How-to setup an Email Autoresponder

Summary

Autoresponders automatically reply to emails sent to your email address. For example, you can add an out-of-office reply for when you’re away on holiday or vacation or add an autoresponse to let your clients know their email has been received.

Creating an autoresponder in cPanel

There are two ways to create an autoresponder:

If you’re the main account owner, or wish to create multiple autoresponders for all your mailboxes, follow the steps listed under Admin

If you only have your email account and email password then use the steps listed under User.

Admin

Setup and manage Autoresponders for all your DomainsFoundry email accounts from one control panel.

  1. Login to your DomainsFoundry cPanel. See Where do I login to my control panel
  2. Click Autoresponders
  3. Click Add Autoresponder
  4. Fill in the form to create your Autoresponder:
    Character Set: Leave as utf-8

    Interval: We recommend 8 hours

    Email: Enter the email account you want to send auto responses from. For example, info

    Domain: Choose your account domain

    From: Enter the name you want to appear in the auto response email. For example, John Smith

    Subject: Enter a subject for the auto response email. For example, Out of office reply

    This message contains HTML: Check this box if your message contains HTML. If unsure, leave unchecked

    Body: Enter the text for your auto response reply

    Start: Choose if you want your autoresponder to start Immediately or Custom for a set date and time

    Stop: Choose Custom to set a date & time your autoresponder will stop or Never

  5. Click Create/Modify to create your autoresponder.

Steps for individual users to setup email Autoresponders

If you are an email user and do not have DomainsFoundry dashboard access you can still setup an email Autoresponder by logging into your account’s cPanel Webmail with your DomainsFoundry email address and password.

  1. Open https://webmail.yourdomain.com in your web browser. Replace yourdomain.com with your DomainsFoundry hosting domain.
  2. Enter your email address and email password.
  3. Click Autoresponders
  4. Click Add Autoresponder
  5. Fill in the form to create your Autoresponder:
    • Character Set: Leave as utf-8
    • Interval: We recommend 8 hours
    • From: Enter the name you want to appear in the auto response email. For example, John Smith
    • Subject: Enter a subject for the auto response email. For example, Out of office reply
    • This message contains HTML: Check this box if your message contains HTML. If unsure, leave unchecked
    • Body: Enter the text for your auto response reply
    • Start: Choose if you want your autoresponder to start Immediately or Custom for a set date and time
    • Stop: Choose Custom to set a date & time your autoresponder will stop or Never
  6. Click Create.

Example Auto Responder

Click the image below to view an example autoresponder.

Example cPanel Autoresponder

Frequently Asked Questions for Autoresponders

What does the ‘Wait 8 hours’ interval mean?

interval sets the length of time your auto responder will wait between sending replies to the same email address. For example, if you set an interval of 8 hours and your colleague Sarah emails you at 9AM she’ll get your ‘out of office’ automatic reply immediately. Any emails Sarah sends to you after this will not get an auto response for the next 8 hours. If Sarah sends an email again at 5PM she’ll receive another ‘out of office’ reply.

This feature helps to avoid ‘bombarding’ your colleagues with automatic out-of-office replies and avoids loops between accounts which both have auto responders.