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Activate an answering machine (vacation/absence message) on the e-mail address
This guide explains how to enable an autoresponder (automatic email message when you're unavailable, for example) on an email address managed with Infomaniak.
This allows you to inform your correspondents that you are currently unable to respond, perhaps because you are away on vacation or for other reasons.
How to Enable an Autoresponder
The automatic response for absence can be enabled from Infomaniak Mail and from the Manager where all addresses in a Mail Service are managed.
You can enable or disable an already recorded message, but there can't be multiple active autoresponders on the same email address: enabling one message will deactivate another if applicable.
Enabling the Autoresponder from Webmail
Prerequisites
- Have valid access to Infomaniak Mail where the email address is linked
- Have permission to modify the autoresponder: If you were invited to Mail to manage your address, it's possible that the Mail Service manager has removed this right from their admin account
To enable the absence message from Mail:
- Log in to Infomaniak Mail (mail.infomaniak.com) using a web browser like Brave or Firefox
- Click on the icon in the top right corner of the interface
- Click on Email Addresses
- Verify or select the relevant email address from the dropdown menu
- Click on Autoresponder (in the Email Address Settings section)
- Activate the automatic message if applicable or read below
Enabling the Autoresponder from the Manager
To enable the absence message from the Manager:
- Log in to the Infomaniak Manager (manager.infomaniak.com) using a web browser like Brave or Firefox
- Click on the icon in the top right corner of the interface (or navigate using the left-hand side menu, for example)
- Select Mail Service (under Collaborative Tools)
- Click on the relevant object name in the displayed table
- Click on the relevant email address in the displayed table
- Click on the Autoresponder and Signatures tab
- Activate the automatic message if applicable or read below
Compose the Absence Message
To manage the message that will be automatically sent in response, click Add:
Then:
- A: Enter a name for your autoresponder (to distinguish it from other messages if you create multiple ones)
- B: Set whether the automatic response should be recurrent on specific days of the week
- C: Set an end date/time if the message should not be sent beyond a certain duration
- D: Set a start date/time if the message is planned in advance for a specific future period
- E: Compose your absence message
- F: Display advanced settings
- G: Set an alternative email address to send your autoresponder message (the address must be verified beforehand)
- H: enter specific email addresses (or
@domain.xyz
for an entire domain) to prevent them from receiving this out-of-office message
Then click the blue button in the bottom right to Add the message.
Once added, you can enable or disable it:
You can also edit a previously saved message using the pencil icon on the right.
How Often Is the Autoresponse Sent?
Your response is sent only once to people who send you messages.
However, if the same sender sends you a new email 7 days after the previous one, and your autoresponder is still active, an automatic response is sent again to remind them that you don't have access to your email.
So, if you're testing on your own address, it's normal that it only works the first time. During subsequent tests, the autoresponder won't send the message when it detects that the message comes from an address that has already sent a message before. You'll need to test it from a different email address.
You can reset the 7-day counter by clicking Reset when editing your message:
Going Further with Templates
Custom templates can be applied when creating a new email address on your Mail Service, for example, or en masse to all addresses in your domain. Learn more