# Incoming email replies do not share the same topic

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/incoming-email-replies-do-not-share-the-same-topic/390441>\
**Category:** Product Support\
**Tags:** email-in\
**Created:** [December 4, 2025, 6:30pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/incoming-email-replies-do-not-share-the-same-topic/390441 "2025-12-04T18:30:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 3

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**Author:** ![hellekin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/hellekin/32/51636_2.png) [@hellekin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/hellekin)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2025, 6:02pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/incoming-email-replies-do-not-share-the-same-topic/390441/3 "2025-12-05T18:02:43Z")

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> [@tobiaseigen](#):
>
> Has this ever worked for you before or is this a new setup that you are trying that is not working?

No it’s been the same setup forever. Maybe I didn’t notice it so much because we did not have such a long conversation before maybe.

I’m using POP3.

Here is a screenshot of email server settings (I replaced the domain and email but kept the options the same)

 ![Screenshot of server settings](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/2/5/5/255e4e66b7a62afa0e794f9a9581011e29732404.png)

Here are some relevant email settings (sorry no text details)

 ![More server settings](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/7/b/7/7b794b48e2bbfc174a2ec5ba3f18362b574cc46e.png)

![forwarded_email_behaviour: create_replies](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/optimized/4X/5/d/9/5d9e5765cd299b3bbb1eb79d044bd661d6dc0c10_2_690x61.png)

> [@tobiaseigen](#):
>
> I don’t think you can expect to have the replies all associated with the same topic if the email people are replying to did not come from Discourse.

Yet, if Discourse received a copy, it should be able to identify replies, since they bear a thread of `Message-ID`, `References` and `In-Reply-To` headers. Moreover, the `Subject` headers should remain close enough (mostly the “Re:” that can change across languages), then it should be trivial to process replies to an existing topic _in most cases_. I think that’s what most email clients are doing?

I would be interested in learning about what would prevent Discourse from implementing proper email threading for _any_ email it receives, not just emails it generates. Since `email-in` is a feature, there should be a way to ensure proper usability. Again, I’m happy to give a hand. Where should I look?

> [@tobiaseigen](#):
>
> Any replies by email are associated with the topic that is created, and also get distributed.

In my case, an email address assigned to a Discourse category is sending the email, then a conversation starts among people using various email addresses. Discourse receives everything. Although it didn’t generate the headers, they are consistent and related to each other.

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_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/incoming-email-replies-do-not-share-the-same-topic/390441)._