Emails and Auto-CC

This article discusses how to send emails to projects in Filevine, and how to set up auto-CC. 

Filevine automatically generates an email address for each project and Org created in Filevine. Emails can be sent either to a project individually or to the Org's mailroom. Incoming mail to these addresses will be received in Filevine; however, you will not be able to send emails from Filevine. Sending information like documents can be done by using the "share link" feature in the Docs section.

If you’ve received an email from an address that you would like to delete and block, read the article “Mark as Spam."

Project Email
Mailroom Email
Auto-CC Setup

Project Email

The project email can be found in the vitals. If you do not see the email address when you scroll over these vitals, select the “More Vitals” button to view all.

Emails sent or forwarded to this project email will appear in the project’s activity feed as email items, where users can comment and assign them as tasks. Emails may take up to forty-five minutes to appear in the project’s activity feed, so don’t worry if you don’t see it right away. Learn more about activity feed items.

Auto-CC

Clicking on a contact’s email opens your default email app, and the project email populates automatically in the CC field. This is a convenient way to make sure your correspondence appears in Filevine in the activity feed. The email auto-cc feature uses your device’s default mail app. Read below to learn more about Default Email Setup.

Images and Attachments

Email attachments will appear with the email activity feed item. However, images embedded in the email itself will not show up in the activity feed item. Embedded images will appear as the [image: file name] in the email. 

Mailroom Email

Each Filevine Org also has a general email address. Messages sent to that address appear in the Org’s mailroom.

Click on the envelope icon in the top left corner to enter the mailroom. Choose your Org from the list if prompted, and you will see the email address at the top of the left side menu and the received emails listed. From the mailroom, you can move emails to a specific project by typing and entering the name of the project in the “Move to project…” text box. These email items will then appear in that project’s Activity feed.

Emails can also be deleted by clicking on the trash can icon next to them. Emails cannot be undeleted, so use caution.

Changing Email Address

Project Admins can change the prefix of the project email address, and Org Admins can do the same for the mailroom email address. The default project email will be the project name plus the Filevine-generated project number or, in the instance of the mailroom, the Org name plus the Org identifier. Admins can edit the email address by clicking on the pencil icon below the project or Org email address. 

Be aware that if you change the email address, any emails that are auto-forwarding into the old project or mailroom address will no longer be received. Choose email addresses that are difficult to guess in order to avoid spam.

Default Email Setup

In Filevine, email-based links and buttons work by dynamically generating mailto: links, which use your device’s default email service. To use mailto: links effectively, make sure to set up or change your device's default app and your browser's protocol handler. You may need to reach out to your internal IT/Admin to configure these settings correctly.

Outlook: Set up Outlook as your default email app. You may be interested in using Filevine’s Outlook Add-in to manage your emails in Filevine. 

Gmail: For Google Chrome, open Chrome Settings. Go to Privacy and security > Site settings > Protocol handlers. Allow sites to ask to handle protocols. Open Gmail, then find and select the Protocol Handler icon. Allow Gmail to open all email links. If you're not using Google Chrome, you may want to research how to update the protocol handler settings for the web browser you're currently using.

For desktop email applications, you can also set up or change the default email through your computer’s “Mail” app. Follow the instructions for either Mac or Windows to add, change, or remove mail applications.

If you choose to set up more robust email links in Filevine, such as a Send Email Button, keep in mind that the content of the email draft is limited by the capabilities of the mailto: scheme itself. Rich text formatting and HTML are not valid and in some cases, your email signature will be replaced with the body of the email draft. Longer email templates will often go over your web browser's character limit for mailto: links. In these cases, try shortening your email template.