Understanding Email Identities

Master identity management for seamless email communication and organization

🆔 What Are Email Identities?

Email identities in CodaMail define the addresses you use when sending or replying to messages. While you may have many email addresses that can receive mail (through account aliases, masked aliases, and catch-alls), you need to create specific identities for the addresses you want to send from.

Think of identities as your collection of "From" addresses. Each identity allows you to control:

How recipients see your name (Display Name)
Which email address appears in the From field
Where replies should be directed (Reply-To address)
Which signature to use
Which SMTP server to use for sending mail
Whether to use PGP encryption with this identity

🔄 How Identities Work with Replies

One of the most powerful features of CodaMail's identity system is its automatic handling of reply addresses:

Automatic From selection: When you reply to an email, CodaMail automatically selects the appropriate identity based on which of your addresses received the message
Seamless transitions: If someone emails your alias@domain.com address and you have an identity set up for it, your reply will automatically come from that same address - no manual selection needed
Consistent communication: This ensures conversations remain consistent, with replies always appearing to come from the same address the sender originally contacted

This automatic selection happens behind the scenes, making it easy to maintain separate identities for different purposes without having to manually switch between them when replying to messages.

Pro Tip: You can still manually change the sending identity before sending your reply if needed, using the dropdown menu in the compose window's header.

❓ When Do You Need to Create an Identity?

You need to create an identity for any email address that you plan to send mail from or reply as. This typically includes:

Your primary CodaMail address (automatically created)
Any specific catch-all addresses you use for correspondence (e.g., amazon@shopping.domain.com)
Masked aliases you plan to use for sending mail
Account aliases you'll use for communication
External email addresses you've set up with Fetch Mail

Important: While you can receive mail at unlimited addresses through catch-all functionality, you only need to create identities for the specific addresses you'll actually send from or reply as.

⚙️ Creating and Managing Identities

To create or manage your identities:

Go to Settings → Identities
Click Create to add a new identity
Fill in the required information:
- Display Name: How your name appears to recipients
- Email: The address that will appear in the From field
- Organization: Optional company or group name
- Reply-To: Optional alternative address for replies
- Bcc: Optional address to receive blind copies of all sent mail
- Signature: Optional text to automatically append to messages
Click Save to create the identity

After creating an identity, you can edit it anytime to update settings or make changes.

🔧 Using Custom SMTP Settings (Advanced)

By default, all identities use CodaMail's SMTP server to send mail. However, there are situations where you need to use an external SMTP server instead:

Mail from external accounts: When using Fetch Mail to retrieve messages from another service (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.), you'll want replies to come from that service's SMTP server to maintain proper SPF, DKIM, and DMARC validation
Custom domains: Some custom domain setups may require using specific SMTP servers
Organizational requirements: Your workplace may require using their SMTP server for business correspondence

Configuration Steps:

Create or edit the identity
Toggle off Use the default SMTP server
Enter the required SMTP details:
- Server IP/Hostname + Port: The SMTP server address with appropriate protocol prefix (e.g., ssl://smtp.gmail.com:465 or tls://smtp.gmail.com:587)
- Username: Your login for that SMTP server
- Password: Your password for that SMTP server
Save your changes

Important: Always prefix your SMTP server with either ssl:// or tls:// to specify the encryption protocol (e.g., ssl://smtp.gmail.com:465 or tls://smtp.gmail.com:587).

Privacy Note: When using external SMTP servers, your connection still goes through CodaMail's servers, keeping your IP address private from the external service. To recipients, it will appear as if you're using the external service directly.

📧 Identities and Catch-All Addresses

For effective communication using catch-all addresses, you'll likely need to create identities for specific catch-all addresses you regularly use:

Each specific address needs its own identity: If you've given amazon@shopping.domain.com to Amazon, you'll want to create an identity for this specific address to reply directly from it
Maintaining context: When a company emails you at a specific address, they expect replies to come from that same address, not a different one
Separate identities for separate relationships: Different services might need different display names, signatures, or even reply-to addresses

While it might initially seem convenient to create identities just for category addresses (like shopping@domain.com), in practice you'll want to create identities for the specific catch-all addresses you actively use for correspondence.

Exception for Encryption: You can create a category identity solely for the purpose of encrypting an entire category with that identity's PGP key, even if you don't use it for sending.

📥 Identities and Fetch Mail

Fetch Mail and Identities work together to provide a seamless experience when integrating external email accounts:

Set up Fetch Mail to retrieve messages from your external account
Create an identity with the same email address as the external account
Configure SMTP settings for that identity to use the external provider's SMTP server

Benefits of This Setup:

Receive mail from your external account in CodaMail
Reply to messages using the external account's address
Send new messages from the external account
Maintain proper SPF/DKIM/DMARC validation since messages go through the appropriate SMTP server
Keep your IP address private from the external service

This integration lets you manage multiple email accounts from CodaMail's interface while maintaining the technical requirements for proper email delivery.

🔐 Identities and PGP Encryption

Identities also play a crucial role in CodaMail's encryption features:

For sending encrypted mail: Each identity can have its own PGP key for signing and encrypting outgoing messages
For receiving encrypted mail: Creating an identity for an address is required before you can set up automatic PGP encryption for incoming mail to that address

Setting Up Encryption:

First create the identity for the email address
Go to Settings → Manage PGP Keys
Create or import a key for this identity
For automatic encryption of incoming mail to this identity, go to Settings → Auto-Encryption and add the address

⭐ Best Practices

Create identities for active correspondence addresses: Focus on creating identities for addresses you actually use to send mail or reply to messages
Set up identities for specific catch-all addresses: Create identities for individual catch-all addresses you regularly correspond with (e.g., amazon@shopping.domain.com)
Use descriptive display names: Help recipients understand who the message is from, especially when using multiple identities
Specify encryption protocol: Always prefix external SMTP servers with ssl:// or tls:// (e.g., ssl://smtp.example.com:465)
Review identity settings after password changes: If using external SMTP servers, you may need to update passwords in your identities when you change them at the source
Match identity display names to contexts: Consider using different formality levels in your display name depending on the purpose of the identity

🔧 Troubleshooting

Messages Not Sending

If messages aren't sending properly with a custom SMTP configuration:

Verify you've added the proper protocol prefix (ssl:// or tls://) to the server address
Confirm the server address and port are correct
Check if your username and password are up to date
Verify if your external provider requires an app-specific password
Temporarily try using the default CodaMail SMTP server to test if the issue is specific to the external SMTP configuration

Replies Going to Wrong Address

If replies aren't going to the expected address:

Make sure you have an identity for the specific address the original message was sent to
Check if you've set a Reply-To address for that identity
Verify you're sending from the correct identity when composing messages
Make sure your identity settings match the account settings if using Fetch Mail

Recipients See Wrong Name

If recipients see a different name than expected:

Update the Display Name field in your identity settings
Check if you're using the correct identity when sending
Some external mail systems might display the name associated with your address in their contacts rather than what you've set