Filtering and managing electronic mail is accommodated by allowing a user to designate an approved subject line phrase whose presence allows an incoming message to bypass certain message filtering operations. E-mail messages sent to the user are examined to determine whether their subject line includes the approved phrase. When the phrase is present in the message subject line, delivery of the message to the user is accommodated according to the settings prescribed by the user. E-mail management is also accommodated by allowing a user to download a message from a mail server to an e-mail client and subsequently restore the message onto the mail server as though it had not yet been downloaded.