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Linking and Saving Memories by Email

Link an email address to Memory Currents, then save Memories by sending mail.

Send a message, keep a Memory

Email is where a lot of thoughts already live — a note to yourself, something a friend sent, a receipt worth keeping, a project update email. To save them in Memory Currents, first link an email address. Then when you want to keep a message, send it from that address to your Memory Currents address.

Link a sending address

Open Channels → Email in Memory Currents. The page shows the Memory Currents address to write to, and the addresses you have already linked.

Add the address you will send from. Memory Currents shows three things on that address's row: the exact subject line to use, a short code to put in the message, and the address to send to. All three are there to copy, and there is a link that opens a prepared message in your mail app with them already filled in.

The subject has to match exactly. It is what tells Memory Currents this message is a verification rather than something you meant to keep, and a message with the wrong subject is not treated as one.

Send that message from the address you are linking — not from a different account that happens to be open. The row updates on its own while it waits, and shows the link as active once the message arrives.

You can link more than one email address.

Which addresses can be linked

Memory Currents links an address only when it can confirm that the verification email really came from that address. That works for an address you send from through its own mail service:

• a personal address, such as a Gmail address, sent from that account;
• a work or custom-domain address, sent through that domain's own mail service.

These setups usually won't verify, because the email reaches Memory Currents without that confirmation:

• mail passed on by a forwarding rule;
• an alias you send through another account, sometimes called "send mail as";
• a relay address that you can receive mail at but not send from;
• a custom domain whose mail service neither signs its mail nor is listed as allowed to send for it. Whoever manages the domain can fix this by turning on DKIM signing for it.

If the code expires

A verification code lasts about an hour, and the row shows its deadline. Once it passes, the row says the code expired and offers Try again for a fresh one. The old code stops working.

If verification is refused

When a verification email arrives but cannot be accepted, the address stays Pending and its row shows a note saying what was wrong with that email and what to do next. Memory Currents does not reply by email. The note says which of these happened:

• We couldn't confirm it came from this address. The email arrived without proof that this address's own mail service sent it — usually because it went through a forwarding rule, an alias in another account, or a custom domain that isn't set up to sign its mail. Send it from this address's own mail service. See Which addresses can be linked.
• It arrived without a message identifier we can use. Ordinary mail carries one; this email didn't. Send it again from your usual mail app.
• It was flagged by mail safety checks. It looked like spam or was flagged for a virus. Send a plain message with the subject shown and only the code in the body.
• It looked like an automatic message, such as an auto-reply, a bounce, or mailing list mail. Send it yourself from this address.
• The subject didn't match. Use the subject shown on the row, exactly.
• The code was missing or didn't match. Include the code shown on the row.

If the code expires before you send again, the row keeps the note about what went wrong and offers Try again for a new code. Choosing Try again clears the note and replaces the code — it does not change how your mail is sent. Send the new code with the fix for the reason the note gave: for a subject or code problem, the subject and code shown on the row; for a message we couldn't confirm, from the address's own mail service, as described above.

An email sent from an address you haven't added leaves no note, because Memory Currents cannot tell whose it is.

Removing an address, and adding it back

Choose Remove beside an email address to unlink it. Removing an address stops future mail from being saved and leaves the Memories it already captured alone. You can add it again later and verify it the same way.

Saving Memories by email

Once an email address is active, you can send a new email or forward an email sent to you to Memory Currents, but it has to come from a linked email address.

After the address is active, you can use any subject, including the one from the verification email. A new message using that subject is saved like any other message.

What gets saved

The subject becomes the first line of the Memory, written as Subject: your subject, followed by the message. A message sent with no subject at all starts directly with its text — Memory Currents does not add an empty subject line.

Memory Currents keeps the readable text of a message. Where a message carries both a plain-text and a formatted version, the plain-text one is preferred; where it carries only a formatted version, that is converted to text. Either way the formatting itself — fonts, colors, layout — currently is not kept.

Signatures and headers from a message you forwarded by hand are part of the text, so they come along too. Delete anything you do not want in the Memory before you send it.

Quoted reply history comes along as well, made easier to read. Memory Currents converts the reply sections to an easier to read format, making it easier to split email messages. While processing incoming emails, you may not be able to edit or split them. Once processing is complete you can edit them again, and split them wherever Split Memories can.

Memory Currents also keeps a few details from each message's header — who it was from and to, its date and subject, and which message it replies to — and uses them to connect a reply or forward with the earlier message you saved. Those connections aren't shown anywhere today.

What does not get saved

• Attachments and inline images. They are dropped, and nothing in the Memory records that they were there. A file sent alongside a note keeps the note and not the file — including a text file, which is still an attachment.
• A message with no readable text. An image on its own, or an attachment with nothing typed beside it, leaves nothing to save.
• A very long message. Past a size limit, a message is turned away whole rather than shortened, so you never get half a Memory.

Mail we turn away

Some messages are refused before they are read at all: mail that Memory Currents cannot confirm came from the address it claims, anything flagged as spam or carrying a virus, automatic replies such as out-of-office messages, and mailing list traffic. A refused verification email shows why on its row (see If verification is refused); a refused message from an active address shows nothing.

Automatic forwarding may be refused. Redirecting mail can break the sender checks. Do not rely on a forwarding rule to capture your mail; send directly or forward it yourself from a linked address instead.

Check that a Memory arrived

Memory Currents does not reply when a Memory is saved, and it does not reply when a message was turned away. Silence is not confirmation either way — check your collection, and check the Channels page, which shows what Memory Currents last recorded about each address and when.

Memories explains what happens after capture.