You can create Safe Senders and Blocked Senders lists in Outlook. In these lists, you can add email addresses and domains that you trust and don’t trust. The user can manage these junk email options in Outlook. As an admin, you can manage the same with PowerShell and export all the mailboxes junk email options. In this article, you will learn to manage safe senders and blocked senders lists with PowerShell in Microsoft 365.
Table of contents
Junk Mail Protection
The recipient can manage the Exchange mailbox Junk Mail Protection, which consists of the following:
- Junk Email Filter: The Exchange mailbox security filter automatically checks each incoming email message and decides whether it is spam or legitimate.
- Junk Email Filter Lists: The Exchange mailbox security filter that can classify a specific sender or specific domain as a legitimate sender or non-legitimate sender. You can control what is considered spam by adding email addresses and domains to these lists.
Manage the Junk Mail Protection:
- User: Each recipient can manage their Exchange mailbox using Outlook or the OWA mail settings.
- Admin: Use PowerShell to manage from the server, where there are more options to configure mail settings on behalf of the users.
Junk email options in Outlook
The Outlook Junk Email Filter is enabled by default. Outlook does not use a local spam filter to check whether an email is legit or spam because that will be implemented by the Exchange server.
The screenshot below shows the default settings of the junk email protection configuration in Outlook.
- Open Outlook
- Click Junk > Junk E-mail Options
- Default setting > No Automatic Filtering. Mail from blocked senders is still moved to the Junk Email folder.
Note: When there is no automatic mail filtering, messages from the Blocked Senders list will still be moved to the spam folder.
Junk Email Filter Lists
The Exchange mailbox Junk Email Filter Lists consist of these types of filters:
- Safe Senders list
Use the PowerShell parameter -TrustedSendersAndDomain to manage the Safe Senders list.
The purpose of the Safe Senders list is to prevent legitimate mail from being mistakenly identified as spam and sent to the Junk Email folder.
When you add a domain name or email address to the Safe Senders List, emails sent from these senders will never be sent to the Junk Email folder.
- Blocked Senders list
Use the PowerShell parameter -BlockedSendersAndDomains to manage the Blocked Senders list.
The purpose of the Blocked Senders list is to prevent spam mail that bypasses existing mail security filters that didn’t manage to identify and classify it as spam mail. Messages from people or domain names that appear in this list are always classified as junk, regardless of the content.
When you add a domain name or an email address to the Blocked Senders list, emails from these senders will automatically be sent to the Junk Email folder.
- Safe Recipients list
Use the PowerShell parameter -TrustedRecipientsAndDomains to manage the Safe Recipients list.
The purpose of the Safe Recipients list is to prevent legitimate mail from being mistakenly identified as spam and sent to the Junk Email folder.
Safe recipients are recipients that you don’t want to block, usually groups that you are a member of. Everything you add to the Safe Senders list will automatically be added to the Safe Recipients list.
- International
This option does not have a PowerShell parameter.
The international option enables blocking specific email messages based on a country domain name or specific language encoding.
1. Add email addresses and domains to Safe Senders and Blocked Senders Lists
To add email addresses and domain names to the Safe Senders and Blocked Senders list for a single or all mailboxes, use the Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration PowerShell cmdlet.
Add email addresses or domains and remove existing Safe Senders list
To create an allow list of trusted senders, add new email addresses to the Safe Senders list, which will remove all existing ones from the list. Use the -TrustedSendersAndDomains parameter in the PowerShell command to add email addresses and domains to the Safe Senders list.
Create a new Safe Senders list and add trusted senders for a specific mailbox that will also remove all the existing email addresses from the list.
Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration -Identity "Amanda.Hansen@m365info.com" -TrustedSendersAndDomains "o365info.com", "alice@gmail.com"Create a new Safe Senders list by adding trusted senders for all mailboxes that will also remove all the existing email addresses and domain names from the list.
Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration -TrustedSendersAndDomains "o365info.com", "alice@gmail.com"Add email addresses and domains to existing Safe Senders list
To manage an allow list of trusted senders you can always add email addresses and domain names. Use the -TrustedSendersAndDomains parameter in the PowerShell command to add multiple email addresses and domains to the existing Safe Senders list.
Add an additional email address and domain name to the current Safe Senders list for a specific recipient without removing any existing trusted senders or domains.
Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration -Identity "Amanda.Hansen@m365info.com" -TrustedSendersAndDomains @{Add = "o365info.com", "alice@gmail.com" }Run the PowerShell command to add an additional email address and domain name to the current Safe Senders list for all mailboxes. It will not remove any existing trusted senders or domains from each Safe Senders list.
Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration -TrustedSendersAndDomains @{Add = "o365info.com", "alice@gmail.com" }Add email addresses or domains and remove existing Blocked Senders list
To create a block list of untrusted senders, add new email addresses to the Blocked Senders list, which will remove all existing ones from the list. Use the -BlockedSendersAndDomains PowerShell parameter to add email addresses and domains to the Blocked Senders list.
Create a new Blocked Senders list and add untrusted senders for a specific mailbox. It will also remove all the existing email addresses and domains from the list.
Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration -Identity "Amanda.Hansen@m365info.com" -BlockedSendersAndDomains "itspam.com", "spam@gmail.com"Create a new Blocked Senders list and add untrusted senders for all mailboxes, which will remove all the existing email addresses from the list.
Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration -BlockedSendersAndDomains "itspam.com", "spam@gmail.com"Add email addresses and domains to existing Blocked Senders list
You can also manage the block list of untrusted senders by adding an email address and domain to the current Blocked Senders list. It will not remove any existing email addresses or domains from the list.
Add an email address and domain name to the current Blocked Senders lists for a specific recipient.
Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration -Identity "Amanda.Hansen@m365info.com" -BlockedSendersAndDomains @{Add = "itspam.com", "spam@gmail.com" }Add an additional email address and domain name to the current Blocked Senders lists for all the Exchange recipients. It will not remove any existing untrusted senders or domains from each Blocked Senders list.
Run the PowerShell command to add blocked senders and domains to the existing Blocked Senders list for all mailboxes.
Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration -BlockedSendersAndDomains @{Add= "itspam.com", "spam@gmail.com" }Add email addresses or domains and remove existing Safe Senders and Blocked Senders lists
To create new Safe Senders and Blocked Senders lists, you need to add new email addresses, which will remove the existing ones from both lists.
Add new email addresses and domains to both the Safe Senders and Blocked Senders lists for a specific mailbox, which will remove the existing lists.
Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration -Identity "Amanda.Hansen@m365info.com" -TrustedSendersAndDomains "o365info.com", "alice@gmail.com" -BlockedSendersAndDomains "itspam.com", "spam@gmail.com"Run the below PowerShell command to add email addresses and domains to the Safe Senders and Blocked Senders lists for all mailboxes which will remove the existing lists.
Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration -TrustedSendersAndDomains "o365info.com", "alice@gmail.com" -BlockedSendersAndDomains "itspam.com", "spam@gmail.com"Add email addresses or domains to existing Safe Senders and Blocked Senders lists
To manage the current Safe Senders and Blocked Senders list, you can always add new email addresses. It will not remove any email addresses or domains from the existing lists.
Only add email addresses and domains to both the Safe Senders and Blocked Senders lists for a specific mailbox.
Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration -Identity "Amanda.Hansen@m365info.com" -TrustedSendersAndDomains @{Add = "o365info.com", "alice@gmail.com" } -BlockedSendersAndDomains @{Add = "itspam.com", "spam@gmail.com" }Run the below PowerShell command to add email addresses and domains to the Safe Senders and Blocked Senders lists for all mailboxes.
Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration -TrustedSendersAndDomains @{Add = "o365info.com", "alice@gmail.com" } -BlockedSendersAndDomains @{Add = "itspam.com", "spam@gmail.com" }2. Update existing Safe Senders and Blocked Senders lists
You can always update the existing Safe Senders lists and Blocked Senders lists. Manage both lists by removing or adding email addresses or domains for a single and all mailboxes.
Remove email addresses and domain names from Safe Senders list
We would like to remove an email address and domain name from the Safe Senders list from a specific user mailbox.
Run the PowerShell command to remove from the Safe Senders list for a single mailbox.
Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration -Identity "Amanda.Hansen@m365info.com" -TrustedSendersAndDomains @{Remove = "alice@gmail.com", "o365info.com" }You can also remove an email address and domain name from the Safe Senders list for all the Exchange recipients.
Run the PowerShell command to remove from the Safe Senders list for all mailboxes.
Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration -TrustedSendersAndDomains @{Remove = "alice@gmail.com", "o365info.com" }Remove email addresses and domain names from Blocked Senders list
We would like to remove an email address and domain name from the Blocked Senders list of a specific user mailbox.
Run the PowerShell command to remove from the Blocked Senders list for a single mailbox.
Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration -Identity "Amanda.Hansen@m365info.com" -BlockedSendersAndDomains @{Remove = "spam@gmail.com", "itspam.com" }You can also remove an email address and domain name from the Blocked Senders list for all the Exchange recipients.
Run the PowerShell command to remove from the Blocked Senders list for all mailboxes.
Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration -BlockedSendersAndDomains @{Remove = "spam@gmail.com", "itspam.com" }Add and remove email addresses and domains in Safe Senders list
Run the below PowerShell command to add and remove trusted senders and domains for a specific mailbox.
Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration -Identity "Amanda.Hansen@m365info.com" -TrustedSendersAndDomains @{Remove = "alice@gmail.com", "o365info.com" ; Add = "alice.good@gmail.com", "safedomain.com" }Run the below PowerShell command to add and remove trusted senders and domains for all mailboxes.
Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration -TrustedSendersAndDomains @{Remove = "alice@gmail.com", "o365info.com" ; Add = "alice.good@gmail.com", "safedomain.com" }Add and remove email addresses and domains in Blocked Senders list
Run the below PowerShell command to add and remove blocked senders and domains for a specific mailbox.
Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration -Identity "Amanda.Hansen@m365info.com" -BlockedSendersAndDomains @{Remove = "spam@gmail.com", "itspam.com"; Add = "spam@gmail.com", "itspam.com" }PowerShell command to add and remove blocked senders and domains for all mailboxes.
Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration -BlockedSendersAndDomains @{Remove = "spam@gmail.com", "itspam.com"; Add = "junkspam@gmail.com", "junkspam.com" } 3. Manage Junk Email Options
Use the Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration PowerShell cmdlet to configure junk email options for single or multiple mailboxes.
Enable Outlook Junk Email Filter
By default, the junk email rule is enabled in the mailbox. The Outlook Junk Email Filter doesn’t stop the delivery of junk email messages, but moves suspected spam to the Junk Email folder.
It means that the messages go through the spam filter (Exchange Online Protection) first. After that, Outlook looks into the Safe Senders and Blocked Senders lists of each mailbox to filter them as spam or not.
To enable the junk email rule, use the -Enabled PowerShell parameter with a value of $true.
Run the below PowerShell command to enable the mailbox Junk Email Filter for a specific recipient.
Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration "Amanda.Hansen@m365info.com" -Enabled $trueEnable Junk Email Filter for all mailboxes in PowerShell with the below command.
Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Get-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration | Where-Object { $_.Enabled -eq $false } | Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration -Enabled $trueDisable Outlook Junk Email Filter
If you want to Block senders in Microsoft 365 for the entire tenant using a threat policy, you should disable the junk email rule in Outlook for mailboxes. However, if Outlook specifies the message as spam or the senders are specified in the Blocked Senders list. It can still move the message to the Junk Email folder. Therefore, you should also clear the Blocked Senders list for these mailboxes.
Note: If you disable the Outlook Junk Email Filter, it will still have precedence over other methods, like anti-spam policies, that are set in Exchange Online Protection.
To disable the junk email rule for a mailbox, use the -Enabled PowerShell parameter with the value $false.
To disable the mailbox Junk Email Filter for a specific recipient, run the below PowerShell command.
Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration "Amanda.Hansen@m365info.com" -Enabled $falseRun the PowerShell command to disable Junk Email Filter for all mailboxes.
Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Get-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration | Where-Object { $_.Enabled -eq $true } | Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration -Enabled $falseEnable Trust Email from Contacts for single mailbox in Outlook
Another option is to enable the emails from your contacts in Outlook, which is not enabled by default. It automatically trusts each email of the recipients email addresses in your contact list.
To enable trust emails from contacts in Outlook, follow these steps:
- Open Outlook
- Click Junk > Junk E-mail Options
- Click the tab Safe Senders
- Select Also trust email from my Contacts
Note: It is not possible to enable the Automatically add people I email to the Safe Senders list option with PowerShell.
Enable Contacts Trusted
Use the -ContactsTrusted PowerShell parameter with the value $true to enable the option Also trust email from my Contacts for a single mailbox.
Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration "Amanda.Hansen@m365info.com" -ContactsTrusted $trueEnable the option Also trust email from my Contacts for all mailboxes with the below PowerShell command.
Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Get-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration | Where-Object { $_.ContactsTrusted -eq $false } | Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration -ContactsTrusted $trueDisable Contacts Trusted
Use the -ContactsTrusted PowerShell parameter with the value $false to disable the option Also trust email from Contacts for a single mailbox.
Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration "Amanda.Hansen@m365info.com" -ContactsTrusted $falseDisable the option Also trust email from my Contacts for all mailboxes in your organization with the below PowerShell command.
Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Get-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration | Where-Object { $_.ContactsTrusted -eq $true } | Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration -ContactsTrusted $false4. Get Safe Senders and Blocked Senders Lists
To get information about the Safe Senders and Blocked Senders Lists, use the Get-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration PowerShell cmdlet.
Get Safe Senders and Blocked Senders lists for specific mailbox
Get all the information about the Mailbox Junk Email Configuration, including the email addresses and domain names that appear in the Safe Senders and the Blocked Senders lists.
Run the PowerShell command to get information about a single mailbox.
Get-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration -Identity "Amanda.Hansen@m365info.com"The PowerShell output results.
Status : IsPresent, IsEnabled
Enabled : True
TrustedListsOnly : False
ContactsTrusted : True
TrustedSendersAndDomains : {alice@gmail.com, o365info.com}
BlockedSendersAndDomains : {spam@gmail.com, itspam.com}
TrustedRecipientsAndDomains : {alice@gmail.com, o365info.com}
SenderScreeningEnabled : False
MailboxOwnerId : 41377e9c-dc47-46c0-b4a5-1d5bbdcb5cc5
Identity : 41377e9c-dc47-46c0-b4a5-1d5bbdcb5cc5
IsValid : True
ObjectState : UnchangedGet Safe Senders and Blocked Senders lists for all mailboxes
Get all the available information about the Mailbox Junk Email Configuration, including the email addresses and domain names that appear in the Safe Senders and Blocked Senders lists for all mailboxes.
Run the below PowerShell command.
Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Get-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration | Format-Table Identity, ContactsTrusted, Enabled, TrustedSendersAndDomains, BlockedSendersAndDomains -AutoSizeThe PowerShell output shows the below results.
Identity ContactsTrusted Enabled TrustedSendersAndDomains BlockedSendersAndDomains
-------- --------------- ------- ------------------------ ------------------------
55f8d235-9a1d-49cf-83be-989ffd694f54 True False {alice@gmail.com, safedomain.com, o365info.com} {spam@gmail.com, itspam@gmail.com, itspam.com, spamit.com}
41377e9c-dc47-46c0-b4a5-1d5bbdcb5cc5 True True {alice@gmail.com, o365info.com} {spam@gmail.com, itspam.com}
f8261d51-3df9-4f21-a6b1-533412669c11 True False {alice@gmail.com, safedomain.com, o365info.com} {spam@gmail.com, itspam@gmail.com, itspam.com, spamit.com}
7bfec79d-7806-484a-ac83-133cd4cf5af5 True False {alice@gmail.com, safedomain.com, o365info.com} {spam@gmail.com, itspam@gmail.com, itspam.com, spamit.com}
82cd0d62-e974-4892-aca6-e0387abc62be True False {alice@gmail.com, safedomain.com, o365info.com} {spam@gmail.com, itspam@gmail.com, itspam.com, spamit.com}
5f4d37cd-383c-413f-87a2-aab0dc6a531a True False {alice@gmail.com, safedomain.com, o365info.com} {spam@gmail.com, itspam@gmail.com, itspam.com, spamit.com}
0f38d53f-cbe0-4844-86e9-1032a45ba31b True False {alice@gmail.com, safedomain.com, o365info.com} {spam@gmail.com, itspam@gmail.com, itspam.com, spamit.com}Export information to CSV file
To manage the Junk Email Filter lists for all mailboxes, you can export all information to an Out-GridView and CSV file. It exports the email addresses and domain names in the Safe Senders and Blocked Senders lists of each existing Exchange mailbox.
- Create a temp folder in the (C:) drive
- Specify the CSVpath in line 3
- Run the PowerShell script to export information
Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Get-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration | Out-GridView
$CSVpath = "C:\temp\AllMailboxesJunkEmail.csv"
$Mailboxes = Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited
$Output = @()
foreach ($Mailbox in $Mailboxes) {
$JunkEmailConfig = Get-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration $Mailbox
$Properties = [PSCustomObject]@{
UserPrincipalName = $Mailbox.UserPrincipalName
DisplayName = $Mailbox.DisplayName
Enabled = $JunkEmailConfig.Enabled
ContactsTrusted = $JunkEmailConfig.ContactsTrusted
TrustedSendersAndDomains = ($JunkEmailConfig.TrustedSendersAndDomains -join ',')
BlockedSendersAndDomains = ($JunkEmailConfig.BlockedSendersAndDomains -join ',')
}
$Output += $Properties
}
# Output the mailbox information to Out-GridView
$Output | Sort-Object DisplayName | Out-GridView -Title "Junk Email Options of all mailboxes"
$Output | Sort-Object DisplayName | Export-Csv -Path $CSVpath -NoTypeInformation -Encoding utf8- The Out-GridView results appear
- Open the CSV file with Microsoft Excel to see the results
That’s it!
Read more: How to Block Senders in Microsoft 365 »
Conclusion
You learned how to manage Safe Senders and Blocked Senders Lists with PowerShell. Each user can add or remove email addresses and domain names to their Safe Senders and Blocked Senders lists in Outlook. With PowerShell, you can manage these junk email options for all mailboxes and export all information to a CSV file.
Did you enjoy this article? You may also like How to import Google contacts to Outlook. Don’t forget to follow us and share this article.