(warning) The information on this page does not apply to Confluence Cloud.

When you add a mail account, you're configuring Confluence to download mail from that account and archive it within the space.

You need space administration permissions to add a mail account. See Space Permissions Overview.

(warning) Note: Confluence will remove email messages from an email account when it transfers them to the mail archive. You must therefore configure Confluence to poll a clone email account rather than the actual account. For example, to archive the actual account sales@company.com to your Confluence Sales space, you must first create a clone account such as conf-sales@company.com that contains the same email content.

Add a mail account

Step 1. Create a clone email account on the mail server

  1. Add a new email account on the mail server with the clone email address.
  2. Copy all existing email messages from the actual account to the clone account.
  3. Set up the actual account to bcc sent email messages to the clone account.
  4. Set up the actual account to forward received email messages to the clone account.

On this page:

Related pages:

Step 2. Configure Confluence to archive the clone account

  1. Go to the 'Mail Accounts' view:

    • Go to the space and choose Space tools > Integrations from the bottom of the sidebar.
      Choose Mail Accounts.
    • If your space uses the Documentation theme:
      Choose Browse > Space Admin from the header

      Note: The Space Admin option appears only if you have space admin permissions, or if you're part of the 'confluence-administrators' group.


      Choose Integration > Mail Accounts.
  2. Choose Add mail account
  3. Enter configuration details for the account:
    • Account Name: Enter a name for this account by which it will be known in Confluence.
    • Description: Provide a description for this account (optional).
    • Protocol: Choose from POP, IMAP, POPS or IMAPS.
    • Hostname: Enter the host name of the mail server on which the account resides.
    • Port: Don't edit this field. The mail server's port number will be displayed by default.
    • Username: Enter a username that has permission to retrieve mail from this account.
    • Password: Enter the account's password.
  4. Choose Test Connection to verify the details
  5. Choose Create to add the account to Confluence

For each mail account you add, you can perform these actions in the Mail Accounts tab:

    • Edit: Change the configuration settings for the mail account.
    • Remove: Remove the account permanently.
    • Disable/Enable: Temporarily disable the account, or enable a disabled account.

Fetching Mail

Confluence automatically fetches mail from the server once every 30 minutes. You can manually retrieve new mail from the configured mail accounts by selecting the Mail tab and choosing Fetch new mail.

(info) You need to be a space administrator to manually retrieve mail. See Space Permissions.

  • Only site spaces – not personal spaces – can store mail archives. See Spaces for information on site and personal spaces.
  • Confluence mail archiving is an optional feature. This means that the 'Mail' options may be disabled and will therefore not appear in the Confluence user interface. Mail archiving features are contained in a bundled plugin. To activate mail archiving features in Confluence, enable the plugin – choose  > General Configuration > Manage Add-ons. Then choose System in the drop down, and enable the Confluence Mail Archiving Plugin.
  • Once mail is fetched it will be removed from the server.
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