Incoming Email Settings: Manage what reaches your users' inboxes
Administrators can control how incoming emails are handled within the organization to maintain a secure and reliable email environment. Sometimes, legitimate emails get flagged incorrectly, while spam or harmful messages can reach users' inboxes.
Incoming Email Settings give administrators the tools to handle both problems, precisely and without relying solely on automated checks.
What are Incoming Email Settings?
Incoming Email Settings let administrators control how emails from specific addresses or domains are handled before they ever reach a user's inbox. There are four lists available, each serving a distinct purpose:
Allowed List: Prevents legitimate emails from being misidentified as spam, delivering them directly to the inbox. Note that Allowed List status doesn't guarantee inbox delivery. Emails that still fail spam checks may land in the Spam folder.
Blocked List: Routes all incoming messages from designated addresses or domains straight to the Spam folder, even if they pass the SPF test.
Trusted List: Bypasses spam processing entirely for specified senders, skipping SPF, DKIM, and block list validations.
Rejected List: Bounces emails from unwanted senders without any checks, preventing them from reaching the inbox at all.
Why does this matter for admins?
These settings enable you to take control of your organization's email environment before issues reach end users:
Keep harmful emails out: Blocked and Rejected lists prevent spam and malicious senders from reaching user inboxes.
Ensure legitimate email gets through: The Allowed List reduces the risk of important emails being incorrectly marked as spam.
Skip spam checks for trusted senders: The Trusted List exempts specific senders from all spam processing, including SPF and DKIM validation.
Review and act on rules in one place: View rule details and navigate to full rule settings directly from the user's incoming email settings page.
Steps to configure Incoming Email Settings in Zoho Mail Admin Console
Log in to Zoho Mail Admin Console.
Navigate to Users in the left pane and select the preferred user.
On the user page, click Incoming Email Settings.
Select Email Addresses/Domains/Rules based on your requirement.
Click Add to add the email address or Domain to Allowed/Blocked list.
