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Intake

Every document Faxbot receives, by fax or by direct delivery, goes into one intake queue. Faxbot then delivers each one to where your staff already look. Today that is an email inbox, with the original PDF attached.

In the Admin Console, Faxes → Received shows each received fax with its email delivery, and Numbers → Email delivery holds the email delivery setup. Select Email delivery settings at the top of Received to go there.

A fax enters the queue only after its real document has arrived and been checked; see Receiving faxes.

Email delivery is not acknowledgement: to give each received document an owner who acknowledges it, see Work.

Delivery status in Received

Each received fax shows one of these in its Email delivery column (a line on each card on phones):

Status Meaning
Delivered to (addresses) The email server accepted it, at the time shown.
Waiting for the document The fax's document has not arrived yet. Email delivery starts when it does.
Waiting for email delivery Faxbot will deliver it shortly, or it is waiting for you to send it.
Not delivered Faxbot could not deliver it. The line below says why.
No email delivery set up for this number No email delivery covered the number the fax was sent to when it arrived. Retry delivery appears once an email delivery covers the number.
- An older fax with no delivery record, such as one received without a document.

Documents received by direct delivery have no fax record; Received lists them under Received by direct delivery.

A document is delivered at most once on its own. Retry delivery sends a waiting or undelivered document again; use it after fixing the problem the status describes. It needs permission to change settings.

People who cannot read the installation's deliveries (mailboxes:read) see Received without the delivery column.

Set up email delivery

Under Numbers → Email delivery:

  1. Select Add email delivery.
  2. Enter a name, the recipient addresses, and your email server, port, security and sign-in details.
  3. Enter the address faxes are sent from, and a subject. The subject can include {from_number}, {to_number}, {pages} and {received_at}.
  4. To deliver only faxes sent to one of your numbers, enter that number. Leave it empty to deliver faxes for every number.
  5. Save, then select Send test email to check the settings.

Each email carries one sentence describing the fax, such as "Fax from +1 555 010 9999 to +1 555 010 0001, 3 pages, received 3 October 2026 at 2:05 PM MDT.", and the original PDF as an attachment. The time is in the installation's time zone (System → Setup, or faxbot system settings set time_zone=America/Denver); with none set it says UTC. A new installation takes its zone from the server's TZ when that names a zone other than UTC. The subject's {received_at} uses the same time.

When a fax number has its own email delivery, Faxbot uses it. Otherwise it uses the email delivery with no number.

Passwords are encrypted with the installation's configuration key and are never shown again.

Email delivery handles faxes that arrive after it is set up. Faxes received earlier show Waiting for email delivery. Send them with Retry delivery when you are ready.

Intake defaults

One email delivery can be defined for the whole installation, in Numbers → Email delivery under Email delivery for the whole installation (or the environment when a new installation starts). Faxbot keeps it in step with the settings within a few minutes, and lists it with the other email deliveries as set for the whole installation:

INTAKE_EMAIL_ENABLED=true
INTAKE_SMTP_HOST=smtp.example.org
INTAKE_SMTP_PORT=587
INTAKE_SMTP_SECURITY=starttls   # starttls, tls or none
INTAKE_SMTP_USERNAME=fax@example.org
INTAKE_SMTP_PASSWORD=...
INTAKE_EMAIL_FROM=fax@example.org
INTAKE_EMAIL_TO=frontdesk@example.org, billing@example.org
INTAKE_EMAIL_SUBJECT=Fax from {from_number}

When delivery fails

  • When the email server refuses before the message is sent, nothing was delivered. If the refusal may be temporary, Faxbot tries again after 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16 minutes, then stops and marks the document Not delivered.
  • When the email server refuses the sign-in or the addresses, Faxbot stops at once and says so.
  • When the connection drops after the message was sent, the email may have arrived. Faxbot marks the document Not delivered and asks you to check the inbox before sending it again. It never resends on its own.
  • Each email has the same Message-ID every time it is sent, so many mail systems recognize a second copy.

API

These routes need mailboxes:read, or settings:write for changes:

Method Path Purpose
GET /intake/items The queue, with counts by status; each item names its inbound fax (inbound_fax_id) and, once delivered, the addresses it went to (delivered_to)
POST /intake/items/{id}/retry Send one document now
GET, POST /intake/connectors List or add email delivery
PUT, DELETE /intake/connectors/{id} Change or remove email delivery
POST /intake/connectors/{id}/test Send a one-line test email

The queue is an installation-wide view of every received document, so reading it needs mailboxes:read.