Message Shield for Email: Setup and Troubleshooting

Availability: Message Shield for Email is available in BestInterest version 3.2 or higher and requires Protect.

Message Shield for Email brings incoming coparent email into your private BestInterest timeline. Message Shield can soften harmful language before you read it, and the imported messages can be organized and searched with your other records. BestInterest does not email your coparent.

Setting up Email Shield requires Protect. If Message Shield for Email does not appear under Settings > Communication Settings, update BestInterest to version 3.2 or higher and reopen Settings.

If Protect later becomes inactive, an enabled Email Shield channel can continue importing original wording without Message Shield filtering. Restore Protect or remove the forwarding rule in your email provider if you do not want unfiltered email imported.

Set up Email Shield

1. Open Settings > Communication Settings > Message Shield for Email.
2. Enter your coparent’s primary email address. Add up to two other addresses your coparent uses.
3. Confirm the email address where your coparent’s messages arrive. BestInterest starts with your account email, but you can replace it with another mailbox.
4. Wait briefly while BestInterest saves each valid field automatically and creates your forwarding address.
5. Tap the bordered forwarding address to copy it.

If the screen says the app cannot display the current consent, update BestInterest before continuing. If the setting is still missing in version 3.2 or higher, contact support.

Verify the email address you forward from

Automatic provider rules do not require this BestInterest verification step. Manual forwarding does.

1. Under Where will you forward messages from?, tap Send Verification Code.
2. Enter the six-digit code sent to that email address and tap Verify. The code expires after 30 minutes.

If you change the forwarding mailbox, wait for the new address to save before requesting a code. Verification applies only to the currently saved mailbox.

Set up Gmail forwarding

1. In Gmail settings, add your private BestInterest address as a forwarding destination.
2. Return to BestInterest and tap Confirm Gmail Forwarding when the button appears. It opens Gmail’s authenticated confirmation page.
3. In Gmail, create a filter for every coparent address you entered in BestInterest and forward matching messages to the private address.

Gmail forwards only new matching messages and excludes messages it classifies as spam. If your coparent starts using another address, add it in both Email Shield and the Gmail filter.

For another email provider, create an equivalent rule that forwards new messages from the configured coparent addresses. You can also forward one message at a time from your currently verified forwarding mailbox.

Check whether forwarding is working

The Email Shield screen shows Waiting for the first forwarded message until one arrives. It changes to A forwarded message has arrived after BestInterest accepts a message.

If a message is missing:

1. Confirm that the original sender address exactly matches one of the coparent addresses saved in Email Shield.
2. Confirm that your provider rule uses the current private forwarding address.
3. Check spam and provider-side forwarding logs. Gmail does not forward spam through a filter.
4. Open Email Shield and review any paused, queued, safety-limit, or unexpected-sender status.
5. Forward a new test message from the configured sender. Adding a rule does not import older email.

Messages stopped by a safety limit are not shown as unfiltered messages. The originals remain in your email account. If the status continues after the displayed reset time, contact support and include the approximate send time and sender domain without copying private message content into the request.

Reset the forwarding address

Tap Reset private email address to invalidate the old address immediately. Update every provider rule with the replacement address.

Imported email remains private to you, including in Collaborative Mode. See Message Shield settings for how filtered and original wording appear in BestInterest.