The University Auto-Reply facility enables you to send custom, automatic messages to your senders when you are unable to read your mail. You can enable this facility when you are sick, on vacation, attending a conference etc.

Typically your message should notify the sender/s that you are unable to read email and indicate the date when you will return back to office. If you are responsible for a departmental mail account (faculty, department, institute, committee etc.), include the contact details of the person that can deal with urgent matters in your absence.

The following is a typical automatic message:

You can enable the auto-reply facility here. Type in the message text that you wish to send in response to incoming mail and set a date when the message will be automatically switched off.

Once the auto-reply facility is enabled, the University server will send your message in response to incoming mail. The auto-reply message will be automatically turned off on the specified date. The auto-reply message text or date settings can be updated, or the facility deactivated, at any time.

Note that:

• If the same person sends several messages to you within a week, s/he will only receive a single copy of your auto-reply message.
• Only incoming mail directly addressed to you i.e. containing your address in the To: field, will generate the automatic message. The auto-reply message will not be sent if your address is in the cc: or bcc: field.
• Auto-reply messages are not generated for messages that are sent to you by mailing list administrators, mailer-daemon or postmaster.
• All the messages sent to you while auto-reply is enabled are held in your mailbox. You can read and reply to this mail at any time, even if the auto-reply is still on.
• Auto-reply messages are also generated if your University email account is set to forward to another email address.