Docs / Obsidian Mail Server / Apps and devices
Webmail for users
Everyone with a mailbox can use webmail at https://mail.example.com/mail (the Exchange address /owa also works), from any browser, signing in with their email address and password. This page describes what they find there; share it with your users as needed.
- Folders are in the sidebar with their unread counts: Inbox, Drafts, Sent Items, Deleted Items, Junk Email, Archive, and any folders the person creates (New folder).
- Search at the top searches the open folder as you type: sender, subject and the start of the text.
- Filters above the list show all, unread or flagged messages.
- Hover over a message's picture to get a checkbox; select several messages to move, flag, mark read or delete them together.
- Pictures from the internet in messages are blocked until the reader chooses to show them, so senders cannot track when mail is opened.
Conversations
The list groups a thread (a message and its replies) into one row, with the number of messages, the people who took part, and the latest message's preview. Opening it shows the whole conversation oldest first, including your own replies from Sent Items: the latest and unread messages are open, the others one line each; click a line to open it. Reply, move, categorize or delete the whole conversation from the top, or one message from its own buttons. Moving and deleting a conversation affects its messages in the folder you are looking at.
The Conversations / Messages switch above the list turns grouping off; each browser remembers the choice. Other apps (phones, Outlook, Thunderbird) keep their own conversation view.
Online archive
If an administrator switched it on, Online archive appears under Mailboxes in the sidebar. It works like the mailbox itself: folders, search, reading, conversations. Select messages and choose To archive to move them there (into the folder of the same name); in the archive the button moves them back. Older mail may also move there automatically, depending on the organization's settings.
Categories
Categories are colored labels, as in Outlook: Clients, Invoices, Follow up with Anna.
- Open a message and choose the tag button to switch categories on and off, or type a new one. Several selected messages can be categorized at once with Categorize above the list.
- Categories show as colored chips in the list. Clicking a chip shows only the messages with that category; the × next to Only shows everything again.
- Settings > Categories adds categories, changes their colors, renames them (on every message at once) and deletes them (messages keep a deleted category, without a color).
- Categories sync with phones and Macs using an Exchange account, and with Outlook. Mail apps using IMAP see categories without spaces as keywords (tags); names with spaces are kept on the message but are not visible there.
- Inbox rules can categorize mail as it arrives.
Getting deleted mail back
Deleted messages go to Deleted Items. After that they can still be recovered for 14 days: open Deleted Items and choose Recover deleted items at the top, tick the messages and choose Restore.
Writing
New message opens the editor, with formatting, links and attachments. Typing a name in To, Cc or Bcc suggests people from the address book. Save draft keeps the message in Drafts; Discard throws it away. Someone with access to shared mailboxes chooses the address to send from in the From field.
Calendar
- Month and week views, with Today and arrows to move around.
- New event: title, time, location, and people to invite. Invited people get an invitation they can accept or decline from any app, including other mail systems.
- Invite a room to book it; it answers by itself (see Rooms).
- Invitations that arrive show Accept, Tentative and Decline buttons in the message.
People
The person's own contacts, plus the organization's address book when writing mail. New contact adds a contact; contacts sync to phones and Macs with an Exchange account.
Settings
- Automatic replies (out of office): a message for people inside the organization and, optionally, one for outside senders (nobody, only people in the person's contacts, or everyone). Can be limited to a date range.
- Rules sort mail as it arrives, even when no app is open. For example: when the subject contains "invoice", move it to the Accounts folder. Rules can check the sender, recipients, subject, body, headers, attachments, importance, size and meeting messages, and can move, copy, delete, mark read, flag, categorize, forward or redirect. Rules run in order; each can stop the ones after it.
- Password: change the password. At least 8 characters.
- Connect other apps: the settings for phones, Macs and IMAP apps (see Connecting apps).
Shared mailboxes
People with access to a shared mailbox see it in the sidebar under Mailboxes. Clicking it switches webmail to that mailbox; the header shows which mailbox is open.
Look and feel
The switch at the top offers four styles: Cut Obsidian (dark, default), Swiss Precision, Tactical SOC and Daylight (light). Each browser remembers its choice.