How to set up out-of-office automatic replies

Have you installed a new major update of eM Client but your license allows only older versions of the app? In this article, we are going to focus on this issue and help you solve it so you can jump back into eM Client.

There are specific scenarios that can lead you to this situation and there are three different outcomes.

Setting up out-of-office in Outlook web app

When logged in at Outlook.com go to the top right toolbar and select the gear icon. Go all the way to the bottom in the dropdown menu and click on "View all Outlook settings" to find additional settings. In the settings menu, you should see the "Mail" section and that's where you will find "Automatic replies". Automatic replies need to be turned on by the toggle switch, once you do that all greyed-out settings should become available for editing.

If you would like automatic replies to be sent only during a certain period you can tick the "Send replies only during a time period" box and set the period you will not be available for, even the specific time can be set.

It's also possible to just keep automatic replies on indefinitely and as long as the toggle is on, Outlook.com will keep sending automatic replies.

Of course, you can also format your automatic reply in order to make it more structured and professional if that is what you are looking for.

Setting up out-of-office in Gmail

A vacation auto reply email is a must if you want to notify email senders about being away. If you’re a Gmail user you might find this part of the article useful when setting up a “Vacation responder”.

Settings at Gmail.com are located in the top right corner under the gear icon. Similar to Outlook.com most of the settings are hidden so you will need to click on “See all settings”. That should take you to the “General” section. Then you need to scroll to the very bottom of the general settings list to find “Vacation responder” settings. The settings also contain a date range, a text field for the out-of-office message, and an option to send automatic replies only to people in your Google Contacts list.

To avoid spamming senders with automatic replies, the server will send the reply only once every 4 days if the same person sends you multiple messages.

Setting up out-of-office in eM Client desktop app

eM Client also has this fundamental feature so if you are more inclined to use a desktop app, you can still set up automatic replies. Currently Gmail, Exchange, ImageWay, and IceWarp are supported. It can also work as your out of office outlook app.

To configure automatic replies in eM Client go to Menu, proceed to the “Tools” option and you will see “Automatic replies” in the sub-menu. The settings are similar to what we covered earlier but unlike Outlook.com, eM Client allows you to select from different accounts and manage automatic replies in one place as long as the accounts in question are supported.

If you already had automatic reply configured on Gmail, Exchange, ImageWay, or IceWarp, it will be synced to eM Client so you will just need to enable it. For those who have not used this feature before, just enable automatic replies, set the dates, and compose the message you want to be sent. It is very simple and you have to do it just once because even after deactivating automatic replies, the message will be saved and it can be reused in the future with small adjustments like the date or the reason for your absence.

What is even better is the possibility to re-use and edit automatic replies created within eM Client so you will get a seamless experience between mobile and desktop platforms.