Zentraler Informatikdienst

Activating and deactivating Out of office message

For:  students    employees

This user guide will help you set up an out-of-office message if you manage your e-mails with IMAP.

Even if your out-of-office message is active, e-mails will still be delivered to your mailbox. The footnote of the out-of-office message points this out by default. 

Managing out-of-office message

Notes

  • Employees who use Exchange can find out how to set up an out-of-office message under Exchange. Are you an employee and not sure whether you manage your e-mails with IMAP or Exchange? Please contact your IT representative.
  • Students manage their e-mails with IMAP.

Activating out-of-office messages

  1. Log in to Managing out-of-office message using your u:account UserID and password.
  2. Specify the period during which out-of-office messages are to be sent (first and last day).
  3. Enter the text for the out-of-office message. If the string $DateEnd$ appears in the text, it will be automatically replaced by the last date of your absence when the out-of-office message is sent.
  4. Click Send test e-mail to receive a template message.
  5. Click Enable. The service is active immediately. You will see a preview of the out-of-office message again.

The service will only send one notification per week per sender. This week starts as soon as the first out-of-office reply is sent. 

Note

Please use the prepared texts in German, English or in both languages.

Deactivating out-of-office messages

After the date specified as Last day, the out-of-office reply will be deactivated automatically.

If you would like to deactivate the out-of-office reply before that date, please log in to Managing out-of-office messages and click Disable. You will only be able to see this button if an out-of-office reply is currently activated. 

Who receives an out-of-office message?

Out-of-office messages are sent to the address indicated in the return path of the e-mail addressed to you. As a rule, this is the sender’s address. However, in some cases, it may be a different address (e.g., in the event of a wrong configuration of the sender’s email program). 

In some cases, no automatic out-of-office reply is sent:

  • If the e-mail was not sent directly to your University of Vienna e-mail address.
  • If the return path begins with owner- or ends on -request, -relay or -owner. This prevents out-of-office messages from being sent to mailing lists.
  • If the sender’s address is postmaster, uucp, mailer-daemon or mailer.
  • If the message is marked as bulk mail by a precedence header: bulk, junk or list.
  • If the message is marked as automatically generated by an AutoSubmitted header.

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