Email Forwarding & Auto-Reply (Out-of-Office)

TL;DR — Set up forwardings to deliver mail for an address to one or more external mailboxes. Configure auto-reply from your mailbox settings or directly in webmail to handle holidays and out-of-office periods.

Forwarding

A forwarding delivers mail addressed to a specific address on your domain to an external destination (any mailbox, on EasyCloudify or elsewhere).

Forwarding vs. Alias

Pick a forwarding when you want to redirect mail to an external provider ([email protected], your accountant, a partner organisation, etc.).

Pick an alias when you want extra addresses for an existing EasyCloudify mailbox.

Create a Forwarding

1. Go to /cloudpanel/mailboxes and select your domain
2. Open the Forwardings tab
3. Click Create Forwarding
4. Fill in:

1. Click Save

💡 Keep a copy is recommended for shared inboxes — forward a copy to your phone's Gmail while keeping the original on EasyCloudify for your records.

Forwarding to Multiple Destinations

Create multiple forwardings with the same local part — each adds another destination. Or use an alias with multiple destinations (see Aliases) if all destinations are EasyCloudify mailboxes.

Disable or Delete a Forwarding

In the Forwardings tab, find the entry and either toggle Active off (to keep the rule for later) or click Delete to remove it permanently.

Auto-Reply (Out-of-Office)

An auto-reply automatically responds to every incoming message with a fixed text. Use it for vacations, parental leave, role changes, or to acknowledge receipt on a busy account.

Set Up Auto-Reply

You can configure auto-reply either in the dashboard or in webmail.

From /cloudpanel/mailboxes:

1. Select the mailbox
2. Click Edit Mailbox → Auto-Responder
3. Fill in:

1. Click Save

From https://webmail.easycloudify.com:

1. Open Settings → Filters → Vacation (or Settings → Auto-Reply)
2. Toggle Vacation Reply on
3. Enter the subject, body, and date range
4. Click Save

Best Practice — Vacation Auto-Reply

• Keep it short. Name, dates you're away, the date you're back, and one alternative contact.
• Set an end date. This guarantees the responder turns itself off when you return.
• Avoid auto-reply loops. Auto-reply only fires once per sender per interval (typically 24h) to avoid bouncing back and forth with another auto-responder.

Example

Subject: Out of office until 5 June 2026

Thanks for your message. I'm away from the office until 5 June and have
limited access to email. For anything urgent, please contact
[email protected].

I'll get back to you as soon as I'm back.

— Jane

Server-Side Filters

For more advanced behaviour — move newsletters to a folder, flag VIPs, auto-reply only to certain senders — use filters in webmail.

1. Open https://webmail.easycloudify.com
2. Go to Settings → Filters → New Filter
3. Set conditions (sender, subject, headers, plus-address tag) and actions (move to folder, flag, reply, forward, discard)
4. Click Save

Filters run on the server, so they fire even when you are offline. They also work across every device automatically.

💡 Combine plus addressing with filters: subscribe to a newsletter as [email protected], then create a filter that moves mail addressed to you+news@ into a Newsletters folder. See Plus Addressing.

Troubleshooting

Forwarded mail goes to spam at the destination

Forwarding preserves the original From address. Some receiving providers (notably Gmail) flag forwarded mail as spam because of strict DMARC. Add the destination address to your safe senders / contacts at the receiving provider to mitigate.

Auto-reply never fires

• Make sure the Active toggle is on
• Check the Start / End date range
• Auto-reply only fires once per sender per interval — test from a different external address

Forwarding stopped working

Check that the destination mailbox is not full or has not enabled aggressive spam blocking. The forwarding itself stays active even if delivery to the destination fails.

Related Guides

• Email Aliases & Identities
• Email Hosting — Mailboxes, Aliases & Forwardings
• Webmail Access
• Email Folders & Auto-Deletion