Need to setup an email to auto respond to emails that are sent to you while you are out for the day or on annual leave? This post outlines how you can do just that directly within your email server (ie. as oppose to your email client/software). This post is based on the Plesk (Linux) Control Panel (Version 8.6), but should apply in general to all versions of Plesk that feature the Autoresponder service.

Login

If you are an administrator, then first login to your Plesk Control Panel and select the domain in question (if you have more than one), click on the Mail icon and  then click on the Autoresponders icon.

If you are a general email user, login to your Control Panel using your email user name and password and  then click on the Autoresponders icon.

Autoresponder Admin

Here you are able to ‘Add New Autoresponder’ – and as add many as you like.

The ‘Add New Autoresponder’ screen allows various setting and is pretty straightforward…

After naming your Autoresponder (eg. Holiday) you can then choose to forward the original email on to another user (eg. work colleague). Once you have then cofigured the conditions for which a responder must be applied, you are then able to detail your automated response text (that will be sent back to the email sender).

Finally, you can set limts as well as add an attachment to your response emails should you wish.

When you are done, be sure to enable each autoresponder you have setup, this is done by toggling it on/off. Also ensure the overall Autoresponder is set to on/off (which turns on/off the entire autoresponder service) otherwise your autorepsonders will not work as planned.