Frequently Asked Questions
Answers about email accounts, imports, reading, organization, backups, privacy, and how Letterboxx fits beside the inbox you already use.
About Letterboxx
What is Letterboxx?
Letterboxx is an email newsletter reader and Mac app for reading, organizing, highlighting, searching, and keeping email newsletters. It turns newsletter copies from the folders you choose into a local reading library on your Mac.
Is Letterboxx still a TestFlight beta?
No. Letterboxx is no longer a public TestFlight beta. The current public version is the Mac app available on the Mac App Store.
Is Letterboxx for iPhone or iPad?
The public Letterboxx app is currently a Mac app. Letterboxx is not positioned as an iPhone or iPad newsletter reader. Yet. 😉
What is an email newsletter reader?
An email newsletter reader is a dedicated place to read newsletters that arrive by email. Letterboxx imports local copies from selected folders so newsletters can be read, organized, highlighted, and searched outside the inbox.
Is Letterboxx an email client?
No. Letterboxx is not a full email client. Your email app still handles everyday mail, sending, replies, forwarding, account settings, receipts, alerts, and work threads. Letterboxx is for the newsletters that become reading.
Does Letterboxx replace my email app?
No. Keep your email client. Letterboxx works beside it by connecting to selected newsletter folders, downloading local copies for reading, and leaving normal email communication to your mail app.
What problem does Letterboxx solve?
Newsletters arrive through email, but good newsletters often behave more like essays, briefings, analysis, and issues worth keeping. Letterboxx gives that reading its own home instead of asking your inbox to solve a reading problem.
Email Accounts and Imports
Which email accounts can Letterboxx connect to?
Letterboxx can connect to Gmail and IMAP accounts, including providers such as iCloud, Outlook, DreamHost, and custom mail servers when IMAP is available.
Does Letterboxx move my email?
No. Letterboxx connects directly to your email account using IMAP. It downloads local copies of newsletters into a dedicated reading library on your Mac while leaving the original messages on your mail server. After you connect an account or choose a folder, Letterboxx retrieves newsletters from that selected source and continues checking selected folders for new issues. Original messages are only removed from the mail server if you explicitly delete them.
Can I choose which folders Letterboxx imports?
Yes. You choose the folders or labels that contain newsletters. Letterboxx is designed around selected newsletter sources, not copying your whole inbox.
Does importing newsletters mark them read?
No. Normal import uses a read-safe fetch. Read-status syncing is configurable per account: “Choose whether this account’s read/unread state stays local, is sent back to the mail server, or also refreshes recent read status from the server during checks.” The available options are Sync with mail server, Send to mail server, and None.
Can I start with one newsletter folder?
Yes. Start with one folder or label, then add more later as you learn which subscriptions belong in your reading library.
Reading and Organization
What are Letterboxxes?
Letterboxxes are topic-based spaces for newsletters. You can organize newsletters by subject, writer, project, habit, or anything else that fits how you read.
Can Letterboxx organize newsletters automatically?
Yes. Auto-Delivery rules can send recurring newsletters into the Letterboxxes where they belong, while you can still organize messages manually when you want control.
What is Clean View?
Clean View gives newsletters a calmer reading layout when the original HTML gets in the way. It can remove obtrusive ads, tracking features, embeds, and visual noise while keeping the original available.
Can I highlight passages in newsletters?
Yes. You can select useful passages, save highlights in familiar colors, and return to newsletters with highlights later.
Can I search imported newsletters?
Yes. Letterboxx can search the newsletter copies in your local library, making half-remembered ideas easier to find again.
Backups and Privacy
Where does Letterboxx keep my newsletter library?
Letterboxx is local-first. It keeps newsletter copies, highlights, Letterboxxes, rules, and reading state in a Mac reading library, while original messages remain on the mail server unless you delete them.
Can I back up my Letterboxx library?
Yes. Encrypted backups protect your imported newsletter copies, Letterboxxes, highlights, rules, and settings.
Does Letterboxx upload my newsletters to a web service?
No. Letterboxx is designed around a local Mac library rather than a web account where your reading life lives. The app stores local newsletter copies on your Mac, and your email provider still hosts the original messages unless you delete them.
Why does Letterboxx use sender logos?
Letterboxx can show sender logos to make newsletter lists easier to scan. Sender logos are provided by Logo.dev.
Comparisons
How is Letterboxx different from an email client?
Email clients are excellent for communication: sending, replying, forwarding, receipts, alerts, and account messages. Letterboxx is for the other thing newsletters become: a reading shelf full of essays, briefings, analysis, ideas, and issues worth keeping.
How is Letterboxx different from a read-it-later app?
Read-it-later apps are usually for web pages you find while browsing. Letterboxx is for newsletters that already arrive in email and deserve a calmer place to become a reading library.
Does Letterboxx save web pages?
No. Letterboxx focuses on email newsletters. Use a read-it-later app for web articles and Letterboxx for the newsletter subscriptions that arrive by email.
Trial and Support
Is there a free trial?
Yes. Letterboxx offers a 14-day free trial before you choose a monthly or annual plan.
Where can I download Letterboxx?
Letterboxx is available on the Mac App Store.
Where can I get help?
You can send questions to support@letterboxxsoftware.com.