An Incoming Email trigger starts a run when an email arrives at the address Files.com generates for the Automation. It is the trigger for partners and systems that send files by email. A supplier emails invoices as PDF attachments, a nightly report is emailed as a ZIP archive, or a scanner emails each document it processes.

Files.com generates the address when you save the Automation and shows it with the Automation. Allowed Senders lists the addresses whose email starts a run, and mail from any other sender is rejected, which prevents anyone who learns the Automation's address from starting runs with their own files.

What the Run Starts With

Each attachment becomes one file item. When Save Body is on, the message body becomes a file item as well. The sender, subject, and received time are recorded in each item's attributes.

The attachments exist only inside the run and are written to a folder only when a Copy File or Move File node writes them to the folder you choose.

Incoming File Pattern and Exclude Pattern select attachments by name, and File Limit caps the number of attachments a run starts with.

Incoming Email vs. Inboxes

An Inbox also receives files by email and stores the attachments in its folder. Use an Inbox when the goal is to collect files in a folder. Use an Incoming Email trigger when the attachments need processing as they are received, with the nodes after the trigger determining where each one is written.