This guide explains how to set up incoming emails to create new topics or group messages in Discourse, including configuration of site settings and category or group-specific settings.
Required user level: Administrator
This guide covers:
- Enabling and configuring incoming emails
- Choosing between category and group for incoming emails
- Setting up incoming emails for a group
- Setting up incoming emails for a category
If you have already set up reply via email, or you are on a hosting plan that pre-configures your incoming email, you’re now ready to set up Starting a New Topic via Email.
Configuring site settings
To enable incoming emails, you need to configure three main site settings:
-
email_in
: This setting must be enabled for incoming emails to work. -
email in allowed groups
: Users must belong to this group to send an email to Discourse. -
enable_staged_users
: This setting allows the creation of staged users for unknown email addresses.
To configure these settings:
- Go to your site’s Admin panel
- Navigate to Settings
- Search for each setting and configure as needed
Staged users are special user accounts in Discourse created to support incoming emails from anyone. They have limited functionality:
- Can’t be mentioned or searched for
- Don’t receive digests
- Can only be notified of and reply to topics they started or were invited to
- Will be promoted to a normal user if they create an account using the same email address
Choosing between categories and groups
Decide whether you want incoming emails to create topics in a category or messages in a group.
Using a group
Benefits of using a group:
- Useful for setting up a support-like workflow
- Creates a message sent to all group members
- Messages appear in
/my/messages
- Anyone can send an email to the group
- Any group member can read, reply, delete, or archive the message
- Each group member has their own read tracking state
Using a category
Benefits of using a category:
- Simulates a mailing list
- Creates a topic in the specified category
- Anyone with access to the category can read and reply via web interface or email
- Respects category security settings
- Respects the
email in allowed groups
site setting - Allows disabling staged users on a per-category basis
Setting up incoming emails for a group
To configure incoming emails for a group:
-
Go to the Groups page from the main menu
-
Click on the group name (or create a new group)
-
For a new group, find the “Custom incoming email address” field at the bottom of the form
-
For an existing group, go to the Manage tab, then click Interaction in the left side menu
-
Enter the email address(es) you want to associate with the group (separate multiple addresses with
|
) -
Click Save to apply the changes
For Discourse hosted sites, check the “Accept incoming emails sent to:” box and forward your custom email(s) to this address for proper functionality.
Setting up incoming emails for a category
To configure incoming emails for a category:
-
Go to the category page (e.g.,
/c/<category_slug>
) -
Click the Edit button
-
In the Edit category modal, click the Settings tab
-
Look for “Accept emails from anonymous users with no accounts” and “Custom incoming email address” fields
-
Enable “Accept emails from anonymous users with no accounts” if you want to create staged users for unknown email addresses
-
Enter the email address(es) you want to associate with the category
-
Click Save Category to apply the changes
For Discourse hosted sites, check the “Accept incoming emails sent to:” box and forward your custom email(s) to this address for proper functionality.
Additional resources
Last edited by @hugh 2024-08-06T05:58:06Z
Last checked by @hugh 2024-08-06T05:58:13Z
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