Forwarding your school email
What is my ParentDeck address?
It’s your household’s private address for school email. You’ll find it in Settings under “Your forwarding address”. Keep it private, the way you would a password. Anyone who has it could send mail to your Home page.
Should I forward by hand or set it up to happen on its own?
Both work. Automatic forwarding is better because you won’t miss anything. You set up a rule once in your email, and school email goes to ParentDeck as it arrives. You can still forward anything by hand at any time.
Do I have to set up automatic forwarding?
It’s the easiest way, because nothing gets missed. If your email can’t forward automatically, choose By hand in setup and forward school emails yourself. ParentDeck won’t warn you about missing mail, because it only sees what you send.
How do I set up automatic forwarding?
Go to Settings, then “Set up forwarding” under “Forwarding status”. Choose your email provider. ParentDeck lists the school senders to forward, based on your kids’ schools and activities, with step-by-step instructions.
Which email providers work?
- Gmail: download one filter file from ParentDeck and import it into Gmail. It covers all your senders in one step. This has to be done on a computer.
- iCloud: one rule per sender, made on your iPhone or at icloud.com. See the next question.
- Outlook.com: one rule that lists each sender.
- Yahoo: Free Yahoo Mail can’t forward automatically, so forward school emails to ParentDeck yourself. ParentDeck only sees the emails you forward. Yahoo Mail Plus can forward automatically, but it sends all of your mail, not only school email, so we don’t recommend it.
- Other providers: if your email can forward by sender, the general steps work.
I use iCloud. Where do I make the rules?
On your iPhone or at icloud.com. Not in the Mail app on your Mac.
Rules made in Mail on a Mac only run while your Mac is on and Mail is open. If your Mac is asleep, nothing gets forwarded. Rules made on your iPhone or at icloud.com run on Apple’s servers the moment mail arrives.
- iPhone: in Settings, tap your name, then iCloud. Under Saved to iCloud, tap Mail, then iCloud Mail Rules.
- Computer: icloud.com/mail, then Settings, then Rules.
If you already made rules in Mail on a Mac, make them again in one of these places, then turn off the old ones.
I’m getting “Emails are now being forwarded” messages from iCloud. Is that ParentDeck?
No. Apple sends these as a security notice, one for each forwarding rule, and there’s no setting to turn them off. They’re a good safeguard: if you ever see one for a rule you didn’t make, someone else may be forwarding your email, so check your rules at iCloud.com. To keep them out of your inbox, add one more rule on iCloud.com: if the subject contains “are now being forwarded”, move the message to a folder.
Why do I have to add “Addresses you forward from”?
It tells ParentDeck which emails really came from you. Add each address you forward from, then enter the code we send to it. If you use iCloud, add every address you send from (icloud.com, me.com and mac.com). Mail from an address you haven’t added still shows up, but its links take an extra tap, and it doesn’t count toward forwarding turning green in Settings.
How do I know forwarding is working?
Look at “Forwarding status” in Settings. Until it turns green, your Home page shows it too.
- Grey: we’re waiting for the first email to arrive on its own. Forwarding by hand doesn’t count.
- Green: school email is arriving automatically.
- If 5 school days in a row pass with no school email arriving on its own, your Home page says so until one arrives. Each parent with an address under “Addresses you forward from” also gets one email about it. Days your district calendar marks as no school don’t count.
Coming soonA “Check my rules” step at the end of setup.
Do automatic forwards show up in my Sent folder?
No. Gmail, iCloud and Outlook don’t put automatic forwards in Sent. To check that something arrived, look on your Home page.
My school uses a sender that isn’t on the list. What do I do?
Add it on the forwarding setup page under “Add a sender”. You can add a school domain, like school.org, or one full address, like a coach’s own Gmail address. To protect your privacy, you can’t add a whole personal-email domain like gmail.com.
Does the other parent need to set up forwarding too?
Only if school email also goes to their own inbox. Each parent forwards from their own email and adds their own address under “Addresses you forward from”. Everything lands in the same household.
I added the contact card, but it isn’t in my Contacts.
On iPhone, the blue checkmark at the top of the contact preview only closes it. To save the contact, scroll down and tap Create New Contact. If you already have a ParentDeck contact, tap Add to Existing Contact instead, and pick it.
Links in my forwarded emails take an extra tap. Why?
Some email apps change links as they forward. iCloud does this. ParentDeck checks where each link goes before opening it, which can add a step.