> Administrator Guide > Administration Panel > Emails > Automatic Email Importing

Automatic Email Importing

The Check Inbound Mailboxes scheduler job is responsible for automatically importing emails from group email accounts into SuiteCRM. This job runs at regular intervals (as configured in the Schedulers module) and checks all active, non-personal inbound email accounts for new mail.

Overview

The import job is called by the scheduler. For each non-personal, active inbound email account the scheduler:

Iterates over each of the configured monitored folders (for that account).
Fetches messages from the mail server in date order, day by day, starting from the last imported date for that folder until the configured threshold is reached.
- (Optional, configurable) it is possible to only fetch UNSEEN messages.
Fully imports each selected message into the emails table.
If configured, case creation is triggered for each imported message.
If configured, autoresponses (out of office replies) are sent.
(Optionally, configurable) deletes messages from the mail server after successful import.
Updates the Inbound Email Account’s last import run timestamp and per-mailbox (monitored folder) last import cursors.

How messages are selected for import

Per mailbox a cursor mailbox_last_imported_days stores the last imported day (Y-m-d).
The service advances the cursor day-by-day from the saved date to today OR until the configured per-run message limit is reached.
For each date it:
- Queries the mail server for messages on that date, and retrieves all messages for that day.
- Filters out messages already present in the local emails table to avoid duplicates, by checking the message UID.
- The cursor is updated after the run.

Configuration options

Global options

In the Administration panel > Email Settings page, you can find the global configuration options for email import.

There you will find an Email Import Configuration section with the following options:

Threshold for Number of Emails Imported Per Run (per Mailbox)
- Defines the threshold number of emails to be imported per run for each inbound email account mailbox.
- Config entry: email_import_per_run_threshold (integer)
- Maximum number of messages imported per run (across day iteration). Must be a positive integer.
- Default: 25.
Starting Point for New Mailbox Imports
- Defines how far back in time to start importing emails when no per-mailbox cursor exists.
- Config entry: email_import_timeframe_start (string)
- Anchor for the default starting date when no per-mailbox cursor exists.
- Accepted format: leading minus, number, and unit — e.g. -30 days, -3 months, -1 years.
- If invalid or missing the system uses -30 days.
Only fetch unread emails when importing
- Defines whether only UNSEEN messages are fetched from the mail server.
- Config entry: email_import_fetch_unread_only (boolean)
- When true, IMAP imports only fetch UNSEEN messages. Default: false.

Per inbound email account options

Group configurations

Import Emails Automatically
- Defines if emails are imported automatically for this inbound email account.
Move Messages To Trash After Import
- Defines if messages are deleted from the mail server after successful import.
Threshold for Number of Emails Imported Per Run (per Mailbox)
- Defines the threshold number of emails to be imported per run for each inbound email account mailbox.
- Overrides the global configuration.
- Field: email_import_per_run_threshold (integer)
- Maximum number of messages imported per run (across day iteration). Must be a positive integer.
- Default: Uses the current email_import_per_run_threshold global setting value as default.
Starting Point for New Mailbox Imports
- Defines how far back in time to start importing emails when no per-mailbox cursor exists.
- Overrides the global configuration.
- Field: email_import_timeframe_start (string)
- Anchor for the default starting date when no per-mailbox cursor exists.
- Accepted format: leading minus, number, and unit — e.g. -30 days, -3 months, -1 years.
- Default: Uses the current email_import_timeframe_start global setting value as default.
Only fetch unread emails when importing
- Defines whether only UNSEEN messages are fetched from the mail server.
- Overrides the global configuration.
- Field: email_import_unread_only (boolean)
- When true, IMAP imports only fetch UNSEEN messages.
- Default: Uses the current email_import_fetch_unread_only global setting value as default.

Case configurations

It is possible to configure automatic case creation from imported emails on a per inbound email account basis.

For more information on case creation from emails, refer to the Create Case from Email section in the Email module documentation: link:../email/#_create_case_from_email

Checking status

On the Detail view of an inbound email account record, the following fields provide information on the last import run:

Last Import Run Date/Time:
- Defines the timestamp of the last import run for this inbound email account.
Last Imported Date Per Mailbox:
- Defines the per-mailbox (monitored folder) last imported day cursors.

Troubleshooting & tips

Make sure the Check Inbound Mailboxes scheduler is active and running.
Make sure that cron is properly configured.
Check that the inbound email account is active, not personal and properly configured.
Configure the Threshold for Number of Emails Imported Per Run according to the resources available on your server.
Check the SuiteCRM logs for any errors during the import process.
If you are experiencing performance issues, consider increasing the import threshold or adjusting the scheduler frequency.
For large mailboxes, consider running the import job more frequently to avoid long processing times per run.
If you need to re-import emails, you can reset the per-mailbox last imported date cursors by directly modifying the database. Be cautious when doing this and ensure you have a backup of your data.
If you want to avoid duplicate imports, ensure that the email UIDs are unique and not being reused by the mail server.