Syncing a shared or group inbox (like a Google Group)

A lot of teams send their inbound leads to a shared address such as brokers@yourcompany.com or sales@yourcompany.com, so that everyone can keep an eye on what comes in. Those shared addresses are usually Google Groups or distribution lists rather than real mailboxes, which means they connect to Lightfield a little differently than a personal inbox. The good news is that the mail can absolutely flow into your CRM — you just route it in through a connected mailbox instead of connecting the group itself. This guide walks you through how that works and how to set it up.

Why a group inbox can't be connected on its own

When you connect a mailbox, Lightfield signs in securely through Google using OAuth. That sign-in is what keeps your data protected and your connection stable. A Google Group (or any alias or distribution list) isn't a real mailbox and can't complete that sign-in, so you won't see it as an option in the Add Account flow.

That's expected, and it doesn't mean the group's mail is out of reach. You'll connect the individual mailboxes of the people on your team as usual, then use the approach below to bring the group's conversations along with them.

The simplest way: CC a connected mailbox

The most reliable way to capture a group inbox's email is to have the group CC a mailbox that's already connected to Lightfield — your own connected address works perfectly.

Once a connected mailbox is included on the message, Lightfield recognizes it like any other email it syncs. The contact and the conversation flow into your CRM automatically, right alongside everything else your team is working on.

If a forwarded copy isn't showing up

Sometimes a teammate already receives a copy of every group email in their own inbox and is surprised when those copies don't appear in Lightfield. There's a friendly reason for this, and it's easy to work around once you know what's happening.

Lightfield is built to focus on your customer and prospect conversations, so it only syncs email that involves at least one person outside your organization. When every participant on a message shares your company's domain, Lightfield treats it as an internal note and leaves it out of your CRM.

That's usually what's going on with a forwarded group copy:

• A lead emails brokers@yourcompany.com, and the group quietly drops a copy in your inbox as group@yourcompany.com → you@yourcompany.com.

• On that copy, everyone is on @yourcompany.com, so Lightfield reads it as internal and skips it.

CCing a connected mailbox on the original email sidesteps this neatly, because the outside lead is still on the message — so it keeps an external participant and syncs the way you'd expect. The simple rule of thumb: if a real outside person is on the email, it will sync whether or not it was forwarded; if the only people on it work at your company, it won't.

Keeping private conversations out of the CRM

If you'd like your broker or customer mail to sync but would rather keep more sensitive threads — legal, investors, anything internal — out of your CRM, Lightfield gives you a couple of ways to do that:

• Just for you: add the addresses or domains you'd rather skip to the do-not-track section of your Mail & Calendar sync settings.

• For the whole team (admins): add those domains to the Do not auto-create list under Settings → General, and Lightfield will leave them out for everyone in the workspace.

A few things worth knowing

• Contacts come from the email itself. When a message syncs, Lightfield creates contacts from the people actually on that email — the to, from, cc, and bcc. It won't reach back and pull in everyone from an entire older thread, so brand-new contacts appear as fresh mail comes in.

• Make sure creation is set to Always. If synced mail still isn't creating accounts and contacts, open your Mail & Calendar settings and check that Account & Contact Creation is set to Always rather than Selective.

• Older mail depends on your back-sync window. Lightfield brings in history within your back-sync range, so anything older than that window won't appear automatically.

Common questions

• Can I add our sales@ or brokers@ group as an account? Not directly — group inboxes and aliases can't complete Google's secure sign-in, so they won't show up in the Add Account flow. Instead, have the group CC a connected mailbox, and that mail will sync.

• I auto-forward the group's mail to myself, but nothing shows up. What's wrong? Nothing's broken — the forwarded copy is most likely internal-only, since the group and your address are both on your company domain, so Lightfield skips it. Have the group CC your connected mailbox on the original email instead, so the outside sender stays on the message and it syncs.

• Will every email to the group sync once this is set up? The ones that include someone outside your organization will. Purely internal emails are left out by design, so your CRM stays focused on customer and prospect conversations.

• Can I bring in the group's entire email history? Lightfield syncs mail within your back-sync window, and it builds contacts from the people on each synced email rather than rebuilding a whole past thread. Going forward, new conversations are captured as they come in.