Frequently asked questions

Common questions about using MailDesk day to day. If you don't find your answer here, ask your Odoo administrator or contact Metzler IT support.

Common questions about using MailDesk day to day. If you don't find your answer here, ask your Odoo administrator or contact Metzler IT support.

MailDesk runs inside Odoo 17, 18, or 19 — your choice — and the answers below apply to all of them.

Getting started

What is MailDesk?

MailDesk is a professional email client that lives inside Odoo. It lets you manage your Gmail, Outlook / Microsoft 365, and IMAP mailboxes directly in Odoo, alongside your CRM, Helpdesk, Sales, Calendar, and Documents.

How do I connect my mailbox?

Open MailDesk and add a mailbox account for your provider:

• Gmail — sign in with Google (OAuth 2.0); MailDesk uses the Gmail API.
• Outlook / Microsoft 365 — sign in with Microsoft (OAuth 2.0); MailDesk uses Microsoft Graph.
• IMAP — for any other provider; enter your server settings and credentials.

Each provider has its own step-by-step setup guide. Start with one mailbox, confirm sending and receiving work, then add more accounts one at a time.

Can a team share one mailbox?

Yes. MailDesk is built for collaboration. A shared mailbox (for example [email protected]) can be made available to several Odoo users. Every account has an Owner (usually the person who connected it), an optional shared flag, and an explicit list of users allowed to see and manage it. Administrators can reach every mailbox regardless of that list.

How sync works

How quickly do new emails appear?

MailDesk keeps your mailbox synchronized in the background and is near real-time, not instant push. New mail typically appears within a few seconds to a few minutes, depending on your provider and system load. The list refreshes automatically once a synchronization completes — you don't need to reload the page.

A new email hasn't shown up yet. What can I do?

This is the most common situation, and it almost always resolves itself:

1. Click Refresh mailbox in the toolbar to trigger an immediate check.
2. Wait a few seconds — background synchronization runs continuously.
3. Confirm the mailbox is connected in Settings → MailDesk → Mailbox Accounts; a disconnected mailbox cannot receive updates.
4. For a brand-new mailbox, older messages keep loading gradually over the first hour or so.
5. Confirm the message actually arrived in your provider's webmail. If it isn't there either, the sender may not have sent it yet.

Why are some older emails missing?

When you first connect a mailbox, MailDesk loads your most recent emails first and then fills in older history gradually in the background. This keeps the initial setup fast. Leave MailDesk open, give the historical load time to finish, and avoid disconnecting and reconnecting the account repeatedly. If you need a specific folder's older mail right away, ask your administrator to start a deeper historical load for that folder.

A folder shows "0 emails." What's wrong?

The folder may not be selected for synchronization. Open the mailbox account settings, check the sync folders, and make sure the folder you expect is included. Then confirm in your webmail that the folder actually contains messages. If a folder isn't selected, MailDesk won't sync it.

Sending mail

I sent an email but can't find it in Sent.

This is expected. When you click Send, MailDesk:

1. Sends the email immediately through your outgoing server.
2. Shows it in Sent right away as a local entry.
3. Lets your provider save its own copy.
4. Replaces the local entry with the provider's copy on the next synchronization.

This is what prevents duplicate sent messages. If you see a sent email briefly disappear and come back, it's simply being replaced by the provider's copy.

Which Sent folder should I check?

Providers use different names — Sent, Sent Items, or Sent Mail. Confirm which Sent folder is selected for sync in your mailbox account, and verify in your webmail where sent mail lands. Some IMAP servers do not store sent mail automatically, so the correct Sent folder mapping matters.

Sending failed. Did I lose my message?

No. If sending fails, the message stays in Drafts — nothing is lost. Review your connection settings and try sending again. If sending fails repeatedly or you see errors, ask your administrator to check the outgoing (SMTP) server configuration.

Connection and authorization

I see "Authorization expired" or "Re-authorization required."

Sign-in tokens for Gmail and Outlook expire over time, can be revoked, or may need fresh consent. To fix it, open the affected mailbox account, click Re-authorize, sign in again, and grant access. No data is lost during re-authorization. For IMAP mailboxes, verify the credentials and use Test connection; if you recently changed your provider password, the mailbox needs to be reconnected.

I see "OAuth not configured."

This means the Google or Microsoft sign-in credentials aren't set up in Odoo yet. It's an administrator task — your administrator configures the Google or Microsoft connection once, after which you can authorize your mailbox.

Authorization succeeds but no mail syncs.

Usually a temporary condition: the Odoo server briefly couldn't reach the provider, the provider's API was busy, or a short rate limit applied. MailDesk retries automatically. If it persists, ask your administrator to confirm the Odoo server has outbound internet access.

How do I revoke MailDesk's access to my mailbox?

Remove the mailbox account in MailDesk, then revoke the application in your provider's security settings (Google Account → Security, or Microsoft Entra / Azure AD). You can reconnect at any time.

Workflow and integrations

A "Create lead / ticket / order" action is missing on a record.

Workflow Bridges connect MailDesk to your other Odoo apps. If an action doesn't appear:

• Confirm the matching bridge is installed (CRM, Helpdesk, Sales, Calendar, Documents, Partner 360, Chatter, or the Automation Engine).
• Confirm the bridge is enabled on your mailbox in Settings → Mailbox Accounts.
• Confirm you have access to the target app — you can't link to a CRM lead without CRM access.
• If a smart-button count looks off, refresh the record; the count updates on the next sync.

If I move a linked email to another folder, does the link survive?

Yes. When you link an email to a CRM lead, Helpdesk ticket, Sale order, Calendar event, or Document, the link stays in place even if you later move the email to a different folder, change its label, or reorganize your mailbox.

AI Assistant

What can the AI Assistant do?

MailDesk Pro includes an AI Assistant that can summarize an email thread, draft a reply for you to review and edit before sending, and run a security scan that flags likely phishing or suspicious messages. You choose the provider — OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, xAI Grok, or DeepSeek — or configure a self-hosted provider for fully on-premise operation.

An AI action is greyed out or fails. Why?

• Your administrator needs at least one AI provider configured.
• The provider's connection test should pass — if it fails, the key or quota is the cause.
• For very long threads the provider may briefly rate-limit; try again in a minute.
• AI features require the Pro edition; confirm your mailbox is on Pro.

What information is sent to the AI provider?

Only what the action needs. A security scan sends only the open email's sender and a trimmed, text-only portion of its body. A summary or reply draft sends the conversation's messages as text. Binary attachments are never sent unless you explicitly opt in and act on a specific attachment. Other people's mail, your credentials, and unrelated Odoo records are never sent. If you use a self-hosted provider, your data never leaves your network.

Licensing and updates

How do updates reach me?

Subscription customers receive updates automatically. One-time licence holders receive the matching update for their purchased Odoo major version. If you run Odoo through Odoo.sh, MailDesk updates apply with your standard Odoo.sh update cycle; self-hosted administrators follow the upgrade guide.

MailDesk shows a notice that a feature is unavailable.

If your licence becomes inactive — for example an expired subscription — MailDesk shows a clear in-app notice instead of a generic error. Your administrator can check licence status in Settings → MailDesk → Licence Activation.

When should I contact support?

Reach out to your administrator or Metzler IT support if a connection test fails repeatedly, errors appear consistently, or you suspect a server or network issue. When you do, include your email provider (Gmail / Outlook / IMAP), the exact error message, and what you expected versus what happened — that lets support help you faster.