How to Create Filters in Yahoo Mail

Filters sort new Yahoo Mail as it arrives — into a folder of your choice, or into Trash. You can have up to 500 filters, and they’re managed in Settings in a desktop browser.

Create a filter

1. Open Yahoo Mail in a desktop browser.
2. Click the More options icon, then Settings.
3. Click Filters, then Add new filters.
4. Give the filter a name, set its rules, and choose a folder for the matching email — or create a new folder.
5. Click Save at the bottom.

Filters work on new email as it arrives. To tidy up mail you already have, search for it and move it by hand.

Order matters

Yahoo runs filters from top to bottom. If two filters match the same email, the one higher in the list wins. To move a filter, select it and click the up or down arrow at the top of the list.

Put your most specific filters first — for example “invoices from my accountant” above “everything from my accountant’s domain”.

Edit a filter

1. Go to More options › Settings › Filters.
2. Click the filter, change its name, rules or folder, and click Save.

Delete a filter

In Settings › Filters, select the filter and click the Delete icon.

Filters worth setting up

• Receipts and orders into a “Receipts” folder, so they’re out of the inbox but easy to find.
• Newsletters into a “Reading” folder you check once a week.
• A persistent sender straight to Trash — handy when blocking one address isn’t enough.

Test a new filter

After saving, send yourself an email that should match — or wait for the next one from that sender — and check it lands where you expect. If it doesn’t, the rules may be too narrow, or a filter higher in the list may be catching it first.

Be careful with Trash

Yahoo empties Trash after 7 days. A filter that sends the wrong email to Trash can cost you messages before you notice. Prefer a folder while you test a new filter, and if something has gone missing, check your filters first — then see recovering deleted Yahoo email.

If you find a filter you didn’t create, someone else may have had access to your account — change your password and review Yahoo Mail security.

Using another service? Gmail filters · Outlook rules · iCloud Mail rules.