Set Up an Email Address for a Channel

Questions

  • Can I email a file into a Microsoft Teams channel?
  • How do I get an email address for a Teams channel?
  • Where do emailed attachments end up in a Teams channel?
  • How do I stop people outside the Team from emailing our channel?
  • Can I send scans from the department copier into a Teams channel?
  • How do I remove or reset a channel's email address?
  • Why is there no "Get email address" option on my channel?
  • How big a message can I send to a channel email address?
  • As a Team owner, how do I limit channel email to specific domains?
  • Our channel email address was circulated too widely. What can I do?

Environment

Getting a channel email address and changing its settings requires Team owner permissions on the channel. Email integration for channels is an administrator-controlled feature at the College: when it is turned off, the Get email address option does not appear at all.

  • Applies to members and owners of a Microsoft Team at Bowdoin College.
  • Microsoft Teams in a web browser, in the desktop app on Windows 11 or on macOS Sequoia (15.x), Tahoe (26.x), or newer, and in the Teams app on the current version of iPadOS.
  • Bowdoin-issued computers, tablets, and department multifunction copiers are supported. Personal devices are best effort only.
  • You must be an owner of the Team to get or change a channel email address.
  • The option appears on standard channels. If the option does not appear on a private or a shared channel, a channel email address is not available there.
  • In some versions of Teams, a channel's Shared tab is labeled Files. Both labels mean the same place.
  • Anyone who has the address can post into the channel, so treat a channel email address the way you would treat a shared mailbox address.
  • Not in scope: moving documents that already exist in OneDrive, on Microwave, or on a computer into a channel. For those steps, see Move Files into a Microsoft Teams Channel in the Related Articles section.

Resolution

What a channel email address is for

A channel email address turns a Microsoft Teams channel into a destination for things that arrive by email. Common uses are forwarding a message thread so the whole team can see it, sending scans from a department copier straight into the channel's files, and pointing an automated report or notification at the channel instead of at one person. The material then lands where the team works and stays there after the person who used to receive it moves on.

Get the channel's email address

  1. Go to the channel name in Microsoft Teams and select More options.
  2. Select Get email address.
  3. Copy the address that appears.

A channel email address is long and machine-generated. Paste it into an Outlook contact or into a note you circulate, rather than expecting anyone to type it.

Where an emailed message and its attachments end up

A message sent to a channel email address appears as a post in the channel conversation, so people see it in the normal flow of the channel. Attachments are saved into the channel's files in SharePoint, where anyone in the channel can open them. Teams typically collects emailed messages into a folder of their own inside the channel's Shared tab rather than mixing them with the working folders of the channel.

Limits on a message sent to a channel address

  • A single email can carry a maximum of 20 attachments.
  • An individual attachment larger than 10 MB will fail.
  • A message with more than 50 inline images will fail.
Note: A file uploaded directly to a channel can be as large as 250 GB, which is far larger than anything email can carry. Email is not the way to move large documents into a channel. For those, see Move Files into a Microsoft Teams Channel in the Related Articles section.

Restrict who can send to the channel address

By default, a channel email address accepts mail from anyone who has it. Narrow the setting before circulating the address.

  1. Go to the channel name in Microsoft Teams, select More options, then select Get email address.
  2. Select the advanced settings link.
  3. Choose who may send to the address: anyone, only members of the Team, or only senders from specific domains that you list.

Restricting the address to members of the Team is the safer default. Use the domain option when a copier, a vendor system, or an outside collaborator needs to send into the channel.

Remove or reset the channel email address

The same advanced settings screen removes the current email address entirely. Removing the address stops further delivery, and the messages and files that already arrived stay in the channel. If a channel email address has been circulated too widely, remove it and then get a new one, which produces a different address.

What not to send to a channel email address

Important: Everyone in the Team can read every message in a standard channel, guests included, and an emailed attachment is stored like any other channel file. Do not send student records, personnel material, or anything covered by a sensitivity label to a channel email address.

To confirm who is currently in the channel before circulating the address, see Review Who Can See Your Team's Files in the Related Articles section.

Also avoid pointing a high-volume automated feed at a channel. Hundreds of messages a week bury the conversation and fill the files area with material nobody reads.

When a channel email address is not the right fit

If the goal is to save documents into a specific working folder rather than into the folder Teams uses for emailed messages, skip the email address. Add a shortcut to the channel folder or sync the channel to your computer, then save or scan into that folder directly and file each document where it belongs. For the two ways to connect a channel to a computer, see Add a Shortcut to a Teams Channel or Shared Folder in OneDrive and Sync Teams Channels and Shared Folders to Your Computer in the Related Articles section. A shortcut is the recommended default, and sync is for specific cases. For the copier and email forwarding workflow from end to end, see Send Scans and Email into a Teams Channel in the Related Articles section.

Additional Help

If you need further assistance, you have several options:

  • Bowdoin Bot: Chat with Bowdoin Bot directly from any KB page for instant answers.
  • Phone: Call the Bowdoin College Service Desk at (207) 725-3030.
  • In person: Visit the Tech Hub in Smith Union during business hours.
  • Submit a ticket: Request assistance through the Service Catalog.

Additional Resources

 

 

AI-assisted content: This article was created with AI. It was verified and edited by a human.
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