--- title: Inbox slug: email-inbox description: Read incoming email, manage message state, and open replies from the admin inbox. productSlug: cedros productLabel: Cedros sectionKey: email sectionLabel: Email --- # Inbox The Inbox is where every email that lands at your configured company address shows up. Read incoming mail, star or archive what matters, see what teammates have already claimed, and jump into a reply — all without leaving the admin. ## What's on this page ### Header At the top you'll see: - **Title and subtitle** — "Inbox" and a one-line summary that changes with the folder you're viewing. - **Settings** — Opens the email settings page (mailboxes, signatures, rules, provider config). - **New email** — Opens the [New Email](new-email.md) composer to write a fresh message. If native mail hosting is not configured yet, the inbox shows “Mail isn't arriving yet” and a **Continue setup** button. Incoming mail setup remains available even when outbound SES or another sending provider has not been configured. ### Search and mailbox picker Just below the header, one toolbar holds the folder tabs on the left and these on the right: - **Search mail** — Type any part of a sender's name, email address, subject, or message body to filter the list. You can also type a state or a sender in plain words — "needs reply", "from amazon", or "action required from stripe" — and a line under the field confirms how it read your search, with a **Clear filters** link. - **Mailbox dropdown** — Only appears when you can read more than one mailbox. Narrow the view to a single mailbox (for example, "Support" or "Sales"). Defaults to **All visible mailboxes**. ### Folder tabs and Focus The folder tabs lead the toolbar. In the Inbox, the Focus controls sit at the right of the strip that heads the message list, across from **Select all**. **Folder tabs.** Each tab shows a live count: - **Inbox** — Incoming mail you haven't archived, trashed, or sent. - **Sent** — Messages you've sent from this admin. - **Archive** — Mail you've archived to keep it out of the inbox without deleting. - **Drafts** and **Scheduled** — Appear as tabs only while they hold something. Scheduled opens a separate panel (see below). - **More** — A menu holding **Junk**, **Trash**, **All** (everything except trash), and Drafts or Scheduled when they're empty. **Focus.** The Inbox opens in Focus: it lists only the mail that needs you and sets the rest aside. At the top of the list: - **Attention chips** — One chip per kind of ask with its count, for example **Action required 6** and **Awaiting response 1**. Click a chip to see only that kind; click it again to return to Focus. Chips with nothing in them don't appear. - **Needs attention / All mail** — A two-way switch. **Needs attention** is Focus; **All mail** shows everything in the Inbox, including FYI mail and bundled updates such as newsletters, receipts, and notifications. The highlighted side is what the list is showing. When nothing needs you but the Inbox still holds other mail, the list is replaced by **You're caught up**, which says how many lower-attention messages are in all mail and offers **Show all mail**. Typing a search suspends Focus: a search shows every match, whatever its state, so a search for "from amazon" finds Amazon's receipts too. Clearing the search restores Focus. The mailbox picker does not suspend Focus. Focus only applies to the Inbox. Sent, Archive, and the other folders always show everything they hold. ### The message list Just above the list, a status notice may flag an outbound-only problem. A disabled or incomplete sending provider does not block incoming mail; the notice explicitly says incoming mail remains available. One-off action results (such as a failed bulk operation) also surface here. The main panel is the message list. Each row shows: - **Unread dot** — A dot at the far left on mail you haven't read. Unread rows use a heavier weight. - **Checkbox** — Select the row for bulk actions. - **Sender** — A circled-initial avatar and the sender's name. In Sent, the row names the recipient instead ("To morgan@example.com"). - **State pill** — What the message asks of you: **Action required**, **Needs reply**, **Important**, **Awaiting response**, or **FYI**. Shown in the Inbox and All folders only. - **Starred** — A star icon appears beside the sender on starred mail. - **Claimed by** — A badge naming the teammate who has taken the conversation, so a shared inbox doesn't answer the same message twice. - **Subject and summary** — The subject line with a one-line summary underneath. Small indicators appear inline with the subject: - **↩** — You've replied to this message. - **↪** — You've forwarded this message. - **Attachment** — The message has a file attached. - **Mailbox** — Which of your mailboxes received the message. Only shown when you have more than one mailbox and **All visible mailboxes** is selected. - **Time** — When the message arrived, relative ("2 hours ago"); hover for the exact timestamp. - **Suggested action** — One button on the right for the everyday move: **Reply** on mail that needs a reply, **Follow up** on mail awaiting a response, **Archive** on FYI mail. It appears with the **⋯** menu when you point at a row, reach it with the keyboard, or move onto it with **J**/**K**; on touch screens both are always shown. - **⋯ menu** — Star or unstar, mark read or unread, archive or restore, and delete. On mail you sent, **Follow up** lives here too. The row you currently have open is highlighted. A line under the list shows the keyboard shortcuts: **J** and **K** move between rows, **↵** opens the row, **E** archives it, and **X** selects it. While the list loads — on first open and whenever you switch folder, mailbox, or search — a placeholder keeps the list's shape; an empty message only appears once the folder is known to be empty. If the Inbox is empty, it reads "No inbound mail yet." and waits for mail sent to one of the Cedros-hosted addresses. ### Bulk action bar **Select all** sits at the top left of the list, above the row checkboxes. Selecting one or more checkboxes swaps the rest of that strip for a bar showing how many are selected: - **Mark read** / **Mark unread** — Flip the unread state for all selected. - **Archive** — Move selected messages out of the inbox into Archive. - **Restore** — Only shown in the Archive, Junk, or Trash folders. Returns messages to the inbox. - **Delete** — Move selected messages to Trash. From inside Trash this becomes **Delete forever**, which asks you to confirm and then removes them permanently. - **Esc**, or clearing **Select all**, drops the selection. ### Scheduled sends panel Switching to the **Scheduled** tab replaces the message list with a list of pending outgoing emails. Each row shows the sender, subject, recipient line, status (Queued, Sending, Sent, Failed, Cancelled), and the scheduled send time. - Click a row to **edit** the scheduled send (recipients, subject, body, time). - Click **Cancel** on a row to drop it from the queue without sending. - Select rows and click **Cancel selected** for bulk cancellation. If nothing is scheduled, you'll see: "Messages scheduled for later delivery appear here until they send." ## Common things you can do here ### Read a new message Click any row in the list. The message opens on its own page — see [View / Reply Email](view-reply-email.md). Once opened, the row is marked read automatically. ### Find a specific email Type a name, address, subject, or keyword into the **Search mail** box. Results filter live as you type and include every state, not just the mail Focus shows. To narrow by which mailbox received it, also pick from the **Mailbox** dropdown. ### Claim a conversation so a teammate doesn't double-reply Open the message and click **I've got this** in the top-right corner. Other admins see a "Claimed by [you]" indicator and a disabled claim button. When you're done, click **Release** to free it up. Claims update in near real-time across all teammates' screens. ### Clear out your inbox Tick the checkboxes for messages you've handled, then click **Archive** in the bulk bar. To bulk-mark read, use **Mark read**. To delete, use **Delete** (or **Delete forever** from inside Trash). ### Send a new email Click **New Email** in the top right. See [New Email](new-email.md) for the full composer walkthrough. ### Cancel or reschedule a queued send Switch to the **Scheduled** tab. Click a row to edit it, or click **Cancel** on the right to drop it. The original draft survives until you save the edit. ## Tips - **Updates are live.** When a teammate claims, archives, or replies, your inbox updates within a second — no need to refresh. - **Star anything important.** Use the row's **⋯** menu. Stars stay attached to the message no matter which folder it's in. Useful as a personal "follow up" flag. - **Sent messages also appear in your inbox.** Switch to the **Sent** tab to find them — they're tagged with a "Sent" label and don't count toward unread. - **Mailbox badges only appear when you have more than one mailbox.** A single-mailbox inbox hides them to reduce clutter. - **The search runs against the server for indexed messages**, so it'll find matches inside long bodies — not just subject lines. - **Permissions matter.** Marking, archiving, deleting, and claiming all require the write permission. Without it, the bulk action bar is hidden and the claim buttons are disabled. Ask an admin for the right access if you need to act on mail. ## Troubleshooting - **“Mail isn't arriving yet” notice instead of the inbox?** Click **Continue setup** to choose the mail domain, publish its inbound DNS records, and create the first Cedros-hosted address. Outbound credentials are not required. - **"Connect Google Workspace to use your inbox" notice?** Your install uses Google Workspace for mail and isn't connected yet. The notice reads: "Customer replies sync into Cedros once you connect your work Gmail. Open email settings to finish setup." Open **Email Settings** and finish the Google Workspace connection. - **Yellow banner mentions outgoing email?** Incoming mail is still working. Open **Providers → Email** only when you are ready to configure or repair sending. - **The configured inbox is empty?** Nothing has arrived yet at your Cedros-hosted address. Send it a test email and confirm the inbound MX record is verified. - **A message I expect is missing?** In the Inbox, Focus hides FYI mail and bundled updates — switch to **All mail**. Otherwise check your search and folder — it may be in Archive or Trash. Switch to **All** under **More** to confirm. - **Claim shows someone else even though they're not at their desk?** Only the original claimer can release a claim. Reach out and ask them to click **Release**, or an admin can clear it from the message page. - **Scheduled send shows "Failed"?** Open it from the **Scheduled** tab to see the error message. Common causes: the provider rejected the recipient address, or attachments exceeded provider size limits.