradictory rules in place. To stop blocking without adding an allow exception, delete the block rule as described below; normal filtering then applies.

Choose an address or a whole domain

Your mail rules is the place for rules tied to a receiving mailbox available to you. A personal-page rule is still a mailbox setting, not a private view preference. Mail sent through an alias can reach the same mailbox, so test the addresses your senders actually use.

An administrator can create a broader rule:

1. Open Settings → Site → Mail.
2. Check the receiving mail domain. If Manage domain appears, select the intended domain before opening a rule.
3. In Rules for every address, open More rule actions and choose Block a sender… or Always allow a sender….
4. Enter the sender address or sender domain and check the dialog's scope explanation. The rule applies to every receiving address on the selected mail domain.
5. Select Save rule, wait for Rule saved., and check the row's Applies to value, such as All of example.com.

The two domains have different purposes: From this sender identifies whose mail to match; Applies to identifies your receiving domain or mailbox. A business-wide sender rule for one receiving domain does not automatically cover every other domain on the site.

The personal card may show a notice that site-wide rules also affect your mail. Those rules are edited in Rules for every address, rather than duplicated as editable personal rows.

Understand matching and conflicting rules

Sender rules accept a complete email address or an @domain pattern. They do not match a display name, partial address, subject, or message body. Letter casing does not matter for ordinary email addresses. Enter the address directly, without a display name, angle brackets, wildcard, or list of addresses.

If several sender rules match, Cedros selects one using this priority:

1. A rule for the receiving mailbox takes priority over a business-wide rule.
2. Within the same scope, an exact sender-address rule takes priority over a whole-sender-domain rule.
3. If scope and sender specificity are the same, the most recently updated rule takes priority. If those update times are identical, blocking takes priority.

For example, a mailbox-specific allow rule can create an exception to a business-wide block, provided the incoming message passes the authentication requirement. Within one scope, blocking one exact address can be an exception to allowing the sender's wider domain.

Sender rules do not have Move up or Move down controls. Their position in the table is not a manual priority setting. Review both scopes and remove obsolete conflicting rules instead of relying on the visible row order.

Send to Junk and Never send to Junk cannot combine subject or body conditions, labels, or Mark as read. If you start from Add rule, remove subject and body conditions before choosing a sender action; switching to one also clears the label and read action. For decisions based on message content, see Creating rules to organize your mail.

The recent-message match preview used for content rules is not available for sender-only rules. Verify them with new mail rather than expecting a historical match count.

Correct a mistake or remove a rule

To change a saved sender rule, open its row's Rule actions menu, select Edit rule…, correct the sender, receiving address, or Junk action, and select Save rule. Wait for Rule updated. and inspect the saved row. If you switch between content and sender actions, review the entire rule because they support different conditions and actions.

To remove a rule, choose Delete rule…, read Delete this rule?, and confirm Delete rule. Wait for Sender rule deleted. and check that the row is gone. Removing an allow rule restores normal filtering; removing a block rule stops that particular block. Other matching rules can still apply.

Changing or deleting a rule does not undo what it already did. To recover a legitimate message:

1. Return to Inbox and open Junk, using More if needed.
2. Find the message by its sender or subject.
3. Open its actions and choose Not spam. For Cedros-hosted mail, this also submits feedback to the spam filter.
4. Check the resulting folder. If you are viewing only Needs attention, switch to All mail to find it.

Not spam corrects the selected message's classification; it is not the same as creating an explicit allow rule. See Finding and organizing messages for folder recovery. Correct the saved rule separately if it caused the mistake.

Test the saved result

Use a new message from the actual sender after saving. For a rule you are trying out with an account you control, send from that account to the selected receiving address. Changing only a display name will not test a different sender address.

Check the result in Cedros:

• Block: look in Junk and confirm that the message came from the exact address or domain you entered.
• Allow: check Inbox first, then Junk, Archive, and Trash if it is missing. Authentication and separate content rules can affect the outcome.
• Mailbox scope: test the intended personal or shared address. If you expect other receiving addresses to remain unaffected, test one of those too.
• Business-wide scope: test relevant mailboxes on the selected receiving domain, including any with their own sender exceptions.

Do not repeatedly change a rule just because an old message stays where it is. Saving confirms the rule is stored; new-message testing confirms its effect. If the incoming message is missing entirely, use Why aren't my emails arriving?.

If the rule is unavailable or does not work

• The menu is unavailable. Wait for an in-progress save to finish. Check that the Cedros mail service is ready, a mail domain is available, and your account can manage mail settings. Reading or sending mail alone does not grant that permission.
• The page says Mail isn't running yet. Ask the administrator to check the mail setup. A Google connection alone does not make these Cedros-hosted sender controls available. Do not change hosting simply to remove the notice.
• The service state cannot be read. Use Try again. This does not mean your saved rules were erased.
• The sender is rejected. Enter one complete email address or @example.com for a domain. Do not paste a display name, multiple recipients, or *@example.com.
• The receiving address is missing or saving reports an invalid scope. Check that the mailbox is active and belongs to the selected domain. Ask the administrator to review personal and shared addresses, especially when the site uses more than one mail domain.
• Allowed mail still goes to Junk. Check the actual From address, domain spelling, mailbox scope, and any higher-priority sender rule. If those are correct, ask support to check sender authentication; repeatedly adding allow rules will not repair a failed authentication check.
• Blocked mail is still visible elsewhere. Confirm that it is new mail to the expected mailbox, then review conflicting sender rules and content rules. Check provider settings separately if the mailbox is hosted elsewhere.
• A save or deletion fails. Read the error, refresh the settings, and inspect the current rows before retrying. Do not assume the change took effect just because the dialog closed.

For help, contact support with the sender address, receiving address, approximate arrival time, saved action and scope, actual folder, and error text. Avoid passwords or unnecessary private message content.