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Is there any way to configure Thunderbird, whether by filter, plug-in, other means to automatically send a prepared reply email, like out of office, but not to to everyone - just to a single specified sender, or maybe a list of them?

Mawg
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1 Answers1

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A deep DuckDuckGo finally found the answer for me. Copied verbatim here, in case of future link rot.

  1. First of all, you’ll need to create your autoresponder message and save it as a template. Open Thunderbird and click on the “Write” button at the top.

  2. Now close the message window and click on “Message Filters…” in the “Options->Message Filters” menu. Options are hidden behind the inconspicuous three lines button right next to the search bar in the top right corner by default – don’t know why Mozilla decided that would be a good thing.

Go to the Options menu and click on Message Filters

  1. in the new window, first select the account you want to create autoresponders for (they will be sent from this address, as well), then click on “New…” to create the autoresponder function/filter.

Select the account, then click on New to create autoresponder filter

  1. Give the filter a name, then choose the conditions when to send the autoresponder. You can choose from a wide range of conditions – respond only to emails with specific keywords in the subject/body, respond only to emails that are not marked important, emails that have attachments, and more.

In this case, let’s say I use this account for Craigslist ads, so I’ll send an autoreply to all emails (it can contain contact details, attachment with more photos of the products, more information, etc. – I don’t need to send all that manually).

Just choose “Match all messages”.

Give filter a name and choose when to send autoresponder - choose Match all messages

  1. Right below, choose the action to perform – in this case, it’s “Reply with Template”. After selecting that option, you can select the template you saved in the drop down menu next to it. Sadly, you can’t send multiple replies, but you could create several of these filters for that.

Choose Reply with Template and select saved Template

  1. That’s it – after clicking OK, you’ll see the autoresponder filter in the list and it will be active right away. You can choose to apply it on existing emails – i.e. send the autoresponder to the messages that are already in the Inbox – using the “Run Now” button.

Success - autoresponder is active in Thunderbird

That’s pretty much it – with several accounts and these filters, you can automate a large portion of work – it’s a really powerful feature to have, so be sure to use it!

Mawg
  • 4,603