Automatic Email Processor - Changelog

• Fixed: If the license was invalid and the trial period had expired, the program requested the license file from the license server every second. Now at most every ten minutes.
• Fixed: Setting up the Windows service in the options failed if the signed-in user was not an administrator and the Windows prompt was confirmed with an administrator account. The same applied to re-entering the service password.
• Improved: If registration fails, the program names the reason: key invalid, license server unreachable, no license file, license file outdated, expired or blocked. The same reason appears in the error report.
• Improved: If an entered license key is not accepted, the title bar and the "About..." window also name the reason.
• Improved: The error report now lists the network drives: the stored mapping of drive letters to network paths and the drives the program sees when the report is created. If saving fails on a drive letter in service mode, the report now shows whether the service knows the drive.

• Fixed: On a terminal server, only the user account whose program was started first processed emails. For all other users, processing stopped without any notice, the status bar wrongly reported processing by the Windows service, and catch-up processing waited indefinitely.
• Fixed: If the Windows service was started while the program window of the same user was still processing, for example right after switching to "External processor", the service stopped and did not start again.
• Improved: If two Windows users on the same computer monitor the same mailbox folder, for example after moving to another user account or with a central profile file, only one of them processes it. For the other user, the folder appears on the "Unreachable Email Folders" tab with a note.
• Improved: If no processor is running for the signed-in Windows user account, for example because the Windows service logs on with a different account, the catch-up window now points this out instead of waiting indefinitely.
• Improved: If another session of the same Windows user is already processing, the status bar now says so. Previously, it showed "Processing by the Windows service" in this case as well.
• Improved: Filter values that combine <AND> and <OR> can now be broken into rows with "Split into separate criteria...". Each <AND> part becomes a row, the <OR> alternatives stay in their row, and the program reads the rows exactly like the original value.

• New: "Save as sample message and add" is now also available for log entries without a profile, for example on the "No match" tab. The target profiles are selected in a dialog with a search field; with exactly one profile, its "Sample messages" page opens afterwards.
• New: When saving an email as a PDF file and in the "Print message" task, the orientation can be set to "Automatic (by image width)". The program then chooses landscape if the largest oversized image of the message is wider than tall and would have to be shrunk considerably in portrait. The option is also available in the log context menu "Save as PDF file".
• Fixed: The daily count "(+x)" in the log tabs was not reset when the program ran for several days and showed the total since the last reload instead of today's entries.
• Improved: If the password of an IMAP or POP3 account is missing, the main window now shows the red notice "Email accounts incompletely configured", and the error log names the skipped account and the missing detail. Previously, such an account was skipped without any message, so processing appeared to stop for no reason.
• Improved: The account dialog now requires a password when saving an IMAP or POP3 account. Previously, the account could be saved without a password and then remained ineffective.
• Improved: In the error report, notes about an account's inbox are no longer cut off prematurely.
• Changed: The diagnostics log only records emptying the trash when expired messages are actually deleted permanently. Previously, the line appeared in every check cycle.
• Fixed: For filter values combining <AND> and <OR>, the section "How the program reads this filter" showed a different reading than the actual evaluation.
• Improved: For a value with <AND> and <OR>, the filter editor shows how the program reads the value and asks for confirmation when a criterion newly combines both separators. This question and the OR group warnings when saving a profile can be switched off with "Do not ask again" and switched on again in the options under "Application messages".
• Fixed: A dialog opened from the profile settings or the options (for example "Edit filter criterion") could end up behind the calling window, which remained operable in the meantime.
• Improved: If a Microsoft mailbox is set up as an IMAP or POP3 account, the account dialog and the connection test now point out that Microsoft no longer accepts password sign-in and that the account type "Microsoft 365" must be used. Previously, this notice only appeared for Outlook.com and Hotmail addresses, not for custom domains.
• Improved: If the catch-up processing could not query any monitored folder, for example because a profile no longer monitors a valid folder after changing the account type, the completion window now names the affected profile and refers to its "Monitored Folders" page. Previously, only the general notice that no messages were found appeared in this case.

• Fixed: An email with a line break in its subject could not be saved as an MSG file (message "Invalid character (0x0D)"). The subject is now cleaned up.
• Fixed: An email sent to a hidden recipient list ("undisclosed-recipients") could not be saved as an MSG file (message "Invalid recipient email address"). Such recipient entries are now accepted when saving a copy.
• Changed: An empty attachment (0 bytes) is no longer treated as an error when saving or printing attachments but is marked as skipped in the log; when forwarding, it is left out and does not count as a remaining attachment, and the "Save to database" task no longer stores it as the primary attachment. Previously, processing of the message stopped at this point and the remaining tasks of the profile were not executed.
• Fixed: In certain cases, an email saved as an EML or MSG file carried the date of saving instead of its original sent date, for example with very large Microsoft 365 messages and in the file columns of the "Save to database" task. This has been fixed.

• New: The placeholder menu offers "Formats" below every date. Ready-made date formats such as "yyyy-MM-dd HH-mm-ss" or "yyyy-MM-dd" can be inserted with a single click. Under "Manage..." you can create your own formats, for example "dd.MM.yyyy"; they then appear first, for every date and in every profile.
• New: "Copy from profile" in the placeholder menu of the "Directory" and "File name" fields of the tasks "Save attachments", "Save email" and "Download" copies the value from a task of another profile. The submenu "Recently used" lists the last ten sources, "All profiles" all profiles with matching tasks; the respective value is shown as a hint. With many profiles, "Search..." at the top of "All profiles" opens a search window that filters by profile name, task and value as you type.
• New: On the "Message filter" page, "Import..." appends the criteria of another profile to the list. The dialog offers a search field, all profiles with a filter including a short summary of their criteria, and the three most recently used profiles in a separate group at the top.
• New: If the license expires within the next 30 days, a notice bar with a link to renew appears in the main window. After the expiry it points out that the program will only keep working for a few more days. Previously the expiry date was shown in the title bar only.
• New: Warning when a profile has not processed any email regularly for more than x days. If a supplier changes the subject or the attachment name of its monthly invoice, the filter criteria no longer apply and the invoices remain unnoticed. Overdue profiles now show a warning symbol in the "Last application" column and are listed in a notice bar below the profile list; a click opens an overview with days, period and last processing per profile, from which profiles can be opened or the warning turned off for checked profiles. The period (default 45 days) is set in the options under "Processing", where an additional email to recipients can be enabled that states the last processing and the number of emails that have since arrived without a match. Per profile, a custom period can be chosen or the warning turned off under "General", and an email with own recipients can be enabled under "Notifications". Caught-up emails count with their received date, so catching up makes the warning disappear after a filter correction. The "Last application" column is now called "Last application (regular)" and shows only regularly processed emails; next to "Profile active" you see since when the profile has been active.
• Improved: The property list in the criteria editor is now arranged in groups (sender and recipient, content, attachments, status, signature and encryption, other properties) instead of showing all 25 properties in one unsorted list.
• Improved: Duplicating a profile now creates the duplicate deactivated. Previously it was active immediately and processed the same emails a second time before it could be adjusted.
• Improved: In the "Select color" dialog, the color value can now be entered directly as a hex code, for example #624118.
• Changed: The "No profile match" notification has moved from the profile settings to the options (Processing, section "Malfunction notification / Other notifications"). It is now sent once per email that could not be assigned to any profile and states the reason shown in the "No match" tab. Previously, every profile with the checkbox set sent its own message, even if another profile had processed the email. Existing settings and recipients from the profiles are transferred at the first start; a custom notification text is no longer available for this message.
• Improved: The recipient fields of the malfunction notification and of the no-match notification offer the recently used addresses via the button next to the field, like the notifications in the profile settings.
• Fixed: After "Process message as new", an email with a still pending postponed processing could appear twice in the "Postponed processing" tab. This has been fixed; existing duplicate entries are cleaned up at the next program start.
• Fixed: Postponed processing whose waiting time exceeded the log retention period was lost during log cleanup and never executed. This affected, for example, delays of three months with the default retention period of 90 days.
• Fixed: If the network path behind a connected network drive changed while the program was running, the program kept using the old path when saving until it was restarted. This affected, for example, drives provided by NetDrive, which registers a drive under a new name each time it connects. This has been fixed.

• New: Below the criteria list, an expandable area explains in words how the program reads the filter, for example "The filter matches as soon as all conditions of one of the following groups are met: Group 1 ... OR group 2 ...". The row colors of the list now show the same groups: rows of an AND group share a color, an OR starts a new group. Previously the color changed at AND, which made the effect of an OR hard to recognize.
• New: The filter preview explains its result. For a match it names the group that was met, otherwise for each group the rows that do not apply, with row number and criterion. This makes it possible to understand without assistance why a profile does not process a sample message.
• Improved: The error report now contains an excerpt of the diagnostic logs of the last 48 hours (user interface and service). Sign-in and connection problems, such as the course of a Microsoft sign-in, can thus be traced without a support backup.
• Improved: If signing in to an account has been failing continuously for more than two hours, a dedicated message with a recommended action appears in the error log. The malfunction notification also names the accounts that currently cannot be accessed, including the duration and the last error message.
• Improved: The warning about multiple matches in a lookup table now names the affected email and the values found, so that duplicate or overlapping entries in the table can be located.
• Improved: When saving a Microsoft 365 account without sign-in, the notice dialog now offers "Sign in now" and starts the sign-in directly instead of only offering "Save anyway" and "Cancel".
• Improved: The automatic retry on an editing conflict in Microsoft 365 (introduced in version 4.8.0) now applies to all changes to messages, such as categories, read status, moving and copying.
• Improved: The criteria editor points out that "Attachment name" with a negated operator applies to all attachments of the email and that a single matching attachment excludes the entire email. To skip individual files only, use the attachment filter of the task.
• Improved: The notice about profiles that refer to a deleted email account now selects the first affected profile in the list and offers "Open profile...", which opens the profile editor directly on the "Monitored Folders" page with "Relink account...". With several profiles, the notice states the minimum number of corrections, since relinking applies to all profiles of the same account.
• Fixed: When saving an email as a PDF file, the document properties showed a temporary file name as the title. The subject is now entered as the title and the sender as the author; for attachments converted to PDF without a title of their own, the file name is used.

• New: The "Forward Email" task has a pre-filter. Forwarding only takes place if all criteria defined there are met; the other tasks of the profile run unchanged. This allows, for example, forwarding only if a PDF attachment is present, while the attachments are saved in any case. Unmet pre-filters appear in the log as "Not forwarded".
• New: The attachments of a forward can be restricted by file name, file type and file size, as with "Save Attachments". The previous file name filter is carried over automatically. Optionally, forwarding is skipped if no attachment remains after the attachment filter.
• Improved: The settings of the "Forward Email" task are now spread over the tabs "General", "Attachments" and "Pre-filter".
• Fixed: When copying an email to another Microsoft 365 mailbox, an "unexpected error" occasionally occurred if Microsoft 365 was still processing the newly created copy at the same moment; an empty draft then remained in the target mailbox. The operation is now retried automatically.
• Improved: When signing in to Microsoft in the browser, no account selection is shown anymore for an account that is already entered. If the browser does not return to the program, the attempt is cancelled after 10 minutes, and clicking again reports that the sign-in is already in progress. The course of the sign-in is recorded in the diagnostics log.
• Improved: The filter editor now also warns if an OR group only checks general characteristics such as the attachment name and contains no criterion for sender, recipient, subject or message text, because such a group matches, for example, every email with a PDF attachment, regardless of who sent it.

• Fixed: Emails whose text is delivered by the mail server as an unnamed HTML attachment instead of as message text (observed with signed notifications in Microsoft 365) were treated as emails without message text and were therefore neither printed nor saved as PDF. This also applies to the result preview with sample messages in MSG format.
• Improved: The filter editor now warns if an OR group consists only of excluding criteria ("does not contain" etc.) and therefore matches almost every email, a common reason for unexpectedly processed emails.

• Fixed: When forwarding, a custom subject prefix was not applied if the original subject already started with "FW:", "Fwd:" or a similar forwarding marker. If the prefix field contains the <Subject> placeholder, the subject is no longer inserted twice.

• Fixed: For IMAP accounts, emails that arrived shortly after midnight were not detected and processed until 1 or 2 a.m., depending on the time zone. The immediate check after a server notification (IMAP IDLE) missed these emails as well.
• Fixed: A delayed processing whose email had meanwhile been deleted or moved manually was retried in every check run and produced an error entry each time. Such entries are now closed with the note "message no longer exists".

• Fixed: At program start, a harmless lock conflict while backing up an internal status file could be logged as an error and therefore appeared in the automatic error report although nothing was lost.
• Fixed: The option "Delay execution by" when replacing extracted attachments with links was not applied, the attachments were replaced immediately despite the configured delay.
• Improved: The support backup now includes an overview of the failed and not-overwritten processing steps of the last 30 days, and the diagnostics log names profile, task and cause for failed tasks. Scheduled trash deletions and delayed attachment replacements are included as well.
• Improved: If the option "Skip" is selected for existing file names when saving, the program now points out that files with the same name are then not saved and are only logged as "Not overwritten".
• Improved: Replacing attachments with links has become more robust: With Microsoft 365, the link is attached before the original is removed; if a saved file is missing, the remaining attachments are still replaced; the result preview and the "Postponed processing" page show the replacement including the delay, and restoring offloaded attachments in Microsoft 365 now also supports files larger than 3 MB.

• Improved: If the connection to an email account is lost repeatedly during the check, the program now shows a persistent notice with the likely causes (e.g. unstable internet connection, security software with email scanning, overloaded mail server) - including a link to further tips in the FAQ.
• Improved: New server presets for mail.de and for freenet addresses ending in fn.de. For freenet, the program now also points out that access for email programs must first be enabled in the webmail settings.
• Improved: If the application has been disabled in the customer's Microsoft 365 organization, the program now shows an understandable notice with the required step for the IT administrator instead of endlessly retrying the sign-in at every check interval.
• Improved: If a Microsoft 365 account is saved without having signed in to Microsoft, the program now points out that the account can only be used after signing in.
• Improved: For Microsoft 365 accounts without a stored user name (older setups), the program now adopts the user name automatically from the successful sign-in so that the correct account is always used when several Microsoft accounts exist on the same computer.
• Improved: If the mailbox of a Microsoft 365 account can be found but its inbox cannot be opened (e.g. missing full access to a shared mailbox or a mailbox that has not yet been fully set up), the program now shows an understandable notice instead of endlessly retrying the access at every check interval. The connection test now also reports such an error instead of ignoring it.
• Improved: For a shared Microsoft 365 mailbox, the connection test now first checks receiving via the sign-in account and reports a missing "Send As" permission only as a warning instead of failing the test - full access is sufficient for retrieval alone.
• Fixed: For Microsoft 365 accounts, the test message of the connection test remained in the inbox and could be processed by a running profile. The test message is now removed completely, and processing skips test messages of the connection test.

• New: The settings of a Microsoft 365 account now allow storing an organization's own app registration (client ID and tenant ID). Empty fields continue to use the program's default registration.
• Improved: If the connection to an email account repeatedly fails with the same error, the program temporarily checks the account at longer intervals (5 to 30 minutes) instead of retrying at the regular check interval. As soon as a connection succeeds (including via the connection test of the account management), the normal interval applies again immediately.
• Improved: The error report combines repeated errors of the same kind into a single entry with time span and count, making it considerably more compact and easier to review.
• Improved: If an organization requires the program to be approved by an IT administrator, the Microsoft 365 sign-in now shows an understandable notice with the next steps instead of only the technical Microsoft error message.
• Fixed: If the connection to an email account was lost while checking the monitored folders, the error log could fill up with hundreds of similar follow-up errors. The remaining folders of the account are now skipped until the next check.
• Fixed: A monitored folder that does not (or no longer) exist was not listed under "Unreachable folders" with certain mail servers and instead produced new error log entries on every check.

• Fixed: If processing was running as a Windows service, the setup could fail to replace program files when installing an update and aborted with an "Access denied" message. The setup now automatically stops the processing service and restarts it by itself after the installation is complete.
• Fixed: In environments where the revocation lists for server certificates cannot be retrieved, establishing encrypted email connections failed ("Unable to perform revocation check"). Common triggers are security software that inspects encrypted connections or restricted internet access on servers. Such connections are now allowed, provided the certificate is otherwise valid. A certificate that has actually been revoked is still rejected.

• Fixed: Images embedded in the message body (e.g., logos in email signatures) were incorrectly counted as attachments by the attachment filter criteria (count, name, size). A filter such as "exactly 1 attachment" therefore missed, for example, invoice emails whose only real attachment was accompanied by a signature logo.
• Improved: If a stored folder path of a Microsoft 365 account deviates from the actual folder structure of the mailbox (e.g., the folder is located below the inbox instead of at the top level), the program now permanently corrects the path in the profile by itself. Previously, the deviation was only compensated on each access.
• Improved: If a folder with the same name exists both at the top level of the mailbox and below the inbox, the inbox variant is now displayed with a leading "Inbox" so that both folders can be distinguished in profiles and logs.
• Improved: The automatic Excel report and the report overview in the email are easier to read thanks to subtly shaded rows.

• New: The centrally managed profile file can now be protected with an admin password. Enabling admin mode and changing the central profile file then require the password; optionally, opening the options can be protected as well. The password is set via the "Set admin password..." button in the general options and applies to all workstations that use the same centrally managed profile file.
• New: The error report can now be sent automatically by email at a configurable time (new options category "Error Report via Email" with schedule, recipients, and sending account). Optionally, it is only sent if new error log entries have been added since the last send.
• New: The error report can be generated and sent from the command line (AEPProcessor.exe --errorreport [target], optionally --send and --onlynew), for example via the Windows Task Scheduler. If a central folder is specified as the target, the file name includes the computer name - this allows collecting and checking the reports of many installations in one place.
• New: The "Save to database" task can optionally store the name of the triggering profile in a separate column. This makes it possible to track in downstream systems which profile processed an email. After enabling the column, it is added to the table automatically.
• Fixed: After updating to version 4.6.12, the main window incorrectly reported that profiles refer to a deleted email account if those profiles use the default account of the installation. This was only an incorrect notice - processing was not affected.

Automatic Email Processor 4 is a completely redesigned major release. The program no longer requires an installed Outlook client and instead connects directly to your email accounts - via IMAP, POP3 or the Microsoft Graph API for Microsoft 365 and Outlook.com. Exchange Server mailboxes can still be connected as long as the server's IMAP service is enabled.

• Direct access to email accounts - no Outlook installation required; native support for IMAP, POP3 as well as Microsoft 365 and Outlook.com (via the Microsoft Graph API)
• Real-time detection of new emails via IMAP IDLE and Microsoft Graph delta sync
• Redesigned user interface with a clear profile list, status and processing indicators and consistent keyboard navigation
• Bounce detection for forwarded emails - automatic recognition of undeliverable messages (DSN/NDR) and notification of the sender
• Service and headless mode for unattended operation as a separate program instance
• Profile migration from earlier versions - existing profiles from Automatic Email Processor 2 and 3 are imported with automatic format detection
• Enhanced security - AES-V2 encryption, TLS certificate pinning, password storage in the Windows Credential Manager (DPAPI) as well as protection against ZIP bombs and path manipulation
• Comprehensive online help and step-by-step instructions, accessible directly from the program