Working with shared mailboxes

Use a shared mailbox for work handled by more than one teammate, such as support, sales, or billing. Everyone with the relevant access works with the same incoming messages and can reply from the shared address when they have sending permission.

This guide covers daily teamwork in Email → Inbox. To create a Cedros-hosted shared address or add an alias, follow Creating personal and shared email addresses.

Check who can read and send

Each teammate should sign in with their own Cedros account. Shared mailboxes are available through the site's email permissions; creating a mailbox does not create a private department or a separate membership list for that address.

Ask the administrator to check the access each person needs:

• Read incoming mail: see messages in the shared mailbox, record their own read state, and claim a message.
• Send and manage message state: reply from an available sending address and use actions such as work status, stars, and folder changes. Read access alone does not provide all these actions.
• Manage settings: create or manage addresses and change rules, signatures, or out-of-office replies. These settings need additional permissions; being able to reply is not enough.

The mailbox must also be active and available for the intended action. An administrator's successful test does not establish that an ordinary teammate has the same access. See Choosing roles and managing permissions.

A shared mailbox is not a private copy for each teammate. Folder changes and shared message status affect the same stored message. Check the access model before using a shared address for correspondence that should be restricted to a smaller group.

An alias delivers to an existing mailbox and has no separate access list. Receiving mail through an alias does not automatically give you that alias as a sending identity; always check the actual From address.

Open the right mailbox

1. Open Email → Inbox on the correct Cedros site.
2. If Mailbox is shown, choose the shared mailbox by its full address. All visible mailboxes combines the mailboxes you can access. When only one mailbox is available, there may be no selector.
3. Choose the folder you need. Start in Inbox; use Sent to check outgoing messages and More for other folders when they are not shown as tabs.
4. Find the conversation and open the incoming message you intend to handle. Check the mailbox address, sender, and any Replied, Done, or Claimed by badge before acting.

If a message is missing, clear the search and switch from Needs attention to All mail. These are attention views within the selected folder. To search beyond Inbox, choose All under More. Keep the mailbox filter in mind when checking Archive, Junk, or Trash. See Finding and organizing messages.

Reading a message and taking responsibility for it are separate actions. Seen by tells your team who opened the message in Cedros; it does not mean the work is complete or that an outside recipient read your reply.

Claim a message before working on it

Use a claim to tell teammates who is handling a particular incoming message:

1. Open the message and check whether it already shows Claimed by a teammate.
2. If it is unclaimed, open Message actions beside the subject and select I've got this.
3. Check that the badge changes to You've got this. If another person's claim appears instead, they claimed it first; coordinate with them before replying.
4. Read the latest conversation before drafting. If someone already replied, check whether any further response is needed.
5. When you hand the work back, open Message actions → Release and confirm your claim disappears.

A claim is a coordination signal, not a sending lock. Another teammate with sending access can still reply. Agree that the person shown on the claim leads the response, and check the conversation again before sending if time has passed.

Claims belong to individual messages. Do not assume claiming one message reserves every later message in the conversation. Only the person who claimed a message can release that claim through this menu; other teammates see a disabled claim entry rather than a takeover action.

Claiming does not grant sending permission, move the message, mark the work done, or send a response. Use the separate work-status and sending controls for those actions.

Reply from the shared address

1. Open the incoming message and select Reply or Reply all as appropriate.
2. Inspect From. If Change is available, choose the shared sending address. Cedros normally prefers the original message's mailbox when it is available to send from, but you must check the actual selection.
3. Select Edit in the reply summary to inspect all address fields. Review To and Cc, including recipients hidden behind a count. Reply all may include other teammates or outside recipients.
4. Write the response and check the signature. Review any AI-generated suggestion for correct names, commitments, and facts. Attach any required files and inspect the attachment list; replies do not automatically include the original incoming attachments.
5. Recheck the latest conversation, claim, sender, and recipients, then select Send reply or Send reply all. If the action says Schedule reply, a send time is set; review or clear it if you mean to send now.
6. Read the outcome and check Sent for the expected message. If the result is uncertain, check Sent and Scheduled before trying again so you do not send a duplicate.

To start a new conversation, select New email and check From there too. The selected mailbox or remembered sender can influence the starting choice. The Inbox mailbox filter is not a substitute for reviewing the composer's From field.

For detailed recipient, attachment, and undo-send instructions, see Reading, replying to, and forwarding email. For queued messages, see Writing and scheduling an email. Scheduling a response does not mean it has already been sent, and opening a scheduled message for editing does not pause its original send time.

Keep the team's message state clear

Use Message actions on an incoming message to record the next step:

• Mark done: records that the work is handled and removes the message from Needs attention without archiving it.
• Waiting for response: records that you are waiting on someone else and puts the message in the Awaiting response classification.
• Snooze for one day: removes it from Needs attention for a day. It remains available in All mail; its classification determines whether it needs attention when the snooze ends.
• Reopen: returns a done, waiting, or snoozed message to open work.

These statuses describe the message for the team. They are not private reminders, and they do not send customer updates. Mark done and Release are separate controls: record the work status and review your claim separately.

Cedros also tracks read receipts for individual signed-in users. Mark unread lets you mark the message unread for yourself; it does not erase a teammate's recorded read receipt. Do not use unread state alone as the team's work queue, or interpret Seen by as proof that someone has taken responsibility.

Archive, Trash, Junk, and other shared message changes can affect where teammates find the same mail. Agree on a cleanup convention before using bulk actions. To recover a moved message, follow Finding and organizing messages.

Shared-address signatures, away messages, and rules also deserve coordination. A rule can move incoming mail before anyone reviews it, and an out-of-office reply speaks for the mailbox. Review signature settings, out-of-office replies, and mail rules before changing them for a team address.

Hand work to another teammate

Use a clear handover when you finish a shift or need someone else to continue:

1. Tell the next teammate which mailbox and message need attention, what has already been sent, and what remains to do. Include any commitment or deadline in your team's usual internal handover channel.
2. Check Sent and Scheduled for replies already sent or queued. Agree who will maintain or cancel any queued response before either person creates another.
3. Save any writing you need and check the draft's save indicator. Ordinary composer drafts belong to your Cedros account; releasing a claim does not transfer your draft to a teammate. Share required wording separately through an appropriate internal channel.
4. Set the appropriate work status, then use Release on your claim.
5. Have the next teammate open the message, review its latest state, select I've got this if they are taking responsibility, and check their From address before replying.

Keep original attachments available. Ordinary drafts do not retain attached files, and a teammate should not assume a filename mentioned in your handover is already attached to their reply.

If the original claimer is unavailable, coordinate the handover outside the claim control and ask the administrator or support for help with a stale badge. Another person's claim still does not prevent an authorized teammate from replying, so agree on one responder before proceeding.

Resolve common problems

• The shared mailbox is missing. Check the site, your account's inbox permissions, and the address's status with the administrator. A shared display name does not prove access or delivery is working.
• I can read but cannot reply or change status. Ask the administrator to review sending permissions and the mailbox's sending availability. For delivery setup, use Why can I receive email but not send it?.
• The wrong From address is selected. Choose the intended shared address using Change. If it is absent, resolve access or outgoing setup rather than sending from an unrelated address. Check it again when resuming a draft.
• Someone else already claimed the message. Contact that teammate. You cannot take over their claim through the message menu; they should release it for a normal handover.
• The team's views disagree. First compare the mailbox, folder, attention filter, and search. Read state can differ by user. Refresh the inbox if a claim or message update appears stale, but preserve unsaved writing before leaving the composer.
• A message disappeared after a teammate acted. Check All mail in the current folder, then All, Archive, Junk, and Trash as appropriate. A work-status or folder change can remove it from your current view without deleting it permanently.
• Two replies were sent. Review Sent and Scheduled with the team, agree who will follow up, and cancel any unwanted queued response while cancellation is still available. Claims cannot recall a sent message or guarantee exclusive sending.
• A draft did not pass to the next person. Drafts are not a shared handover document. Return with the original account to recover saved wording, then share what the next responder needs.

If you still need help, contact support with the mailbox, affected action, approximate time, visible claim or status, and exact error. Avoid passwords and unnecessary private message content.