Knowledge Base

Create an email auto-reply or out-of-office message


How to create an email auto-reply message. Students can use auto-reply if you will be away from Amherst for a time or graduating seniors can use auto-reply to notify people about their new email addresses. Faculty and staff can use email auto-reply for when you are away, on vacation, out of the office, or otherwise unavailable by email. Anyone leaving Amherst can use auto-reply to notify people of your new or preferred email address.


  1. Log in to the Amherst auto-reply utility (
  2. Enter your Amherst user name and password as prompted. It may take a moment for the next page to appear.
  3. When the Email Vacation/Out of Office Message page appears, select the check box Vacation/Out of Office Message active?.
  4. In the text entry area, write your auto-reply. Depending on your reason for auto-reply you might write that your address has changed, that you will be away from email for some amount of time, that you will be vacation for certain dates. Make sure to include relevant information such as when you will return to check messages, or if applicable the alternate email address where you can be reached.
  5. Click Apply.
  6. To make sure your autoreply message is working, log onto your non-Amherst email account. Send a test email to your account. You should get two messages back very shortly: the test email  and the "Out of Office autoreply" message with your change-of-address text.

    Note: Auto-reply has a limit of one message per week to each unique email account. Each email account that sends you a message will get a maximum of one autoreply message per week. If you send yourself multiple test emails, you will not get mulitple autoreply messages.

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