How to set an out-of-office reply that works with your computer off

Set the automatic reply at your mail server, not in your mail program. Microsoft 365 and Gmail do it from their own settings, and most other mail servers offer a vacation reply through webmail or a Sieve filter. A reply set as a rule in a desktop program only runs while that program is open.

27 October 2026 · 4 min read

Why some replies stop when you shut down

An automatic reply can be sent by two things: the mail server that receives your mail, or the mail program on your computer. The server is always on. Your program only works while it is running, so a reply made as a rule in Outlook for an ordinary IMAP or POP account, or as a filter in Thunderbird, stops the moment the laptop is closed for the holiday. Outlook marks such rules “client-only” or “on this computer only”.

Microsoft 365 and Exchange

For a work or school account, Automatic Replies in Outlook (File, Automatic Replies) or in Outlook on the web (Settings, Mail, Automatic replies) is stored on the server and runs with your computer off. You can set a start and end time, and a different reply for people outside your organisation.

Gmail

Settings, See all settings, General, Vacation responder. Set the first and last day, a subject and the message, and whether only your contacts get it. Gmail sends it from its own servers, and to the same person at most once every four days while it is on.

Other mail providers and your own server

Webmail settings. Yahoo, iCloud, Fastmail and most hosting providers have a vacation or auto-reply setting in their webmail, often under Filters or Rules.
cPanel hosting has Autoresponders in its email section.
Sieve. Many mail servers, any running Dovecot among them, filter mail with Sieve scripts, and Sieve’s vacation action is the out-of-office reply. Webmail such as Roundcube sets it from a Vacation or Out of Office page, and a desktop program can set it directly over ManageSieve, usually on port 4190.

Making the reply well behaved

Dates. Set an end date, so the reply does not run on after you are back.
Once per sender. A good server replies to each person once in a few days, not to every message. Sieve’s vacation action does this by itself.
Not to lists or robots. Replies should skip mailing lists and messages marked as automatic, or two auto-replies can answer each other for days.
Say less to strangers. “Away from the office until Monday, contact sales@ for orders” is enough; telling everyone who writes that your home is empty is not wise.

Our own product, disclosed

Where our own software comes into this

We make Rutba Office, a free desktop suite for Windows. Its Mail app’s Out of office asks your mail server first, and where the server offers Sieve over ManageSieve it turns on the server’s own reply, with your message, subject, start and end, so it answers with your computer off. Your own server filters keep working, and Turn off gives them back as they were.

Where the server cannot do it, the dialog says why and Rutba Office sends the replies itself while it runs, never both at once. For Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo and iCloud accounts it says that Rutba Office sends the replies, and the provider’s own setting, described above, is the one that works with the computer off.