Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about InboxZebra’s privacy, functionality, and features.

Privacy & Data Security

Do you train on my email data?

Absolutely not. Your email data is never used to train our models or improve InboxZebra for other users.

Here’s exactly what happens with your data:

Local Learning System (Improves YOUR Results Only):

  • When you manually correct a categorization, InboxZebra stores a sanitized example (subject line, sender, 100-character snippet) locally on your Mac
  • These examples are used ONLY to improve categorization accuracy for YOUR account
  • Stored in ~/Library/Preferences/com.inboxzebra.app.plist on your Mac
  • Never transmitted to our servers or anyone else
  • You can export/delete this data anytime in Settings → Data

What We Do NOT Do:

  • We do not collect your email content.
  • We do not send your data to central servers.
  • We do not aggregate data across users.
  • We do not train models using your emails.
  • We do not share your data with third parties.
  • We do not use your data for any purpose other than providing the service to YOU.

How Local AI Works:

  • Default processing uses Ollama running locally on your Mac
  • The AI model (e.g., qwen2.5:7b) runs entirely on your device
  • Your emails never leave your computer for categorization
  • No internet connection required for AI processing

Optional Cloud AI (Business Tier):

  • You can optionally use Google Gemini with your own API key
  • Data goes directly from your Mac to your Gemini account (not through us)
  • You control the API key and can revoke access anytime
  • We never see or store what’s sent to Gemini
  • Completely optional - local processing is the default

Bottom Line: Your data belongs to you. We never see it, store it centrally, or use it to train anything. InboxZebra is designed for privacy from the ground up.

What data does InboxZebra collect?

On Your Mac (Local Storage):

  • UserDefaults: Categories, settings, account metadata (email addresses, display names), learning examples (sanitized), custom instructions
  • Keychain: OAuth access and refresh tokens (encrypted by macOS)
  • Core Data: Email metadata (subject, sender, dates) and encrypted email bodies (AES-256-GCM)

On Our Servers:

  • Nothing. We don’t have servers that store your email data.
  • License validation happens via Paddle (our payment processor) but doesn’t involve email content.

Third-Party Services:

  • Gmail API: For fetching/updating Gmail emails (direct connection from your Mac to Google)
  • Microsoft Graph API: For fetching/updating Office 365 emails (direct connection from your Mac to Microsoft)
  • Ollama: Runs locally on your Mac (no external connection)
  • Gemini API (optional): If you enable cloud AI with your own API key, requests go directly to Google

Can you see my emails?

No. We have no access to your emails. Here’s why:

  1. OAuth Authentication: You authenticate directly with Gmail/Microsoft. We never see your email password.
  2. Direct API Calls: Your Mac communicates directly with Gmail/Microsoft servers. No intermediary.
  3. Local Processing: All AI categorization happens on your Mac via Ollama (or your own Gemini API key if you enable cloud AI).
  4. No Central Servers: We don’t operate servers that handle your email data.

The only way we could see your emails is if you explicitly sent them to us (e.g., for support troubleshooting), which we would never ask you to do.

Do you use analytics or telemetry?

No. InboxZebra has zero analytics or telemetry.

  • No tracking pixels
  • No usage analytics
  • No crash reporting to external services
  • No “phone home” functionality

The only network requests InboxZebra makes are:

  1. OAuth authentication with Gmail/Microsoft
  2. Fetching/updating emails via Gmail/Microsoft APIs
  3. Optional: Gemini API calls (if you enable cloud AI with your own API key)
  4. License validation (via Paddle, our payment processor)

How is my data encrypted?

At Rest (On Your Mac):

  • Email bodies: AES-256-GCM encryption in Core Data
  • OAuth tokens: Stored in macOS Keychain (encrypted by macOS with hardware-backed keys)
  • Settings/categories: Stored in UserDefaults (standard macOS file permissions)

In Transit:

  • All API calls use HTTPS (TLS 1.3)
  • OAuth tokens transmitted only over secure connections
  • Email content never transmitted except to Gmail/Microsoft servers (over HTTPS)

Access Control:

  • Touch ID/password required for viewing email bodies
  • Keychain access restricted to InboxZebra app only
  • macOS sandboxing limits file system access

Does phishing detection send my emails to a server?

No. Phishing detection runs entirely on your Mac. It analyzes email headers and body content using local pattern matching — no network calls, no external services, no data leaves your device. This is consistent with InboxZebra’s privacy-first approach.

What does phishing detection look for?

InboxZebra checks for common phishing signals:

  • Sender spoofing — display name doesn’t match the sending domain
  • Authentication failures — SPF, DKIM, or DMARC checks failed
  • Lookalike domains — visually similar characters substituted in domain names (homoglyphs)
  • Suspicious links — URL text doesn’t match the actual destination
  • Urgency and pressure — language designed to rush you into action
  • Credential requests — unexpected login or password reset links
  • Brand impersonation — known brand names used from non-brand domains

Each email receives a risk level: none, low, medium, or high based on how many signals are present and their severity.

Can I turn off phishing detection?

Yes. Go to Settings > Security and toggle off phishing detection. It’s enabled by default. You might disable it if you receive persistent false positives on legitimate senders, though this is uncommon.

Features & Functionality

What’s the difference between categories and labels?

Categories:

  • Primary classification (e.g., Work, Personal, Newsletters)
  • Each email belongs to exactly ONE category
  • Synced to Gmail/Office 365 as folders/labels
  • Used by AI for automatic categorization
  • Can have descriptions to guide the AI

Secondary Labels:

  • Additional metadata (e.g., Finance, Travel, Urgent)
  • Each email can have MULTIPLE labels
  • Local only (not synced to email providers)
  • Used for filtering and organization
  • Support custom colors and icons (Pro tier)

Example: An email might be categorized as “Work” with secondary labels “Finance” and “Urgent”.

What’s the difference between the “Tasks” category and the Tasks feature?

Tasks Category:

  • A category for emails that ARE tasks (e.g., “TODO: Review report”)
  • Organizes task-related emails like any other category
  • Syncs to your email provider as a category/label

Tasks Feature (full guide):

  • Tracks emails that REQUIRE action (from ANY category)
  • GTD-style workflow: Inbox → Next → Waiting → Someday → Done
  • AI automatically detects actionable emails
  • Monitors for replies when you’re waiting on someone
  • Archives completed task emails

Key Insight: A “Work” email, “Financial” email, or any category can be actionable. The Tasks feature tracks what YOU need to do, regardless of email type.

Example: An email categorized as “Work” might also require action and become a task you track through to completion.

How does the learning system work?

InboxZebra learns from your corrections to improve accuracy over time:

  1. Initial Categorization: AI analyzes email content and assigns a category
  2. Manual Correction: You right-click and recategorize if it’s wrong
  3. Learning: InboxZebra stores a sanitized example (subject, sender, snippet)
  4. Improved Prompts: Future categorization uses your examples for better accuracy
  5. Local Only: Learning data stored only on your Mac, never shared

Priority:

  • Manual corrections (marked with ✓) are highest priority
  • Recent automatic categorizations fill remaining slots
  • Example limits match your plan:
    • Free tier: limited to 3 saved examples per category
    • Pro/Business tiers: full access with 10 saved examples per category

Privacy:

  • Only 100 characters of email body stored
  • Sanitized snippets stored in UserDefaults (not encrypted; full email bodies are stored encrypted in Core Data)
  • Can be exported/deleted in Settings → Data

Can I use InboxZebra offline?

Partially.

Offline Capabilities:

  • View previously fetched emails
  • Categorize emails (if Ollama is running locally)
  • Manage categories and labels
  • Search cached emails

Requires Internet:

  • Fetching new emails (requires Gmail/Microsoft API access)
  • Applying categories/labels to email provider (requires API access)
  • OAuth authentication (requires internet)
  • License validation (requires internet for initial activation)

What’s the difference between Pro and Business tiers?

FeatureFreeProBusiness
Email accounts1UnlimitedUnlimited
Custom categories3UnlimitedUnlimited
Secondary labelsNoneCustomCustom
Learning system✅✅✅
Global custom rules❌✅✅
Per-account instructions❌✅✅
Cloud AI (Gemini)❌❌✅
Shared mailboxes❌❌✅
Tasks & action tracking❌✅✅
Newsletter management✅✅✅
Bulk actions✅✅✅
Touch ID protection✅✅✅
SupportCommunityEmailPriority

14-day free trial includes all Pro + Business features.

Why would I use cloud AI (Gemini) instead of local AI (Ollama)?

Local AI (Ollama) - Default:

  • Pros: Completely private, no API costs, works offline, no limits
  • Cons: Requires 16GB+ RAM, slower (2-5 seconds per email), uses CPU/GPU

Cloud AI (Gemini) - Optional (Business tier):

  • Pros: Faster (0.5-1 second per email), no local hardware requirements, parallel processing
  • Cons: Requires your own API key, costs ~$1/month for 10k emails, internet required, data processed via Google

When to use Gemini:

  • Processing thousands of emails regularly
  • Limited local hardware (8GB RAM Macs)
  • Want fastest possible categorization
  • Comfortable with Google seeing email subjects/snippets

You provide your own API key, so costs and data go to your Google account, not through us.

Technical Questions

What AI models are supported?

Local AI (Ollama):

  • Recommended: qwen2.5:7b (best balance of speed/accuracy)
  • Fastest: phi3:mini (good for 16GB RAM)
  • Highest Quality: gemma2:9b (requires 32GB+ RAM)
  • Any Ollama model can be configured in Settings

Cloud AI (Gemini - Business tier):

  • gemini-2.5-flash (fast, cost-effective)
  • Automatic model selection by Google

What email providers are supported?

Currently Supported:

  • Office 365 (Outlook.com, Microsoft 365, Exchange Online)
  • Gmail (personal and Google Workspace accounts)

Shared Mailboxes:

  • Office 365 shared mailboxes (Business tier)
  • Gmail shared/delegated mailboxes (not yet supported)

Not Supported:

  • IMAP/POP3 accounts
  • Yahoo Mail
  • ProtonMail
  • Other providers

We focus on Office 365 and Gmail because they represent 80%+ of business/personal email and have robust OAuth2 + modern APIs.

What are the system requirements?

Minimum:

  • macOS 14.0 (Sonoma) or later
  • 16GB RAM (for 7B-8B models)
  • 10GB free storage (for model + app)
  • Internet connection (for fetching emails)
  • Ollama installed (for local AI)

Recommended:

  • macOS 14.0 (Sonoma) or later
  • 32GB RAM (for larger/faster models)
  • Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3) for best performance
  • 50GB free storage (for multiple models)

Cloud AI (Gemini) Requirements:

  • 8GB RAM minimum (no local AI needed)
  • Stable internet connection
  • Google Gemini API key (free tier available)

Backups

How do I backup my data?

InboxZebra automatically backs up your data every day at midnight. You can also create manual backups anytime.

Automatic Backups:

  • Run daily at midnight (12:00 AM local time)
  • Keep 5 daily, 3 weekly, and 12 monthly backups (up to 1 year of history)
  • Enable in Settings → Backups → “Enable automatic backups”

Manual Backups:

  1. InboxZebra → Settings (Cmd+,)
  2. Backups tab
  3. Click “Backup Now”
  4. Manual backups are never auto-deleted

What’s Backed Up:

  • Email metadata and encrypted email bodies
  • Task data and workflow states
  • Categories, labels, and learning examples
  • Account metadata, custom instructions, LLM settings
  • Preferred senders and newsletter subscriptions

What’s NOT Backed Up:

  • OAuth tokens (must re-authenticate after restore)
  • Application logs and temporary cache files

Full details: See Backups and Data Recovery Guide

Can I restore on a different Mac?

Yes! You can restore InboxZebra backups on any Mac.

Steps:

  1. Copy your .izbackup file to the new Mac
  2. Place it in ~/Library/Application Support/InboxZebra/Backups/manual/
  3. Launch InboxZebra on the new Mac
  4. Open Settings → Backups
  5. Select the backup and click “Restore from Backup”
  6. Restart InboxZebra when prompted
  7. Re-authenticate your email accounts (Settings → Accounts)

What Transfers:

  • All categorized emails and tasks
  • Categories, labels, and learning examples
  • Custom instructions and settings

What Doesn’t Transfer:

  • OAuth tokens (you’ll re-authenticate - takes 30 seconds per account)
  • License key (enter separately in Settings → Subscription)

See also: Restoring on a Different Mac

How much space do backups use?

Backup size depends on your email volume:

Typical Storage:

  • 1,000 emails: ~50-100 MB per backup
  • 10,000 emails: ~500 MB - 1 GB per backup
  • 50,000 emails: ~2-5 GB per backup

Total Backup Storage:

  • With default retention (5 daily + 3 weekly + 12 monthly): ~20 backups
  • Example: 10,000 emails = ~10-20 GB total for all backups
  • Manual backups add to this total (never auto-deleted)

Check Your Usage:

  1. Open Settings → Backups
  2. Look at “Storage used” near the top

Managing Storage:

  • Retention policy automatically deletes old automatic backups
  • Manually delete old manual/emergency backups if needed
  • Export important backups to external storage, then delete local copies

See also: Managing Storage Space

How do I disable automatic backups?

To disable:

  1. InboxZebra → Settings (Cmd+,)
  2. Backups tab
  3. Toggle off “Enable automatic backups”

Important: We strongly recommend keeping automatic backups enabled. They protect against:

  • Accidental data deletion
  • Database corruption
  • Software bugs
  • System crashes

Alternative: If storage is a concern, you can:

  • Keep automatic backups enabled (minimal storage with 20-backup limit)
  • Manually delete old manual/emergency backups to free space
  • Export important backups to external storage

Manual backups still work even if automatic backups are disabled - just click “Backup Now” anytime.

Subscription & Licensing

How does the free trial work?

14-Day Free Trial:

  • Includes ALL Pro + Business features
  • No credit card required
  • Starts automatically on first launch
  • Full access to unlimited accounts, cloud AI, custom labels
  • After 14 days: downgrade to Free tier or purchase Pro/Business

Free Tier After Trial:

  • 1 email account
  • Basic features (categories, learning, newsletter management)
  • Can upgrade anytime

How do I activate my license?

After Purchase:

  1. You’ll receive a license key via email from Paddle
  2. Open InboxZebra → Settings (Cmd+,)
  3. Subscription tab
  4. Enter your license key and email (exactly as in purchase confirmation)
  5. Click “Activate License”
  6. Subscription activates immediately

Troubleshooting:

  • Ensure key is entered exactly (copy/paste recommended)
  • Check email matches purchase email
  • Restart InboxZebra after activation
  • Contact support if issues persist

Can I use InboxZebra on multiple Macs?

License Terms:

  • Pro: 1 license = 1 active installation
  • Business: 1 license = 1 active installation

Multiple Macs:

  • You can install on multiple Macs but only one can be active with the license key
  • Deactivate on one Mac before activating on another
  • Or purchase additional licenses for each Mac

Family/Team:

  • Each user needs their own license
  • Business tier supports team discounts (contact sales)

What happens if my subscription expires?

After Expiration:

  • App continues working
  • Features revert to Free tier:
    • 1 account only (others disabled)
    • Custom labels disabled (but preserved)
    • Cloud AI disabled
    • Shared mailboxes disabled

Your Data:

  • All data preserved (categories, learning, emails)
  • Can still view previously categorized emails
  • Can export data anytime

To Restore:

  • Renew subscription
  • All Pro/Business features re-enabled immediately
  • Data/settings restored automatically

Troubleshooting

Why is categorization slow?

Local AI (Ollama):

  • Sequential processing: 2-5 seconds per email
  • Large models (70B+) can be 10-30 seconds per email
  • Solution: Use faster model (qwen2.5:7b or phi3:mini)
  • Or: Upgrade to Business tier and use cloud AI (Gemini)

Cloud AI (Gemini):

  • Parallel processing: 10-30 emails at once
  • 0.5-1 second per email
  • Rate limited on Gemini’s free tier
  • Solution: Increase monthly quota in Settings

General:

  • Close other memory-intensive apps
  • Reduce “Max Emails to Fetch” in Settings
  • Process in smaller date ranges

Why are some emails miscategorized?

Common Causes:

  1. Vague category descriptions: Add detailed descriptions in Settings → Categories
  2. Insufficient examples: Manually correct 5-10 emails per category to train the system
  3. Conflicting custom rules: Check Settings → LLM → Global Custom Rules
  4. Wrong model: Some models are better at instruction-following (qwen2.5:7b recommended)

Solutions:

  • Right-click miscategorized emails → Recategorize (InboxZebra learns from this)
  • Add per-account context in Settings → Accounts → (account) → Custom Instructions
  • Use more specific category names (e.g., “Client Projects” instead of “Work”)
  • Try a different model in Settings → LLM

How do I extract logs for troubleshooting?

InboxZebra includes a built-in Diagnostics panel for easy log extraction:

  1. Open InboxZebra → Settings (Cmd+,)
  2. Go to the Diagnostics tab
  3. (Optional) Enable Detailed Logging for more verbose output
  4. Click Extract & Download Logs to save JSON file to your Downloads folder
  5. Attach the downloaded file to your support request

Privacy Modes:

  • Public Logging (default): Standard privacy-focused logging for normal operation. Logs subjects, categories, status codes, and success/failure states.
  • Detailed Logging: When enabled, logs additional diagnostic information for troubleshooting. Includes:
    • LLM: Full prompts sent to the AI, complete responses, and response timing
    • API: Full request URLs, response sizes, pagination details
    • Auth: Token expiry timestamps, refresh duration
    • Email: Additional email-related metadata useful for debugging

When to use Detailed Logging:

  • Troubleshooting categorization issues (see exactly what the AI receives/returns)
  • Debugging API connectivity problems
  • Diagnosing authentication/token refresh issues
  • Providing comprehensive logs to support

Privacy Note: Detailed logs contain more sensitive information. Review exported logs before sharing.

Tip: The Diagnostics panel also shows system information (macOS version, RAM, disk space, Ollama status) which is helpful for troubleshooting.

How do I report a bug?

  1. Extract logs: Use Settings → Diagnostics → Extract & Download Logs (see above)
  2. Collect info:
    • macOS version (shown in Diagnostics panel)
    • InboxZebra version (InboxZebra → About)
    • Steps to reproduce
    • Expected vs actual behavior
    • Log file from Diagnostics panel (JSON format)
  3. Contact support: https://inboxzebra.com/support

Privacy Note: Always review exported log files before sharing. If detailed logging is enabled, logs will contain more sensitive information including prompt contents and API URLs.

Getting Help

Documentation:

Support:

  • Free tier: Community support via documentation
  • Pro tier: Email support (response within 48 hours)
  • Business tier: Priority email support (response within 24 hours)

Contact:

Still have questions? Visit https://inboxzebra.com/support or check our full documentation at https://inboxzebra.com/docs