Xakia's Outlook Add-In leverages the native Outlook Conversation functionality to determine if a email belongs to a Conversation thread.
Outlook groups emails into conversations (threads) based on several key factors to automatically file related messages together. Here’s how it generally works:
How Outlook Classifies a Conversation
Subject Line
Outlook looks at the email’s subject line. Emails with the exact same subject (ignoring common prefixes like “Re:” or “Fwd:”) are candidates for the same conversation.
Minor differences or changes in the subject can cause Outlook to treat emails as separate threads.
Message Headers
Outlook uses email headers such as Conversation Index and Conversation Topic.
The Conversation Topic is derived from the original subject but can remain consistent even if the subject changes slightly.
The Conversation Index helps Outlook understand the sequence and hierarchy of replies.
Participants
While less critical than subject and headers, Outlook also considers the sender and recipients.
If emails with the same subject are between the same or overlapping sets of people, they’re more likely to be grouped.
Threading Logic
Outlook relies on the Internet Message-ID and References headers to link replies to the original message.
These headers create a chain of emails that Outlook uses to maintain the conversation structure.
Summary
Outlook primarily uses the subject line and special conversation-related headers embedded in the email metadata to classify and group emails into conversations. Changes to these elements may cause Outlook to start a new conversation thread.
FAQs
Can automatic conversation filing result in duplicate emails or attachments being filed to my matters if the email is sent to multiple recipients?
Can automatic conversation filing result in duplicate emails or attachments being filed to my matters if the email is sent to multiple recipients?
No. Xakia guarantees that emails and attached documents are never filed more than once within a matter. For example, if you send an email with an attached document to three recipients, the email and the document will only ever be filed once to a matter. Note this only applies within a matter: an email or attached document may be filed to multiple matters.
How does Xakia determine whether an email belongs to a conversation or not?
How does Xakia determine whether an email belongs to a conversation or not?
Xakia leverages Outlook functionality to determine how to group email messages into conversations. If emails appear as a conversation within Outlook then Xakia will treat them in the same way.
I have forwarded an email that was part of an automatically filed conversation, but the forwarded email was not filed. Is this intended?
I have forwarded an email that was part of an automatically filed conversation, but the forwarded email was not filed. Is this intended?
Yes. As above, Xakia depends on Outlooks conversation grouping logic to determine whether an email belongs to a conversation or not. Outlook treats forwarded emails as new conversations, therefore, Xakia does the same.
When emails are filed to Xakia as part of automatic conversation filing, what is used for the file name of the email?
When emails are filed to Xakia as part of automatic conversation filing, what is used for the file name of the email?
Emails are filed to Xakia as .eml file with the file name taken from the subject line of the email.
Replies to emails will often have the exact same subject line, however Xakia does not allow multiple files with the same file name within a folder. Xakia solves this by appending a timestamp to the name of an email file if a file with its name already exists.
A similar problem exists when filing emails to SharePoint Online via Xakia, as SharePoint Online also does not allow multiple files with the same name within a folder. When filing to SharePoint Online, Xakia appends a (1), (2), etc to the file name to ensure it is unique within a folder.
I have an email as part of an automatically filed conversation, but it was not filed to Xakia - why not?
I have an email as part of an automatically filed conversation, but it was not filed to Xakia - why not?
There are a number of possible reasons:
Outlook may have determined that the email is part of a different conversation. If this is the case Outlook will display the email in a separate thread. Xakia uses the same heuristics as Outlook when determining if an email belongs to a conversation. If Outlook treats an email as not belonging to an automatically filed conversation, then Xakia will not file it.
The email may exceed Xakias size limit of 200Mb. Note this limit applies to the email content and all its attachments: if an email contains 4 attachments of 51Mb each, the entire email will not be filed.
Your Outlook Xakia session may have expired. If your Xakia Outlook Add-In is hasn't been active for approx. One hour, its session will have expired and automatic conversation filing will be suspended. When the Outlook Add-In is opened again, the session will be renewed and Xakia will "catch up" on any emails received while the session was suspended.
The email or any of its attachments may have contained malware. If Xakia detects malware in the email or any of its attachments, the email is not filed.