Creating an Out-of-Office Response

To create an out-of-office response:

1. Click your profile image in the top-right corner of the app.
2. Select Settings from the drop-down menu.
3. Go to Mail > Out-of-Office. 
4. Click Create Response. 

To create an out-of-office response for your secondary Zoho Mail accounts: 

1. Click the drop-down with the email address listed above the Create Response button.
2. Choose the desired account for which you want to create the response. 
3. Click Create Response. 

Refer to this section to learn how to create out-of-office responses for external email accounts configured via POP/IMAP.

Notes: 

• You can only create one auto-response corresponding to each email address. When another response is created, the existing response will be overwritten. 
• Check the Store auto-reply emails in the Sent folder option if you want to keep a copy of the sent out-of-office replies. 
  

Configuring Out-of-Office Schedule

In the Create Response dialog, you can choose the out-of-office duration and the days on which you'll be unavailable during that time. 

Associating Email Accounts with Auto-Response

The drop-down options for Email account for auto-response list your primary Zoho Mail account as well as the associated external email accounts (e.g., Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook) you've configured via POP/IMAP. You can select all the emails for which you want to associate and create the out-of-office response from the drop-down.  

Drafting the Out-of-Office Response

You can choose to create distinct out-of-office responses for your organization members and external users. 

To create an out-of-office response for organization members: 

1. Toggle on the Auto respond to organization users option. 
2. Draft your out-of-office response by entering the subject and email content. 

To create an out-of-office response for external users: 

1. Toggle on the Auto respond to external users option. 
2. You can select from three options to determine which external users receive your auto-response: All External Users, External Users in My Contacts, or External Users Not in My Contacts. If you're using a personal account, you can select from these three options: Everyone, My Contacts, or Non Contacts. 
3. If you want external users to receive the same auto-response created for organization members, check the Apply organization auto-response to external users too option.
4. Otherwise, draft the out-of-office response by entering the subject and email content. 

Note: To configure out-of-office, it's mandatory to create an auto-response for either organization members or external users.

Configuring Out-of-Office Response Settings

Here are other settings that you can configure while creating an out-of-office response.

Auto-response interval

The auto-response interval refers to how often you want your out-of-office reply to be sent to incoming emails. You can select one of the following options.

• Send one auto-response for the entire duration of unavailability: This option ensures that a sender receives an auto-response only once throughout your entire period of being out of office, regardless of how many emails they may send you.
• Auto-respond to all emails from the same sender with a gap of n days: Instead of bombarding a sender's mailbox with multiple out-of-office messages, this option allows you to set a response interval, such as two days. This means the sender will receive your out-of-office reply only once every two days, regardless of how many emails they send to you within that time frame.
• Auto-respond to all emails received in a day from the same sender: With this option enabled, automatic replies will be sent to the same sender for every email they send, even if it's on the same day.

Auto-respond if you're the primary recipient

You can toggle on the Auto-respond if you're the primary recipient option to send auto-replies only when your email address is specified in the "To" field. If it's specified in the "Cc" or "Bcc" fields, the auto-response won't be sent. 

Mark as out-of-office in Calendar

You can mark your calendar as out-of-office for the duration of your unavailability by toggling on the Mark as out-of-office in Calendar option. This allows those who have access to your calendar to see when you'll be unavailable and schedule events and meetings for when you'll be back in the office.

Decline events automatically while out-of-office

In case any events or meetings are planned while you're away, you can choose not to decline events or automatically decline new or both new and existing events. 

When you delete an out-of-office response, events automatically declined will revert, and you must update the RSVP manually. 

Note: Calendar-related out-of-office settings (Mark as out-of-office in calendar and Decline events automatically while out-of-office) do not apply to external email accounts configured via POP/IMAP. 

Editing an Out-of-Office Response

To edit an out-of-office response:

1. Click open the response you want to edit.
2. Make the required changes.
3. Click Save.

Deleting an Out-of-Office Response

To delete an out-of-office response:

1. Hover over the response you want to delete.
2. Click the Delete  icon.
3. Click Delete in the confirmation alert. 

Note: Deleting an out-of-office response will permanently delete the auto-reply and all configured out-of-office settings.