Setting-Up a Vacation Responder Message in Gmail
There are times when you may be unable to have regular access to your Email account and wish to let people know that you will not be able to respond to their Emails for an extended period of time.
Luckily, most email systems have a feature that allows anyone that sends you an Email to automatically receive a preset response of your choosing.
This Email feature is often called an “Out-of-Office” message, “Vacation message”, “Autoreply” or an “Auto-Responder” message.
In Gmail, the name of this feature is “Vacation Responder”.
This feature lets people that send you an Email know that you received their message, but will be unable to respond to them right away.
And the great thing about this feature is that once you set it up, everything is handled automatically by the Email system.
Some of the most common reasons for using auto-responders include:
Traveling in remote locations where you will not have reliable access to the internet or even cellphone service.
“In transit” in flights or by other modes of transport where you do not always have internet connectivity or where your phone may be turned off.
Attending to a personal, medical, or family event where you wish to not be disturbed.
Enjoying a long overdue vacation where you wish to truly “unplug”.
Setting up the Vacation Responder in Gmail using the Windows client:
Here are the steps for setting-up your Vacation Responder using Gmail on the Windows client:
1. From within Gmail, select “Settings” (gear icon) in the top right corner.
2. Select “See all settings”.
3. Select the “General” tab.
4. Scroll down to the “Vacation Responder” section.
5. Change the radio button to “Vacation responder on”.
6. Enter the “First Day” you wish the Vacation Responder to start.
Note: By default, Gmail will enter the current day as the “First Day” but you can change this to any day in the future you wish.
7. Enter the “Last Day” you wish the Vacation Responder to send auto-responses.
Note: If you are unsure when you want it to end, you can just leave this field blank and the Autoresponses will continue until you turn them off.
8. Enter a “Subject” for the Vacation Responder message that will be sent automatically by Gmail. You should consider adding helpful information so the person receiving the message can quickly see you are away and for how long.
Note: If you leave the Subject field empty, the Vacation responder message will appear like a regular reply with just “Re:” preceding the original message’s subject.
9. Enter your Vacation responder message in the larger text box. Make sure you give as much information as possible to assist the person.
Typical information to include in your vacation responder message;
Why you are away
How long you will be away for
Who to contact in your absence
10. Use the “Formatting Toolbar” to apply text formatting to your message (bold, italics, bullets, etc.). You can even add an image or a web link if you wish.
11. Alternatively, select the “« Plain Text” link to create a simple text-only reply.
12. Select “Only send a response to people in my Contacts” to have your vacation responder message only go to email addresses that appear in your Gmail Contacts.
Note: Use this option if you do not expect emails from people other than your contacts. This also avoids email newsletters, for instance, receiving your vacation auto-reply message.
13. Don’t forget to click “Save Changes”.
Turning Off your Vacation Auto-Responder:
If you set a “Last Day” when you set-up your Vacation Responder in the steps above, then the vacation responder will automatically terminate on that “Last Day”.
However, if you did not set a “Last Day” because perhaps you were not sure how long you would be unavailable, or if you wish to stop your Vacation Responder earlier than the “Last Day”, follow these steps:
1. When your Vacation Responder is set to on, you will see a banner across the top of your Gmail Inbox that shows the subject of your vacation response and the options “End Now” and “Vacation Settings” in blue text.
2. If you select “End Now”, then your Vacation Responder will be terminated.
3. If you select “Vacation Settings”, then you will be brought into the “Vacation Responder” Settings section of your Gmail Settings, where you can modify your Vacation Responder settings and options.
Setting up the Vacation Responder in Gmail using the Gmail Mobile App:
Here are the steps to set-up the Vacation Responder using the Gmail Mobile app, such as on your iPhone or Android device:
1. Select the “Hamburger Menu” in the top-left of your Gmail app.
2. Scroll all the way down and select “Settings”.
3. Scroll Down to the section called “Compose and Reply” and select the “Vacation responder” setting.
4. Move the “Vacation Responder Radio Button” to “On” (blue).
5. You will now see all your Vacation Responder settings (First Day, Last Day, Subject, Message, Send Only to Contacts), which are almost the exact same as for the Windows client above.
6. Make sure to select “Save” in the upper-right of the screen.
Turning-Off the Vacation Responder in Gmail using the Gmail Mobile App:
Unlike the Gmail Windows client, the Gmail Mobile App does not display a message in your Inbox that indicates your Vacation responder is “on” or provide a quick link to “end” it.
To Turn-Off your Vacation Responder in the Gmail Mobile App, just follow the same steps listed above but move the “Vacation Responder Radio Button” to “Off” (grey).
Other Important Vacation Responder Rules and Features:
The Gmail Vacation Responder settings “sync” with your Google account, so you can enable, disable, and change the details on either the website or the mobile app, and the settings will be reflected on all your Gmail devices.
The automatic replies begin at 12:00 AM on the “First day”.
Replies end at 11:59 PM on the “Last day” unless you turn off the responder ahead of time.
Replies are normally sent to people once, the first time they email you. However, if the same person Emails you again four days later and the responder is still active, they will receive another Auto Responder message.
The Auto-Responder logic will “reset” if you edit your Vacation Responder settings during the out-of-office timeframe.
If you have “Email Signature”, it will be displayed below your Vacation Responder message.
Any Emails that are flagged as “Spam” or which are addressed to a “Mailing List” will not receive an automatic reply.