Inbox and directory alerts

Mail offers two kinds of alerts. An inbox alert warns you by e-mail when a message reaches one of your addresses. A directory alert is raised by the mail intake when an unknown sender writes to an address you gave to a single site: it tells you that the site may have shared your address. Open Mail, then click the Inbox alerts or the Directory alerts tab.

Add an inbox alert

1. Open Mail and click the Inbox alerts tab (or Manage alerts in the Inbox alerts card of the Overview tab).
2. Click Add an alert.
3. In Watched address, choose one of your addresses. Each address shows whether it receives mail right now.
4. Choose the Mode: Immediate warns at each matching message, Digest sends one summary a day, or Immediate and digest.
5. In Quiet window (minutes), enter how long to wait after a warning before the next one for this address (between 1 and 10080 minutes).
6. Optionally, enter an Alternate recipient. Left empty, warnings go to your account address.
7. Click Create the alert.

The message The alert has been created. appears.

Note — An alert on a blocked address never fires. If the page says that alert e-mails are not being sent yet, the sending address of your workspace is still being set up: your alerts are kept and will start warning you once it is ready.

Follow your inbox alerts

The Overview tab of Inbox alerts counts your alerts Armed, Paused and Removed, the Messages signalled and the Last warning sent. It also lists The noisiest alerts and the Alerts that cannot fire because the watched address no longer accepts mail.

On All alerts, each alert shows its Watched address, Alert mode, Reception, Quiet window, Signals and Last send. Filter the list with Armed, Paused, Cannot receive or All, then click Filter. To find one, click the Search tab and enter a watched address or recipient.

Change, pause or remove an inbox alert

• Change: on the alert's row, click Edit, change the Mode, the Quiet window (minutes) or the Alternate recipient, then click Save. The watched address stays the same.
• Pause: click Pause, then Pause the warnings. The message The alert is paused. appears; the mode, the quiet window and the counter are kept. To start it again, click Resume, then Start the warnings again.
• Remove: click Remove, then Remove the warning. The message The alert was removed. appears. The address itself is not deleted and keeps receiving mail.

Handle a directory alert

1. Open Mail and click the Directory alerts tab. The Overview shows the alerts of the Last 24 hours and the Last 7 days, the Alerts by state, the Most affected aliases and the Senders that come back.
2. Click View all alerts, or the All alerts tab. Each alert shows the Unknown sender and its domain, its Status (New, Seen, Handled or Ignored), the Alias it reached, the Site, the Message, and when it was Handled on and Added on.
3. On the alert's row, click Handle.
4. Choose the decision:
   • Mark this alert as seen — records that it was looked at;
   • Mark this alert as handled — closes it, with the date and your name;
   • Ignore this alert — sets it aside without removing it from the history;
   • Re-open this alert — puts it back in progress;
   • File this sender — states that the sender belongs to the site.
5. Click Continue, then confirm. To file a sender, choose its Correspondent among those already attached to the site, or Create a company record for this sender.

The message The alert has been updated. appears, or The sender has been filed and the alert closed. Handling an alert only changes its state: no e-mail is sent. A filed sender writing again to the same alias raises no new alert.

Tip — To find an alert, click the Search tab, enter a sender address, a site or an alias, and narrow it with Filter by state and a period. The History tab lists every decision recorded on your alerts.

Remove a directory alert

1. On the alert's row, click Delete.
2. Click Remove the alert.

The message The alert has been removed from the lists and the counters. appears. Nothing is erased and no e-mail is sent; the same sender on the same alias on a later day raises a new alert.