Email-to-2Do

Email-to-2Do is an add-on built into 2Do for iOS that connects directly to your email account using IMAP. There's no third-party service to sign up for, no special @2doapp.com address — 2Do reads from your account and turns matching emails into tasks based on rules you configure.

Google email accounts

Google email accounts require a separate approval process and are unavailable in Email-to-2Do. We're working on improving provider support in future versions.

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Email-to-2Do is an iOS-only feature, available as a one-time in-app purchase. It is not part of 2Do for Mac or 2Do for Android.

How It Works

Email-to-2Do connects to your email account directly and discreetly from within 2Do — no third-party integration, service, or subscription is required. Most non-Google IMAP accounts are supported.

The add-on includes support for up to two email accounts. If you need a third account, 2Do offers that as an additional one-time purchase where available.

2Do watches incoming email in the account's INBOX. It does not watch All Mail, archived mail, sent mail, or a custom folder. When a message matches one of your capture rules, 2Do creates a task with:

• The email's subject as the task title.
• The email's body as the task notes (enabled by default).
• Optional sender details in the notes.
• A URL action linking back to the original email (enabled by default).
• Image attachments, when image capture is enabled for the account.

Captured emails land in 2Do's special Inbox list unless the subject tells 2Do to use a different existing list. They're then ready for triage, just like tasks captured through Quick Add or the Share Extension.

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Email-to-2Do uses the special Inbox list as its catch-all destination. If Inbox isn't already enabled, 2Do creates it for you when the add-on is set up.

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The URL action opens the original message through Mail when iOS and the mail account can resolve that message link. Some providers or account setups may not support this.

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Avoid configuring the same email account on more than one device. If two devices watch the same mailbox, they may both try to capture the same message. Set up Email-to-2Do on a single iPhone or iPad, and let regular 2Do sync deliver the captured tasks to your other devices.

IMAP Extensions

Email-to-2Do requires an IMAP account. POP / POP3 accounts are not supported because POP is designed for basic mail download and does not provide the same mailbox-change information 2Do needs for rule-based capture.

The add-on uses two IMAP extensions to keep things efficient:

• IDLE — for spontaneous detection of changes when 2Do is in the foreground.
• CONDSTORE — Conditional Store, used to sync new changes across the account's history of emails.

For servers that don't support CONDSTORE, 2Do tracks the 100 or so most recent emails received once it has been set up.

When an account supports CONDSTORE, the account settings may show a Use CONDSTORE Extension switch. Leave this on unless support asks you to turn it off while troubleshooting a server-specific issue.

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Server support varies. If your server does not support CONDSTORE and you flag an older message after many newer emails have arrived, 2Do may not see that older message. Subject, sender, recipient, and "capture all incoming emails" rules are usually more predictable on servers with limited flag support.

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Some servers do not support IDLE. When IDLE is unavailable, 2Do checks periodically instead of receiving foreground changes immediately.

Supported Email Providers

Most IMAP-capable accounts work. The ones officially supported are:

• iCloud Mail (an Apple ID app-specific password is required when two-factor authentication is on).
• Outlook / Office 365 (when IMAP is enabled).
• Fastmail and other IMAP providers.
• Self-hosted / corporate IMAP servers.

Google email accounts require a separate approval process and are unavailable in Email-to-2Do.

Setup

1. Open Settings > Email to 2Do in 2Do for iOS.
2. Tap Add Account and choose your provider.
3. Sign in and grant 2Do access to read matching mail, and to update read or flag state when those options are enabled.
4. Open the account and configure what should be captured.

A 14-day trial lets you confirm the add-on fits your workflow before purchasing. The trial begins when you start using it, and can only be used once per iCloud account.

If your provider isn't listed, choose Other and enter the IMAP server details manually. iCloud Mail requires an app-specific password when two-factor authentication is enabled on your Apple ID. Outlook / Office 365 works as long as IMAP access is available for that account.

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Corporate and school accounts sometimes disable IMAP. If sign-in succeeds in Mail but not in Email-to-2Do, confirm with the account administrator that IMAP access is enabled for third-party mail clients.

Account Settings

Open Settings > Email to 2Do, then tap an account. From there you can:

• Pause or resume capture for that account.
• Edit account login and server settings.
• Open Rules to decide which emails become tasks.
• Choose tags that are automatically applied to every captured task.
• Save the email body as task notes.
• Include sender details in the notes.
• Capture image attachments.
• Add a URL action back to the original email.
• Mark captured emails as read.
• Remove the flag after capture.
• Review server options such as Use CONDSTORE Extension, when supported by that account.

From the main Email to 2Do screen, you can also choose the fetch frequency used when background fetching is needed.

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If you use a dedicated mailbox just for task capture, turn on Capture All Incoming Emails. If you use your everyday email account, keep rules narrow — for example, capture messages whose subject begins with todo: or messages sent to a special alias.

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Email-to-2Do only watches the account's Inbox. If you want to capture messages that arrive elsewhere, use your mail provider's rules to move or copy matching messages into the Inbox, or use a dedicated capture mailbox.

Capture Rules

Each account has its own set of rules. Out of the box, 2Do can capture emails that are flagged, marked important, or whose subject line begins with todo: — and you can adjust this to suit your own workflow.

Rules can match:

• All incoming emails.
• Flagged emails.
• Emails marked important by your mail provider.
• A subject that begins with text you choose, such as todo:.
• A sender address containing specific text.
• A recipient address containing specific text — useful when you forward or alias mail to a capture address.
• Regular expressions for subject, sender, or recipient matching.

You can also choose whether all selected conditions must match, or whether any selected condition is enough.

When a message matches, 2Do creates a task; otherwise, the email is left alone.

If Capture All Incoming Emails is off and no rule is enabled, 2Do has nothing to match and will not capture any messages.

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Some servers handle flags and importance differently. If flagged emails aren't being captured, try matching on important emails, subject text, sender text, or recipient text instead.

Self-Emailing with Subject Keywords

When you email yourself a task, the subject can include small instructions in parentheses. 2Do removes those instructions from the final task title and applies them to the captured task.

Keyword	What it does	Example
start(...)	Sets a start date	start(today) or start(02-05-26 9am)
due(...)	Sets a due date, and a due time when one is included	due(tomorrow)
priority(!)	Sets low priority	priority(!)
priority(!!)	Sets medium priority	priority(!!)
priority(!!!)	Sets high priority	priority(!!!)
list(...)	Places the task in an existing list	list(Work)
tag(...)	Adds one or more tags	tag(home, diy)
action(type, value)	Adds an Action	action(call, 0793273373)
action(type)	Adds an Action with no value yet	action(call)

Supported action types are call, message, url, visit, and google. The mail keyword is treated the same as message.

Dates can use natural words such as today and tomorrow, or a typed date and time. Keep the instruction inside parentheses so 2Do can remove it from the task title after capture.

Examples:

todo: Fix the blinking bulb list(Home) tag(diy)

todo: Prepare report start(today) due(tomorrow) priority(!!!) list(Work) tag(report, urgent)

todo: Checkout website action(url, https://www.2doapp.com)

If the named list doesn't exist, 2Do saves the task in Inbox. If a tag doesn't exist yet, 2Do can create it for you.

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You can dictate an email with Siri and send it to the mailbox watched by Email-to-2Do. The next capture pass turns it into a task.

Capturing Checklists

Email-to-2Do can turn a deliberately formatted numbered email into a checklist.

Use the email subject for the checklist title, then write the body as a simple numbered list:

1. Call printer
2. Confirm paper delivery
3. Send final invoice

Start the body with 1. and number each item in order. Keep the body focused on the checklist — extra text before or between the numbered lines can prevent 2Do from recognizing it as a checklist. Common signature text at the end is ignored where possible.

Do not use your mail app's automatic numbered-list formatting for this. Type the numbers yourself so the message body contains plain numbered lines.

Pipelines: IFTTT, Zapier, Filters

Anywhere you can route email — IFTTT, Zapier, automation rules in your mail client, RSS-to-email gateways, calendar invites — you've got a way to feed Email-to-2Do. The add-on just sees email; how it got there doesn't matter.

For example, you can:

• Forward starred messages from another service.
• Use a mail rule to add todo: to matching subjects.
• Send messages from an automation tool to a dedicated address.
• Ask another person to send tasks to a dedicated capture mailbox.

Privacy

• Your email credentials are stored locally in 2Do's keychain and are not sent to Beehive Innovations.
• IMAP traffic flows directly between your device and your mail provider. Use TLS / SSL or STARTTLS where your mail server supports it.
• 2Do reads from your inbox; it does not send or delete mail.
• 2Do can mark captured messages as read or remove their flag when those account options are enabled.
• Captured email messages are not stored as email inside 2Do. 2Do creates tasks from the selected message details.

Troubleshooting

If emails aren't appearing:

• Confirm the account supports IMAP and that IMAP is enabled.
• Confirm the message is in the account's Inbox, not a custom folder, archive, sent mail, or All Mail view.
• Confirm you're not using a Google email account; these require separate approval and aren't supported in Email-to-2Do.
• Make sure the account isn't paused in Email-to-2Do.
• Review your rules — if no condition matches, nothing is captured.
• If you rely on flags and your server doesn't expose flags correctly, try using important, subject, sender, or recipient rules instead.
• Keep 2Do installed and able to run in the background. iOS ultimately decides when background fetches occur, so capture may not be immediate.
• Open 2Do or run sync manually if you want to force a fresh check.
• Only turn on account logging while troubleshooting with support, then send diagnostics from Settings > Advanced > Email Diagnostic Report.

What Carries Over via Sync

If you sync 2Do with a Mac through Dropbox, CalDAV, or iCloud CalDAV, tasks captured by Email-to-2Do on iOS sync down to the Mac like any other task. The add-on itself only runs on iOS, but the tasks it creates are fully cross-platform.