Allowed Domains.
Mail Shepherd 3.0 for the Mac App Store (build 535) · Updated October 24, 2026
On the left are the Domains of Contacts; on the right, your Allowed Domains. A Sweep moves mail from an Allowed Domain (or its subdomains) out of Junk to your Inbox, marked not junk, instead of moving it to Trash, and Review Junk leaves it off. Mail from your contacts themselves is already handled this way; an Allowed Domain does it for everyone at that domain.
- The left list shows the domains your contacts use, subdomains combined, with how many of your contacts’ addresses use each (Contacts). It leaves out shared email providers such as gmail.com, mailing services, and domains you’ve already allowed.
- Check domains (click anywhere on a row), then click Allow or Remove to move them across. Each button shows how many are checked.
- + in the right list’s footer adds a domain you type, such as example.com.
- The search box filters both lists, and clicking a column header sorts by it. Refresh reads your contacts again; while it reads, it turns into Stop.
Changes are saved at once and recorded in the Action Log, and the Review lists are matched again. The lists can’t change while a Sweep or other work is running.
Mail from an Allowed Domain leaves Junk only if iCloud authenticated it and it passes all four spoof checks, whether or not they’re turned on. Otherwise it stays in Junk, counts as Kept in Junk on Sweep, and is listed on Review Junk with the reason.
Which rule wins
- A blocked sender is always blocked, even at an Allowed Domain.
- If a domain is both allowed and blocked, the more specific entry wins: allowing shop.example while blocking mail.shop.example still blocks mail.shop.example. If both name the same domain, blocking wins. See Blocked Domains.
- A message that fails a spoof check that’s on isn’t treated as allowed.
Until your contacts have been read, the page is disabled and says “This page needs your contacts: click Refresh on the Contacts page.”, with Go to Contacts.
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