Why won’t my automatic email replies work?

Q I use the Mail app in Windows 10 to synchronise my two Gmail accounts. Recently, I was going on holiday so I wanted to send automatic replies to anyone who emailed me, to explain that I wasn’t around. In Mail I found an Automatic Replies option in Settings. However, when I clicked this I saw a message that said: ‘This setting can’t be applied to any of your accounts’. Why can’t I set up automatic replies? Colin Mckenzie

A

Mail’s Automatic Replies can’t be used with Gmail. It requires an Outlook.com (or Hotmail) account, or an account that can be managed via a Microsoft Exchange server.

However, Gmail does have an equivalent option of its own called ‘Vacation responder’, which you enable and manage from the Gmail website ( www.gmail.com). Log in there, then, at the top-right, click the cog icon and choose Settings. Now choose the General tab and scroll to the ‘Vacation responder’ section. Click to select the ‘Vacation responder on’ option (see screenshot). Now click to set the ‘First day’ and ‘Last day’ (if required), then type the subject and message you wish Gmail to send.

We recommend ticking the ‘Only send a response to people in my Contacts’ box to stop Gmail from replying to spammers. Finally, click Save Changes.