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Mail

The kill switch

What the mail kill switch does, when an account is put on it, and how held mail goes out once it is lifted.

The kill switch stops mail from leaving Kōlea without stopping your work. While it is on, everything still runs: broadcasts send, sequences tick, forms confirm, and your app's receipts are accepted. But every mail goes to Held mail instead of to an inbox, kept exactly as it would have gone out. Nothing is lost, and nothing is sent twice when the switch comes off.

When the kill switch is on

There are two switches. Kōlea staff set both.

  • Hold on this account holds only your mail. An account moving from BigMailer is put on it before anything is imported, so nothing goes out until a person has checked the result.
  • Platform-wide hold holds mail for every account at once. Staff use it when something is wrong with sending for everyone.

You will see it in three places:

  • Mail > Held mail shows "This account's mail is on hold" and how many mails are waiting.
  • Each held message says which hold stopped it, under Held because.
  • A BigMailer import says "Mail is held" on its progress page.

How to get held mail sent

  1. Ask Kōlea support to lift the hold on your account. A platform-wide hold is lifted for everyone; you do not need to ask.
  2. Open Mail > Held mail. The hold notice is gone and Send held mail shows the number waiting.
  3. Click Send held mail and confirm.

Or open one message and click Send now to send only that one.

What happens next

Each held mail is checked again right before it goes. People who unsubscribed, left the sequence the mail belongs to, or bounced since it was held are skipped. Everyone else gets their mail, once. Mail that could not be sent stays in the list for you to try again.

Things to know

  • The kill switch never drops mail. Held mail waits until you send it.
  • Sending held mail is a deliberate step. Lifting the hold does not send the backlog by itself.
  • System mail that goes stale, such as a sign-in code, is not sent later. The person asks for a new one.
  • Mail you send after the hold is lifted goes out as normal; only mail from the hold waits in Held mail.