# Email in the console > The Mailboxes admin screen and the agent's Email screen: every field, what it changes, and the settings that most often explain a mailbox that looks silent. E-mail appears in two places in the contact-center console: an administrator adds mailboxes under **Admin → Mailboxes**, and agents read and answer threads under **Email**. ## Admin → Mailboxes Lists every mailbox the platform collects from. A mailbox added here is checked on its own interval; removing one stops collection and deletes its stored sign-in details, but keeps the threads already received. ### Sign-in | Field | What it does | | --- | --- | | **Method** | Password, or OAuth. Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace accept **only** OAuth for mail; an on-premises Exchange server and most other servers accept a password. | | **Address** | The mailbox to sign in as, and the default address replies are sent from. | | **Password** | Stored encrypted and never shown again. A saved one reads back as a placeholder. | | **Provider / Application ID / Directory ID** | OAuth only. From the app registration you created with Microsoft or Google. The Directory ID is Microsoft's tenant identifier. | | **Access token** | OAuth only. Must allow **both** reading the mailbox and sending as it. | > **NOTE:** > Leaving a credential field empty when you edit a mailbox **keeps the stored > value**. That is deliberate: re-saving the form to change an unrelated setting > cannot blank a working password by accident. To change a credential, type the > new one. ### Incoming mail | Field | What it does | | --- | --- | | **Server / Port** | Where mail is collected from. | | **Security** | Encrypted (993), upgrade-to-encrypted (143), or none. | | **Folder** | Which folder to read. `INBOX` unless your provider files incoming mail elsewhere. | | **Check every** | How often the mailbox is checked. | Shorter intervals mean customers wait less for a reply to start. Providers limit how often you may connect, so a very short interval on a hosted mailbox can get the connection refused — if a mailbox starts failing after you shorten it, that is usually why. > **WARNING:** > Pointing at the wrong **folder** is the most common reason a correctly > configured mailbox collects nothing at all. It is spelled `INBOX` on most > servers, and the name is case-sensitive on some. ### Outgoing mail | Field | What it does | | --- | --- | | **Server / Port** | Where replies are submitted. Usually **not** the same server as incoming. | | **Security** | Upgrade-to-encrypted (587), encrypted (465), or none. | | **Password for sending** | Leave empty to sign in for sending with the same password as above. | | **Reply address / Reply name** | What the customer sees a reply come from. Set them when replies should appear to come from a team rather than the raw mailbox address. | ### Routing | Field | What it does | | --- | --- | | **Routing program** | The flow that handles a new thread. Without one, mail is collected and stored but **never offered to an agent**. | | **Skill** | Which group of agents handles this mailbox — exactly as for a call. | | **Collect mail from this mailbox** | Pauses collection without deleting the mailbox or its credentials. Use it during a migration. | ### Check now Checks the mailbox immediately instead of waiting for the interval. It is the quickest way to confirm a new mailbox works. For a few seconds after you add a mailbox it reports that the mailbox is not loaded yet — that is normal. If it still says so after a minute, the mailbox was saved but is not being picked up; confirm it is switched on. ## Email (agent screen) The agent's workspace for threads routed to their skills. - **The rail** lists threads, most recent activity first, unread in bold. The **Unread** and **Closed** filters narrow it; a **Mailbox** selector appears when your organisation monitors more than one. - **The thread** reads oldest message first. Inbound messages sit left, replies right. - **Reply** sends from the mailbox the thread arrived in. **Send & close** sends and closes in one step, the normal ending for a question fully answered. - **Close thread** ends a thread without replying — for an automated notice or a duplicate. **Reopen** puts it back. - **Mark read / Mark unread** changes the message's state **in the mailbox**, not only in the console. - **Filtered** switches the list to mail that was set aside — auto-replies, delivery failures, mailing lists, and messages the sender's provider flagged. Nothing is deleted, so anything held wrongly is still readable here. > **NOTE:** > A message labelled *converted from a formatted message* had its readable text > recovered from a formatted original. Layout, images and tables are not shown; if > the meaning depends on them, open the mail in a normal client before answering. ## When something looks wrong | Symptom | Usual cause | | --- | --- | | Mailbox collects nothing | Wrong folder, or the mailbox is switched off. | | Mail arrives but no agent is offered it | No routing program set on the mailbox. | | Sign-in fails though the password is right | The mailbox is on Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, which no longer accept a password for mail. Switch to OAuth. | | Receiving works, every reply fails | Outgoing server or port wrong, or an OAuth token that only allows reading. | | Threads look read that nobody read here | Someone read them in Outlook or Gmail. The mailbox is the source of truth, so the console follows it. | | A real customer's mail is not in the inbox | Check **Filtered**. Mail is set aside only on its headers, so this is rare — but it is kept, not deleted, and a reply from a person into that thread routes normally. | | An out-of-office shows in a thread but got no answer | Deliberate. Answering an automatic message makes the far side answer again, which loops until your provider throttles the mailbox. | ## Next - **[How the channel works](/modalities/email/details)** — Threading, routing and read/unread, end to end. - **[Skills and routing](/modalities/voice/transport-telephony/pbx-acd)** — The queues and flows e-mail shares with calls.