# Working With Inbound Email

If your Vault is [configured to receive email](/en/lr/74285/), users with appropriate permissions can view *Email* records and perform actions on them.

## About the Email Object and Lifecycle

Vault creates a new _Email_ object record for each email sent to an inbound email address. This record includes a number of fields containing key information about the email such as sender, recipient, and subject, and provides an action to download the original email including any attachments.

These records enter a lifecycle with the following states:

* **New**: Vault has received the email, created this record, and is passing the record to the configured email processor.
* **Processed**: The email processor ran successfully.
* **Failed**: The email processor returned an error.
* **Bounced**: Vault did not run the configured email processor on this record for the reason specified in the _Bounce Reason_ field. Vault creates an _Email_ record in the _Bounced_ state when the email is marked as spam, comes from unapproved senders, or fails email authentication (including SPF, DKIM, or DMARC). 

<div class="note-border alert-info">
  <div class="alert alert-info" role="alert">
    <div><i class="far fa-info-circle"></i></div>
    <div class="alert-text">
      <p><strong>Note</strong>: If an inbound email contains a virus, Vault does not create an <em>Email</em> record.</p>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>



### User Actions {#user}

Three user actions are available for _Email_ object records. Depending on the current lifecycle state and your Vault's configuration, you may not see any or all of these actions.

* _Download Email_: Downloads the raw EML (.eml) file Vault received. If the email had attachments, this action will download a ZIP file containing the EML and the individual attachments in their original format. This can be done with the _Email_ record in any state.
* _Reprocess Email_: Sends the _Email_ record back to the configured email processor to retry processing. Using this action is only recommended when the processor returns an unexpected error and you expect a retry to work without issue, or if the email processor was reconfigured. This action is available only when the _Email_ record is in the _Bounced_ or _Failed_ state.
* _Delete Email_: Deletes the _Email_ record and all associated files. This action is available only when the _Email_ record is in the _Processed_, _Bounced_,or _Failed_ state.

<div class="note-border alert-info">
  <div class="alert alert-info" role="alert">
    <div><i class="far fa-info-circle"></i></div>
    <div class="alert-text">
      <p><strong>Note</strong>: Vault includes attachments when downloading <em>Bounced</em> emails.</p>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>



<div class="note-border alert-info">
  <div class="alert alert-info" role="alert">
    <div><i class="far fa-info-circle"></i></div>
    <div class="alert-text">
      <p><strong>Note</strong>: You can download, process, or delete email records in the <em>Bounced</em> state. You can reprocess <em>Bounced</em> emails if the emails were marked as spam, come from previously unapproved senders, or failed email authentication (including SPF, DKIM, or DMARC). You cannot reprocess emails that come from senders that are still unapproved.</p>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>



### Email Deletion

Vault stores inbound emails until they are manually deleted with the _Delete Email_ user action. In the future, Veeva may implement automatic email purging, deleting stored emails, their attachments, and _Email_ and _Emailed Document_ records after a period of time.

### About the Bounce Reason & Failure Reason Fields

While creating _Email_ records in the _Bounced_ or _Failed_ states, Vault often populates the _Bounce Reason_ or _Failure Reason_ fields with the error or reason. However, there may be times that an email bounces or fails and Vault does not populate the corresponding field. If the _Bounce Reason_ or _Failure Reason_ field on an _Email_ record is blank, you can consult the [Email log](/en/lr/14341/#email).

When a _Bounced_ or _Failed_ email record moves into another state, Vault automatically clears the _Bounce Reason_ or _Failure Reason_ field, respectively.