Redirect Email Instead Of Forwarding

Forwarding email is a quick way to send along an email you received to someone else. But it also means that when that person responds, the response will come to you, not the original sender. You can use Mac Mail's Redirect command to send the message to someone else and retain the sender in the From field so that replies will skip you and go directly back to the original sender. This is useful when you need to send along a question to someone else to answer it.

Video Transcript: Let's say you get an email message and maybe that email asks you a question. But you can't answer that question but you know who can. So you're going to forward that email address onto somebody who can help. But here's what happens when you do that. 
You press the Forward button here or you get the same thing if you go to Message, Forward. Notice there that the message there is quoted. Your signature is then put at the bottom and you can add something at the top here. So you may say; Please help this person. Then you forward it to somebody. I'm going to forward it to myself and this is what you get. The other person will get this email here and it's, Please help this person, and here's the quote. Now they can hit Reply. The reply is actually going to go back to you. 
So you forward the message onto somebody. They reply an it goes back to you. Now it's up to you to respond back to the original person.
That's probably not what you wanted. You wanted to get rid of this email. It wasn't really meant for you in the first place. So instead of using the Forward button or Message, Forward use Message, Redirect. Here's what happens when we choose Redirect. Notice the message here is not quoted. It's just the original message. I can still edit it but it looks exactly the same as the way I got it. 
Now I'm going to forward it on. I'm going to send it to myself again. So here's what the email looks like when the person you redirect it to gets it. The biggest difference is the From is the original person that sent it. This means that they'll see who originally wrote the email here in the From and when they reply it will reply directly to them. It skips you, the person in the middle, and goes directly back to the original person. 
Also, there's a Resent From and Resent To field. Here it's got my name in both because all these sample accounts have my name on them. But they'll be able to see that it was sent from you. So as the person in the middle you've got your name right there. They know who to thank for forwarding on this email and resent to is them. So they know that this email didn't go directly to them. It was actually redirected through you. But this does cut you out and it's a great alternative to using Forward when all you want to do is just send the email on as quickly as possible and not have to participate in any response.

Comments: 11 Responses to “Redirect Email Instead Of Forwarding”

Arlan

6 years ago

I don't see redirect in iCloud webmail. Is there a way to redirect there?

Gary Rosenzweig

Arlan: I guess it isn't a feature there. Maybe request it.

John

Hmmm, don't see an option for adding the "redirect" icon to my email toolbar. Am I missing it?

John: In Mail's Customize Toolbar interface, I see it in High Sierra. Second row of buttons, second from the left next to Copy.

edward a. berger

Gary:
If the email you received and want to "redirect" to a different person, contains an attachment, will the "redirect" command, strip out the attachment or will the attachment also be forwarded on. I am looking for a mail "rule" that will forward/redirect emails with attachments without stripping out the attachment.

edward: I would think it would include the attachment. But that is easy to test. Try it and report back.

Christol

Is there a way to redirect emails from the mail program on the iPhone?

Christol: This doesn't appear to be a feature of the iOS Mail app. Perhaps they'll add it in the future.

jasper

"You can’t redirect messages for an Exchange account."

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH19148?locale=en_GB

Sybille

5 years ago

I love the redirect function, but is it also possible in gmail?

Sybille: You can use any type of email account in Mac Mail, including Gmail. So yes, if you have a Gmail account and use the Mac Mail app, then you can certainly do this.

Comments Closed.

Redirect Email Instead Of Forwarding

Comments: 11 Responses to “Redirect Email Instead Of Forwarding”

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