# Configuring Email Collector

The **Mail Collectors** or **Collectors** are used to journal email to a user mailbox on an email server, and then Cryoserver will collect the emails using IMAP or POP3 connection. Journal Mail is a copy of an email as it is being transported over SMTP and it may include additional delivery information as compared to the original email.

The Mail Collector follows a read-and-delete routine wherein emails will be deleted after it is read, from the selected user account. The Collector reads only the inbox of an account and not the sub-folders.

Cryoserver provides a simple Administration tool to create one or more IMAP/POP3 collectors. IMAP is the default and preferred protocol. EWS has also been recently added for Exchange systems.

### Instructions

1. Navigate to **Basic Configuration** > **Mail Collector (IMAP/POP3)**.
2. Click the **Create Connection** button.
3. Enter / Select the required values in the fields. Refer to the table below for field names and descriptions:
4. Click the **Save Connection** button.

| Field                              | Description                                                                           |
| ---------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Server**                         | Name of the server.                                                                   |
| **Username**                       | Username to login to the server.                                                      |
| **Password**                       | Password to login to the server.                                                      |
| **Protocol**                       | Protocol of the collector.                                                            |
| **Connection Type**                | Type of connection used to connect to the server.                                     |
| **Port**                           | Port number to connect to the server.                                                 |
| **Include Folders**                | Folders that need to be included for journaling.                                      |
| **Exclude Folders**                | Folders that need to be excluded for journaling.                                      |
| **Download From Sub-folders**      | Specifies whether or not mails from sub-folders should be included for downloaded.    |
| **Check Every**                    | Interval, in second, at which the server checks for new emails.                       |
| **Enable**                         | Specifies whether or not this collector is enabled.                                   |
| **Idle Alert Period**              | Time, in hours, at which an alert is sent if there are no new emails for that period. |
| **Queue Messages For Import Node** | Specifies whether or not messages should be queued for the import node.               |


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