Creating personal and shared email addresses

Give each teammate a personal address and create shared addresses for work such as support, sales, or billing. In Cedros, personal addresses follow the team roster; New address creates a shared mailbox.

This guide covers Cedros-hosted email. If your mail stays with Google Workspace, manage its users and addresses in Google Workspace and use Connecting your Google Workspace account to connect the mailbox to Cedros.

Choose a personal mailbox, shared mailbox, or alias

Choose based on who needs the messages and whether they need a separate mailbox:

• Personal mailbox: belongs to a teammate, with an address generated from their name on your mail domain. The teammate can use it with the appropriate email permissions. Site administrators can also access personal mailboxes; “personal” does not mean hidden from administrators.
• Shared mailbox: a separate mailbox for a business function, such as support@example.com. People with the relevant Cedros inbox permissions can access shared mailboxes. Creating one does not create a private group or let you choose a separate list of permitted teammates.
• Alias: another receiving address that delivers to an existing mailbox. It has no separate inbox or access list. Anyone who can read the destination mailbox can read messages sent to its aliases.
• Catch-all: sends mail for otherwise unrecognized addresses on the domain to one mailbox. It can collect spam and misaddressed messages, so use it only when that broad coverage is intentional.

An alias or catch-all does not by itself authorize sending from those addresses. Check the available From address and outgoing delivery setup before promising customers a reply address.

Before you create an address

Finish Setting up Cedros email on your domain. In Settings → Site → Mail, confirm that the intended mail domain is ready. If setup has started but is incomplete, Team → Mail addresses directs you back there. If mail has never been configured, the addresses card may not appear.

Use an account allowed to manage email settings to create shared addresses, add aliases, or suspend and delete mailboxes. Access to the inbox alone does not provide those management controls. See Choosing roles and managing permissions if an expected action is missing.

Before choosing a new address:

• Check the domain shown in Mail addresses.
• Review existing mailboxes and aliases. Common names such as hello, support, or billing may already deliver to the site's shared mailbox.
• Decide whether the work needs separate stored mail or just another way to reach an existing mailbox.
• Check who can access the destination before using it for private correspondence.

Keep an existing address working until its replacement has passed a receive-and-reply test and important contacts have the correct details.

Give a teammate a personal address

Personal addresses are created through the team roster, rather than the New address dialog.

1. Make sure the teammate has an active account on the site. If they have not joined, follow Inviting teammates and accepting invitations and confirm that joining is complete.
2. Check their name in the team roster. Cedros uses the teammate's name to choose an available address on the configured mail domain; it does not simply copy their sign-in email address.
3. As an administrator, open Team and find Mail addresses. Cedros synchronizes personal addresses with the roster. Read any message about an unavailable roster or unfinished domain setup.
4. Find the resulting address and wait for its status to become Active. If another address already uses the same name, Cedros chooses an alternative, which may include a surname or number. Use the actual address displayed.
5. Have the teammate open Email → Inbox → Settings. Under Your mail, Your addresses distinguishes their own address from addresses Shared with your team.
6. Complete the delivery check below using that teammate's account and exact address.

Changing a teammate's display name does not automatically rename an existing personal address on the same domain. If the public address needs to change, plan that change with the administrator and preserve a way for customers to reach the person at the old address.

Do not create a shared mailbox bearing a person's name as a substitute for their personal mailbox. Its name does not change who can access it.

Create a shared address

Use a shared mailbox when a business function needs its own stored messages.

1. Open Team → Mail addresses and confirm the domain.
2. Select New address.
3. Leave Address type set to New mailbox.
4. In Address (@your-domain), enter only the part before the @ sign, such as support. Do not enter the full email address. Follow any validation message before continuing.
5. Optionally enter a Display name, such as “Customer Support.” If left blank, it defaults to the site name. A display name does not change the email address or mailbox access.
6. Select Create address and read the result. Wait for Active in the address list; Provisioning means setup is still underway.
7. Open the inbox with an account that should use the shared address and complete the delivery check below.

The dialog does not assign this mailbox to a particular teammate or restrict it to a selected department. If you need access narrower than the site's shared inbox permissions, confirm a suitable setup with your administrator before receiving sensitive mail there.

A mailbox appearing in the list is not proof that incoming delivery, outgoing delivery, and each teammate's access all work. Check each separately.

Add another receiving address

Use an alias when messages should go to an existing mailbox without creating another inbox.

1. In Team → Mail addresses, find the destination mailbox.
2. Open its actions menu and select Add an alias….
3. In Alias (@your-domain), enter only the new address name, such as orders. Check the destination shown in the dialog.
4. Select Create alias.
5. Send a test message to the full alias address from an outside account you control. Confirm that it arrives in the intended mailbox.

The address list shows Alias → followed by its destination. An alias has no separate storage allowance or password. For a reply, check which address the composer will actually send from.

To stop an alias receiving mail, use its actions menu and select Disable alias…, then Disable alias. Messages already delivered stay in the mailbox. If a catch-all is active, mail sent to the disabled alias may still arrive through that catch-all.

Use a catch-all only when needed

To receive otherwise unrecognized addresses, select New address, change Address type to Create catch-all, choose an active mailbox under Deliver to, and select Create catch-all. Existing active addresses keep their own routing.

Only one active catch-all is allowed per domain. To change the destination, disable the existing catch-all before creating another. Review who can read the destination: everyone with that mailbox's access can see the extra messages. A catch-all does not create individual mailboxes or enable sending from every address on the domain.

Test with a new, unassigned address on your domain and verify the destination. To turn it off, use Disable catch-all… in its actions menu.

Confirm access and delivery

Use an outside mailbox you control so the test checks mail crossing the domain boundary.

1. Send a message with a distinctive subject to the exact new address.
2. Sign in as the intended teammate and confirm the message appears in Email → Inbox. For a shared mailbox, also check another teammate who should have access. An administrator's successful test does not prove an ordinary teammate has the right permissions.
3. Reply to the message. Inspect From before sending; use Change if you need to choose another available sending address.
4. Confirm the reply arrives at the outside mailbox and shows the expected sender. Check junk or spam if necessary.
5. Reply once more from the outside mailbox and confirm the conversation returns to the intended Cedros mailbox.

For aliases and catch-alls, confirm the receiving destination separately from the reply's sender. Resolve incoming problems with email DNS verification; resolve sending problems with Setting up outgoing email delivery.

If someone also uses a desktop or mobile mail app, open Your addresses → Connect mail app or the address's Mail client settings…. Follow the displayed settings and app-password instructions for that mailbox. Each teammate should use their own Cedros sign-in for the web inbox; sharing a Cedros account password is not how you grant mailbox access.

Once delivery works, use Working with shared mailboxes to coordinate claims, replies, and handovers. Review the signature and out-of-office reply for the shared address before the team starts using it.

Suspend, resume, or retire a mailbox

Use the mailbox's actions menu in Team → Mail addresses. Read the confirmation carefully and check the full address before making a change.

Suspend address… temporarily stops the mailbox. Confirming Suspend address rejects new mail and revokes its app passwords, while keeping stored mail. Messages rejected during suspension are not held for later delivery.

Resume address makes a suspended mailbox available again when the domain is ready. Its old app passwords remain revoked. Issue new app passwords and reconnect any mail apps that need them, then test delivery again.

Delete address… starts a 30-day recovery period. Type the exact address requested and select Schedule deletion. The mailbox stops receiving immediately, and its stored mail is scheduled for permanent removal after that period. Save anything you need and arrange replacement contact details before scheduling deletion.

Cancel deletion is available during the recovery period. It cancels the scheduled removal but leaves the mailbox Suspended. Select Resume address separately, issue new app passwords where needed, and test again. Do not expect cancellation alone to restore delivery.

For a departing teammate, address management is only part of the handover. Follow Removing a teammate's access to review their account and other access. Personal addresses follow the active team roster; removing or disabling a teammate can disable their personal mailbox. Arrange any required message handover before removing access, and check the resulting mailbox status afterward.

If an address is missing or not working

Start with the status and error shown beside the address:

• No Mail addresses card: confirm that Cedros-hosted mail is configured and you are on the correct site. A connected Google Workspace account does not create Cedros-hosted mailboxes.
• No New address or management actions: check your email-management permissions with the administrator. Do not create another account to work around access restrictions.
• No personal address: confirm the teammate is active on the site's roster, the mail domain is ready, and Cedros can load the team list without an error. If Cedros says the account service must be activated, ask the administrator to finish that setup.
• Cannot load addresses: use Try again and read the error. A failed read does not mean existing addresses were deleted. Avoid creating duplicates while the list is unavailable.
• Provisioning or Failed: allow provisioning to finish, or use the displayed failure message to resolve the cause. Do not repeatedly submit the same address as a new mailbox.
• Active but mail does not arrive: check the full recipient address, domain routing, and any alias destination. Open Settings → Site → Mail → Mail storage for capacity warnings; a shared site allowance may apply. Follow Why aren’t my emails arriving? to check storage, folders, and delivery.
• Can receive but cannot reply: check the selected From address and follow Why can I receive email but not send it?.
• Suspended or Deleting: follow the recovery steps above if the mailbox should remain in use. Recreating it is not a substitute for cancelling deletion or resuming it.

If you need help, include the affected address, its visible status, the action you attempted, the time of a failed test, and the exact error. Keep passwords and private message content out of the report. See Getting help and reporting a problem.