How do I send an out of office reply to my incoming e-mails

[jemtom]

I am going out on leave for 3 months and I want to send an out of office reply to everyone who e-mails me. How do I do this?

[Mike Novack]

You don't.

OK -- let's try to make this simple. Sending an "out of office" message is something which has to be done by your provider's server (when an incoming messages arrives for your mailbox). YOUR computer couldn't be sending the message (think about that for a moment -- or did you expect to leave it on and running while you were away.

It's actually a little more complicated than simply responding to all incoming messages with an "out of office" response. The program doing this must be able to recognize a message arriving which is itself and "out of office" message and NOT in that case send one in response or both your mailboxes would get shut down.

[scroller]

You CAN

All you have to do is go to your ISP and then your email service folder or whatever it's called by them, and there should be a box for 'autoresponder' that allows you to put in the message you what the send. I do this when I go on holidays etc.

[Mike Novack]

That's what I said, "Scroller"

YOUR provider may even have given you a website where you can hit some button (as you described) that will initiate this behavior. Others would have to call their ISP on the phone AND there is no guarantee that this is a service your ISP provides. Remember, they may also need to up your mailbox quota (how big a mailbox you are allowed).

That's why I replied "YOU don't" (your ISP does it, IF they do it).

[Mike Novack]

PS --- I suspect that I could arrange this with my ISP but also that it would be something we would be dickering as to price (not the "out of office" per se but how much for the additional mailbox space that would be needed if we were going away for three months)

[Gandalf2]

Bottom line:

SeaMonkey cannot send an automated office reply, nor Outlook/Eudora/Thunderbird or *any* other can do that. This does not belong to mailclient functions.
Some webmail operators (like Yahoo!Mail) may offer this service.

[Andy Boze]

Bottom line:

SeaMonkey cannot send an automated office reply, nor Outlook/Eudora/Thunderbird or *any* other can do that.

Well, yes, they can. Eudora has had the capability for years. I use SeaMonkey 1.5a, and it can do so as well. I don't know whether it's been added to 1.0 versions. We had a Eudora user a few years ago who set up an autoreply, then shut down her computer and left for two weeks of vacation. As soon as she came back and started up Eudora, it began retrieving two weeks' worth of e-mail and sending autoreplies to all of them. She thought she had a virus.

Most of the time it's really unwise to use an e-mail client to autoreply to messages. In SeaMonkey 1.5a, there's a filter action "Reply with Template" that could be used for an autoreply. I haven't actually tried it.

This does not belong to mailclient functions.

I completely agree. It's a server function. If your ISP doesn't provide it, best to find one who does. My corporate mail server lets you set the dates you're away, doesn't autoreply to mailing lists, lets you configure it so that you don't autoreply to the same sender multiple times, etc.

[b81jha]

Please note I will be on annual leave from 21st December until the 4th January 08.

[Brian Grant]

I will be Out of the Office from December 22, 2007 and returning on January 7, 2008

[Guest]

I am going out on leave for 3 months and I want to send an out of office reply to everyone who e-mails me. How do I do this?

If you're willing to leave your computer on you can do it this way.

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=2362453

Otherwise use your ISPs options.

jkvt

[Sheppy1]

I am on holidays from October 5, 2008 until October 12, 2008. Sorry for any inconvenience.

[SK.]

Slow down here, folks. Leaving your "out of office" schedule in this thread will do absolutely nothing to inform your e-mail correspondents of your schedule. Please acknowledge that you understand this.

Look at this page for information on Mozilla applications' filtering capabilities.

However, you must keep in mind a couple of things about setting up an automatic reply:
1. Your computer must remain running and connected to the Internet.
2. Your e-mail application must remain running.
3. Everyone who sends you a message will receive the automatic reply for every message they send while the filter is active.
4. Automatic replies are best handled at the server. You will want to contact your mail service provider to see if they offer this.