> This is the Markdown of a Backed Help Centre page, https://admin.backed.giving/help/administrator/communications/inbound-email.md. Every page is listed at https://admin.backed.giving/help/llms.txt.

> This page uses Backed's default terms, such as Funding Round and Application Template. An organisation may rename them, so read each as your organisation's own term if you've renamed it.

Every application and contract has its own reply address. When Backed emails someone about a new
message in a conversation, that email replies to the record's address, so the person can answer
from their inbox. A reply from someone in the conversation is added to it. Anything else waits in
the inbound quarantine until an administrator files it or discards it.

## The reply address

Open the application and select the `Communications` tab, or open the contract and select the
`Details` tab. The `Reply address` card shows the record's address, for example
`app-k4mz7q2rx9bd@in.backed.giving`. The address names nothing about the record, so it is safe to
share.

- Select `Copy` to copy the address, for example to give it to someone who wants to send documents
  by email.
- If the card says `No reply address yet`, one is made when the first conversation email is sent.
  Select `Create address` to make one now.

### Reset the address

Reset the address if it has been shared with someone who should not have it, or if it is getting
unwanted mail.

1. Select `Reset address`.
2. Read the warning and select `Reset address` again.

A new address replaces the old one straight away. Emails sent to the old address are returned to
the sender with a short note, and nothing about the record is in it. Anyone who saved the old address
must use the new one. Later conversation emails reply to the new address.

You need to be able to send messages in the record's conversation to create or reset the address.

## What happens to a reply

A reply is added to the conversation when it comes from someone in it: an applicant who is a member
of the applicant's organisation, or an administrator who can see the record. Backed also checks that
the email really comes from the address it says it comes from.

- The entry is marked `via email` and shows the email's text. Its attachments are checked for
  viruses like any other upload.
- If an attachment does not pass the virus check, it is not added, and the entry says how many were
  withheld.
- Automatic replies, such as out-of-office messages, are not added.
- An email over 25 MB is not accepted.

## The inbound quarantine

Open `Communicate` and select `Unfiled email`. It lists the emails that reached a reply address but
could not be added on their own, newest first, with when each arrived, who sent it, the subject, why
it is waiting and the record it was sent to. An email waits because:

- `Sender is not in the conversation`: the sender is not an applicant or an administrator on the
  record.
- `Sender could not be verified`: Backed could not confirm the email came from the address it shows.
- `The record takes no messages`: conversations are turned off, or the record no longer takes
  messages.

The list shows emails that are `Waiting` at first. Use the status filter to see the ones already
`Filed` or `Discarded`.

### File or discard an email

1. Select `Review` on the email.
2. Read the start of its text. To read all of it, select `Download the original (.eml)` and open
   the file in your email program.
3. Choose where it goes:
   - To file it to the record it was sent to, leave that option chosen and select `File`.
   - To file it somewhere else, choose `Another record`, pick the record type, enter the record's
     ID (the number at the end of its page address) and select `File`.
   - To throw it away, select `Discard`, then `Discard` again. This can't be undone.

A filed email becomes an entry in the record's conversation under your name, with the sender's
address on its first line, and the record's assigned administrators are told. You can only file an
email to a record you can see and send messages on.

If someone else filed or discarded the email first, Backed says so. Close the email and look at the
list again to see where it went.

You need `Can access Settings > Emails` to see `Unfiled email`.