Frequently asked questions

In the Exchange admin center, open Mail flow and add a connector named something like Databias / Email branding. Choose to use it only when a transport rule redirects messages to it, then route mail through the smart host that Databias support gives you. For validation, use the address support supplies. Then add a mail flow rule that sends the chosen messages to that connector.

Send a test email to support@databias.co.za after finishing the connector and rule. Support will confirm that the message arrived through the branding service.

Yes. Create an inbound connector in the Exchange admin center under Mail flow, connecting from your organization's email server. Set *.databias.co.za as the certificate subject name. Then open your verified domain's Routing tab in Dcentral, activate routing and save. Branded mail is then delivered to recipients by Microsoft 365.

Edit the mail flow rule that points to the Databias connector and add the sender's address as an exception in the rule conditions. Mail from that address then bypasses branding.

In the Admin console, open Gmail routing and add a rule for the sender. Under the route options choose Normal routing, and under the advanced options choose to affect only specific envelope senders. Enter the addresses to exclude.

Yes. Create a rule in Exchange Online or Google Workspace that sends only a specific address through the branding service. Everyone else keeps sending exactly as before, and you widen the rule once you are happy.

Yes. Once the sync is set up, your senders are managed in Microsoft Entra ID and the branding follows. You need global administrator access to your Entra admin center to create the app registration.

Read permissions only. The app registration should have no write permissions. You send Databias the application (client) ID, the client secret and your Microsoft domain (for example yourcompany.onmicrosoft.com) through a secure channel.

Yes. Sender and group sync is available for both Google Workspace and Microsoft Entra ID, so members are assigned and kept up to date automatically.

Sender groups let you organise senders into organisational units, such as departments or offices. You assign signatures and banners to a group the same way you would to an individual sender.

If the sender inherits their branding and belongs to a sender group, the group's rules apply. Branding assigned to the sender directly takes priority over the group's. See the branding inheritance questions below for the full order.

Yes. There is a library of signature templates to start from, and new ones are added every month. You can also create a template from any of your existing signatures.

Inheritance lets you set branding once at a broad level and have everyone beneath it follow it. Instead of configuring each sender, you set the signature or banner on your company, domain or a sender group, and senders pick it up automatically.

It keeps branding consistent and saves administration. New senders are branded the moment they appear, for example through directory sync, without anyone having to set them up, and a change made at one level applies to everyone who inherits it.

Company, domain, recipient, sender group and sender.

The most specific level wins. In order from most to least important: sender, sender group, recipient, domain and then company. A setting on the sender overrides the sender group, which overrides the recipient setting, then the domain, then the company.

Signatures, banners, banner position, embedded or referenced imagery, and clean replies.

Set a default signature at domain (or customer) level so every sender on that domain is branded consistently. Then use sender groups to target banners at specific sets of senders, such as a sales team or a regional office. Override at sender level only for genuine exceptions.

Yes. Assign a signature directly to that sender. Because the sender level is the most specific, it takes priority over the sender group, domain and company settings.

A sender group sits between the sender and the domain. Senders who inherit their branding and belong to a group follow the group's signature and banner rules, and the group overrides the domain and company defaults.

Outlook is sending the message as Rich Text Format. It packs the formatting, inline images and signature into a hidden winmail.dat attachment and leaves a plain text body. Recipients on Gmail, Apple Mail or non-Microsoft servers cannot open it, so the email looks broken.

Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format is the encoding Outlook uses for Rich Text Format messages. Disabling it, and sending in HTML, is the usual fix for missing images and broken signatures.

No. Databias, like most modern mail infrastructure, works with HTML email. Plain text carries no signature or banner formatting, and Rich Text Format is a Microsoft-only format. Set Outlook to send HTML.

Apple Mail on macOS and iOS sends what you compose. If the message body you typed contains no formatting, it decides plain text is enough and may send the message that way even though a rich signature is attached.

You add a single dash to the top of the signature in Apple Mail, make it bold and set its colour to white. That one piece of real formatting makes Mail treat every message as HTML, and the dash is invisible on a white background.

Sender Policy Framework is a DNS TXT record listing the servers allowed to send email for your domain. Receiving servers check it to tell whether a message came from an authorised sender, which helps stop spoofing.

DomainKeys Identified Mail adds a digital signature to each outgoing message. The recipient's server looks up your public key, published as a DNS TXT record, to check that the content was not altered in transit.

Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance is a policy you publish for your domain. It says what receivers should do when SPF or DKIM checks fail, and it provides reports back to you about those failures.

They are TXT records in your domain's DNS zone. If Databias hosts your DNS, you can view and edit them in the app.

Yes. Databias can help you set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC records to protect your domain and improve deliverability. Email support@databias.co.za to get started.