# Set up reply by email with POP3 polling
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/set-up-reply-by-email-with-pop3-polling/14003
**Category:** Self-Hosting
**Tags:** email, how-to
**Created:** [March 22, 2014, 7:04am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/set-up-reply-by-email-with-pop3-polling/14003 "2014-03-22T07:04:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Discourse](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Discourse)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2014, 7:04am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/set-up-reply-by-email-with-pop3-polling/14003/1 "2014-03-22T07:04:46Z")
So you’d like to set up reply via email support for your Discourse forum.
> 📣 Reply via email is pre-configured and enabled by default on all [discourse.org](http://discourse.org) hosted sites. The guide below only applies to those self-hosting.
Good news! Unlike _outgoing_ email, which is completely unsuitable for typical consumer mail services like GMail, Outlook, Yahoo Mail, etc, **incoming reply via-email tends to be extremely low volume**. Unless you have a truly massive forum with a zillion people replying to notification emails, you are probably safe using, say, Gmail.
> 🔔 Alternately, if you aren’t comfortable using GMail for this, you can set up your own incoming email service using [Configure direct-delivery incoming email for self-hosted sites with Mail-Receiver](https://meta.discourse.org/t/straightforward-direct-delivery-incoming-mail/49487)
So here’s how to set it up using GMail as an example.
1. Create a new GMail account. **If you do not set up a completely new email account old emails will be synced via POP3, causing unforeseen issues and sending bounce notification emails!**
2. Assign the new account a username like `discourse-replies@example.com` or in my case, `replies@example.com` (if you are using a normal GMail account replace `@example.com` with `@gmail.com` here). Give it a strong password.
3. Log in to this account via [http://mail.google.com](http://mail.google.com). Accept the terms of service, enter the CAPTCHA, load the default web interface. Maybe send a test email, receive a test email. Kick the tires.
4. POP3s access is _off_ by default in Gmail, so turn it on via Settings, Forwarding and POP/IMAP:
5. Visit the Discourse settings and check the Email tab.
6. Change the following settings:
There is a certain amount of polling that goes on for this account, but we’ve set it to a low, safe volume – you can configure the polling interval via the `pop3_polling_period_mins` setting.
We do assume that your email service supports [plus addressing aka address tags](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email_address#Address_tags), so check that before starting. GMail obviously does.
If everything is working, you should see the footer of all notification mails now tell you that you can reply either by visiting the website, or replying via email:
> To respond, **reply to this email** or visit {topic URL} in your browser.
If things _aren’t_ working:
- check the `/logs` path on your Discourse in your web browser and look for email related error messages.
- log into your mail account using your web browser and check for any errors or notifications.
## Forwarding mail sent to additional addresses
Let’s say that you are polling emails from the “`replies@your.domain`” account and you want to setup incoming emails for “`help@your.domain`” and “`dev@your.domain`”.
You will need to forward all the emails sent to “`help@your.domain`” and “`dev@your.domain`” to “`replies@your.domain`”. If you are using GMail, they have a great tutorial on [how to automatically forward incoming emails to another account](https://support.google.com/mail/answer/10957?hl=en).
Then, Discourse will periodically poll emails from the “`reply@discourse.org`” account and deliver the emails to the corresponding `category`, `group`, `topic` or `message`.
## Potential Issues
1. We have seen difficulties when signing up for a GMail account from a different country than your server is located in. For example, if you create the Gmail account from the UK, but the server is in the USA.
2. If you are using a **GMail account** (e.g. @gmail.com) or a **Google Workspace mailbox** (e.g. a Google mailbox @yourdomain.com), you will need to create an [app password](https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833?hl=en) for your account, which is used in place of your account password in step 6.
See also: [Troubleshoot reply by email](https://meta.discourse.org/t/troubleshoot-reply-by-email/42026)
```
ℹ Since May 30th, 2022, the **Access from less secure apps** Google option isn't supported anymore, so you need to use app passwords, and enable the two-factor authentication to do so.
```
> Last edited by @JammyDodger 2024-05-28T18:43:42Z
>
> > **Check document**
> >
> > Perform check on document:
---
### Author:  [@Canapin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Canapin)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2025, 11:05am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/set-up-reply-by-email-with-pop3-polling/14003/181 "2025-09-02T11:05:11Z")
I get this guide is specifically about POP3 polling, but I think it should promote #mail-receiver first instead of using a Gmail account, which should be the alternative, and not the other way as it is currently presented.
I’ve set up various Discourse installations and never went to #mail-receiver, because I read “Gmail” first and thought “I know Gmail, let’s configure this” without actually trying to know more, or believing that the other way would be more complicated.
I finally tried #mail-receiver and I think it’s just a better solution in all respects.
The Gmail solution requires configuring an app password in the Gmail account, which also requires two-factor authentication.
It’s a bit of a chore to do all of this, and in the end we get a reply-by-email feature with low polling rate (when #mail-receiver is close to instant). It also relies on third-party software.
And I think another reason to promote #mail-receiver is also that it doesn’t require more knowledge or technical skills than installing Discourse itself. It’s mostly a matter of DNS and `yml` configuration.
It _is_ more technical than the Gmail solution for sure (though I’ve sometimes been lost trying to configure it, especially with app passwords), but if one has installed and configured self-hosted Discourse, then one can also install and configure #mail-receiver.
* * *
And, perhaps more importantly and this is why I focus on this, the description of the **Reply by email enabled** setting links to this guide, not the #mail-receiver guide:
> Activate the feature that permits users to respond to topics directly through email, instead of requiring them to log into the website. See [the guide on Meta](https://meta.discourse.org/t/set-up-reply-by-email-with-pop3-polling/14003) for more information.