Blocked somebody by mistake in Gmail? Missing a sender’s messages? Find out here how to unblock an email sender in Gmail using the blocked senders list or rules (and even avoiding the spam filter).
First, How Many Hands Does It Take to Open…
How many hands does it take to open the vault that holds the most precious books in the world’s oldest university? One, of course.
If this were the 16th century, however, we would need to summon four—ahem—key people at Fez’s already ancient and labyrinthinely spectacular medina to open all the locks and gain access to information in priceless form.
Now, how many clicks or taps will it take to open your precious Gmail inbox again for an address you blocked, perhaps accidentally? Let us find out!
How to Unblock a Sender in Gmail
Using a Desktop Browser
The Sender’s Email Address Is on the Gmail Blocked Senders List
Time needed: 3 minutes
To remove a sender from your list of blocked addresses in Gmail:
- Click the Settings gear icon (⚙) in Gmail.
- Select See all settings from the menu that has appeared.
- Go to the Filters and Blocked Addresses tab.
Gmail shortcut: You can open Filters and Blocked Addresses directly.
- Click unblock for the email address whose messages you want to allow back into your inbox under The following email addresses are blocked. Messages from these addresses will appear in Spam:.
Unblock multiple addresses: To unblock more or all addresses, you can also place a checkmark in front of all addresses to be allowed and click Unblock selected addresses.
- Click Unblock to confirm.
Blocked emails will stay in Spam: Messages move to the Gmail Spam label while the sender was blocked (or manually by you) and not yet deleted automatically will not be recovered automatically; see below for rescuing them.
Protect the address from blocking: You can, in addition, set up a Gmail rule that will stop the Gmail spam filter from ever regarding emails from the sender as spam. (See below.)
If you come across a message from a blocked sender, you can also unblock right from there:
- Open a message from the blocked sender in Gmail.
- Click Unblock sender in the gray information bar that appears below the message’s header.
- Now click Unblock.
The Sender Sender’s Name or Address Is in a Blocking Gmail Filter
To unblock a sender blocked in Gmail by name or email address using a filter:
- Click on the Settings gear icon (⚙) in Gmail.
- Select See all settings from the menu.
- Make sure the Filters and Blocked Addresses tab is active.
- Find the filter that has the sender’s name or email address as its condition and Do this: Delete it for the action.
- Click delete next to that filter to remove it and unblock the sender in Gmail.
Just one blocking filter: If you have used a single filter to block more than one address or sender (using|
to separate the alternate choices), do click edit instead and adapt the filter’s criteria by removing the address or sender you want to unblock.
Unblock Email In the Gmail App for Android and iPhone
To unblock an email address in the Gmail App for iOS or Android:
- Open an email from the sender you want to unblock in Gmail.
No email: If you have no message from the sender at hand, you can unblock in the Gmail desktop interface (which you can open in a mobile browser). - Tap Unblock sender under You have blocked <sender>.
How to Unblock a Sender in Gmail: FAQ
Will Gmail automatically recover any messages filtered to “Spam”?
No.
Gmail will not restore filtered messages automatically.
You can recover these emails from Gmail Spam, though:
- Click Search mail in Gmail.
Gmail keyboard shortcut: You can also press / to focus the search field. - Type
from:
followed by the sender’s email address or name.
Example: To search for emails from ladedu@ladedu.com, for instance, typefrom:ladedu@ladedu.com
. - Press Enter.
- If you see Some messages in Trash or Spam match your search. at the bottom of search results, click View messages..
“Spam” and “Trash”: You can usein:spam from:
as the search operators to directly find all messages from the sender in Spam andin:trash from:
to search only the Trash. - Click the Select checkbox to select all messages.
Keyboard shortcut: With Gmail keyboard shortcuts enabled, you can also press * followed by a. - Now click Move to Inbox ().
The sender is neither in “Blocked Addresses” nor in a filter; how can I unblock their emails?
Chances are that Gmail’s built-in spam filter caught the messages.
In addition to marking individual emails as not spam, you can also prevent the Gmail spam filter from treating the sender’s emails as spam:
- Click Show search options in the Gmail search field.
- Type the sender’s email address under From.
- Click Create filter.
- Check Never send it to spam under When a message arrives that matches this search:.
- Now click Create filter again.
(How to unblock a sender in Gmail tested in a desktop browser; first published June 2018, last updated November 2024)