Setting Up an Email Auto-Reply

Overview

Learn how to set up an automatic reply message, also called an email auto-reply.

Automatic replies, also known as out-of-office messages or away messages, automatically respond to emails sent to your account with a note conveying that you are away from your email. Before you set up an automatic reply, please be aware of the potential drawbacks of the tool:

• Auto-responders and spam: Please be aware that auto-responders will automatically respond to unwanted spam email just as they will to real mail, and using an auto-responder may result in the 'confirmation' of your email address (and a subsequent general increase in spam levels for your account).
• Auto-responders and mailing lists: You should also know that while we try to avoid having the auto-responder accidentally reply to list postings, the auto-responder may be unable to identify some mail that's coming from a mailing list. As a result, it may sometimes respond to list mailings.

UOmail

In UOmail, you can set up an automatic reply message for when you are going to be out of the office.

1. Go to UOmail.
2. Log in with your UO email address and password.
3. In the top right corner, click on the gear icon ⚙ (settings).
4. Click View all Outlook settings from the pop-up menu.
5. Select the Automatic replies section.
6. Slide Turn on automatic replies to the on position (blue).
7. Check the Send replies only during a time period box to set custom dates and times for your out-of-office messages.
   • You can specify a specific amount of time to enable forwarding by checking the Send replies only during a time period box.
8. The next two boxes allow you to write separate messages to those within your organization (@uoregon.edu addresses) and outside emails.
   • If you un-check Send replies outside your organization, then only messages to @uoregon.edu addresses will be sent.
   • You can also specify whether outside addresses need to be in your contacts list to receive an automatic reply by checking Send replies only to contacts.
9. Click the Save button at the top. Your changes are now saved and you can close the window.
10. If you did not set your auto-reply to expire on a certain day, you will need to turn it off manually.
    • To do so, follow the same process as above but slide Automatic replies on to the off position and click the Save button.

For instructions on how to set up automatic replies using the Outlook application, see either of the following articles:

• Windows users: Send Out of Office notices automatically with an Exchange Account
• Macintosh users: Turn on or off Out of Office replies