Replying to email from timeline

[Patti_R]

I'm trying to understand why both I (as the admin) and my user only see the option to reply to an email directly from the timeline on some emails but not all. We are new to HubSpot, so I'm wondering if the issue has to do with replying to older email chains that were sent in our old CRM and just synced to HS during our implementation. Like is the system not recognizing these as emails since the original email was sent before the Outlook inbox was connected?

[RubenBurdin · Accepted solution]

Hello @Patti_R 
The “Reply” button only shows up on timeline entries that HubSpot classifies as a logged email tied to a still-connected shared or personal inbox.
Anything that lands in the CRM a different way is treated as a generic activity and can’t be replied to in place.

Typical reasons you don’t see the button on some messages:

• Email predates the inbox connection – when you imported or synced data from the old CRM, HubSpot stored each message as an Email activity but it has no link back to your Exchange/Google mailbox, so there’s nothing for HubSpot to open in the composer.

• Inbox was disconnected when the email logged – if the OAuth token had expired, HubSpot logged the message via BCC/forwarding instead of the API. Same story: no live thread to reply on.

• Message was logged manually (forwarded or BCC’d) – those entries are “static”; the API flag that enables inline reply is missing.

• Permissions – the reply button only appears for the user who owns the connected inbox that sent/received the original email, or on a shared Conversations inbox. Other users see the email but no reply link.

What you can do:

1. Re-connect your Outlook inbox (Settings → General → Email) and have reps keep it connected; new emails logged through the add-in/ext will always be reply-able.

2. For historic threads, open a fresh email from the record (blue Email button, top of timeline) or use your mail client—HubSpot will stitch the reply back to the timeline if logging is on.

3. If you want full two-way visibility going forward, consider routing mail through a HubSpot Conversations inbox; those messages always carry the reply/forward controls.

Once your inbox is connected and you’re logging directly from Outlook, every new timeline email will show the reply button automatically.

Ruben Burdin 

Real-Time Data Sync Between any CRM or Database | Founder @Stacksync (YC W24)