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Settings

Filing preferences, tag colour, retention, and disconnecting.

Settings is where you tune how Sortfully behaves per mailbox, set your record-keeping preferences, and manage or disconnect a mailbox.

Connected mailboxes

Each mailbox is listed with its address and a status badge: Active or Re-auth needed. Per mailbox you can run Delete empty folders or Disconnect (covered below).

Filing preferences

  • Only move mail after I've read it: on by default. Unread mail stays in the Inbox so notifications still open it, then Sortfully files each message about 5 minutes after you've read it, a deliberate reply-safe pause that gives you time to reply before it moves. Turn it off to file the instant mail arrives.
  • Wait before filing a read message: when the option above is on, set how long Sortfully waits after you read a message before moving it. The default is about 5 minutes; you can set anywhere from 15 seconds to 15 minutes. There's a minimum floor (so a message is never moved mid-reply) and a link to reset to the default. On a team, your admin may set the default (see Teams).

Tag colour

All Sortfully categories share one colour. Pick it from the 15-colour palette; existing categories update to match.

Audit retention

How long your audit log entries are kept:

  • Standard accounts: fixed at 30 days.
  • Business members: you can set 30–3650 days (default 90), unless your admin has set one window for everyone, in which case it's shown locked.
  • Org admins: can enforce a single window across the whole team.

In minimal mode the log holds the sender domain, folder and time only. With the detailed log on (the default) it also holds the subject line and sender address.

Detailed (enhanced) activity log

On by default. While on, your log and exports also capture the sender address, subject line and received time of filed mail, so you have a verifiable record of what moved. Bodies and attachments are never recorded either way. Switch it off for minimal logging (sender domain, folder and time); you can then purge the subjects and addresses captured while it was on. On a team, your admin may control this setting.

Tidy my folders

For mailboxes that already have more folders than they need, for example sender subfolders made before sender subfolders became selective.

Choose Check folders and Sortfully works out what it would change, without changing anything:

  • Small sender subfolders are merged back into their company folder. A subfolder stays only if its company has at least 2 people who have each sent you 5 emails, and it's one of them. Automated senders, like orders and notifications, are merged too. A sorting rule set to Every sender keeps all of its subfolders.
  • Empty folders Sortfully made are removed.
  • Sortfully's records of folders that no longer exist are cleared.

You see the numbers first, then choose Tidy now. The mail moves in the background, and a subfolder is removed only once Outlook confirms it's empty. Only folders Sortfully made are changed; your own folders, folders an Outlook rule files into, and folders you protected in a cleanup are left alone.

Undo recreates the merged subfolders and moves their mail back. Mail you've moved or deleted since stays where it is.

Tuck away quiet folders

It's offered when you connect a mailbox (set to After 1 year); mailboxes connected before then start on Never. Pick After 6 months or After 1 year and each night Sortfully moves its folders that have had no new mail for that long into one QUIET SENDERS - SORTFULLY folder in your Inbox.

  • The whole folder moves, with its mail and any sender subfolders. Nothing is merged or deleted, and Outlook search still finds everything.
  • When that sender emails again, the folder comes back to the top level before the new mail is filed.
  • Drag a folder out of QUIET SENDERS - SORTFULLY in Outlook and it stays where you put it; Sortfully won't tuck it away again.
  • Only folders Sortfully made are moved. Your own folders, folders an Outlook rule files into, and folders you protected in a cleanup are never moved.
  • After a cleanup, it happens as soon as the cleanup finishes rather than overnight.
  • Switch back to Never and every tucked folder moves back to the top level.

To know when a folder last had mail, Sortfully uses the time the newest message in it arrived. It never reads the messages themselves.

Sender subfolders

A preview feature, off by default. When it's on, people who email you regularly get their own subfolder inside the company's folder, like Example / sophie.smith.

  • A company gets subfolders once at least 2 people there have each sent you 5 emails. Until then, all its mail goes into the company folder.
  • When a company first qualifies, or another person there reaches 5 emails, Sortfully moves that person's earlier mail from the company folder into their subfolder, so their mail stays together.
  • Automated senders, like orders, notifications and no-reply addresses, always stay in the company folder. So Amazon is one Amazon folder.
  • Personal email addresses (Gmail, Outlook.com, iCloud, Yahoo, BT and similar) aren't a company, so everyone there gets their own subfolder from their first email, like Gmail / jo.bloggs.
  • Subfolders you already have keep being used.
  • To count senders, Sortfully stores a one-way code for each sender address and a count, never the address itself. See Privacy.

You can override this on any sorting rule: Every sender gives each sender a subfolder straight away, and None turns subfolders off for that rule. See Sorting rules.

Kept messages

Messages you protected with the keep this one undo option are listed here, with the sender, subject and where they were filed. Choose Remove protection to make a message eligible for filing again.

Delete empty folders

Removes folders that have no mail and no subfolders. Outlook's system folders and any folder an Outlook rule files into are always preserved. It runs in the background, and the emptied folders disappear shortly after.

Passkeys

You can add a passkey and sign in with Face ID, a fingerprint or your device PIN instead of waiting for an emailed code. Choose Add a passkey, give it a name (such as "Work laptop"), and follow your device's prompt. You can add up to 10, and remove any of them here. We email you whenever a passkey is added, so one you didn't add stands out.

Sortfully only stores the passkey's public key. The private key stays on your device, and a passkey only works on Sortfully. If your organisation requires Microsoft sign-in, passkeys aren't available and this section isn't shown.

Disconnect a mailbox

Disconnect removes the mailbox and all of its sorting rules, filing history and stored access. It can't be undone, but it leaves your actual mailbox and the folders in Outlook exactly as they are. Disconnecting also frees the seat it was using. See Billing.

Delete my data

If you've cancelled and your account is in its data-recovery window, a Delete my data now option lets you bring the permanent deletion forward instead of waiting out the grace period. This signs you out and removes everything. See Billing & plans and Privacy & your data.