The universal inbox is not synced on a fixed schedule in the background. While you have Winnr open in a visible browser tab, it syncs your mailboxes when you arrive and then at most every 15 minutes. Clicking Refresh on the Inbox page syncs immediately. The Inbox page itself checks for newly synced mail every 30 seconds. If nobody has Winnr open, new mail waits in the mailboxes and is picked up on the next sync; nothing is lost. API integrations trigger a sync when they read the inbox, at most once every 10 minutes.
When the universal inbox syncs
- While Winnr is open. With Winnr open in a visible browser tab (any page, not just Inbox), the app syncs your mailboxes when you arrive and then at most every 15 minutes. It stops while the tab is hidden and resumes when you come back.
- When you click Refresh. On the Inbox page, Refresh syncs every mailbox right away.
- When an API integration reads the inbox. At most once every 10 minutes per account.
- For webhook subscribers. Accounts with an active
email.receivedwebhook are synced about every 15 minutes, even with nobody logged in.
Separately, the Inbox page re-reads the already-synced messages every 30 seconds while it's visible, so mail that a sync has just picked up appears without you reloading. (This pauses while you have a Mailbox, Date or Attachment filter applied; click Refresh instead.)
What a sync covers
- First sync after enabling: the last 7 days of mail from every mailbox.
- Every sync after that: everything that arrived since that mailbox's previous sync.
- Warmup mail is filtered out.
- Retention: messages drop out of Winnr's inbox view 30 days after they were received. The copies in the mailboxes themselves aren't affected.
- Changes you make in the Inbox (delete, mark read or unread) are applied to the mailbox itself straight away.
Other things that refresh on their own schedule
- Warming metrics: refreshed automatically every few hours, and whenever you open the Warming page or click its Refresh button.
- DNS health checks: run on their own periodic schedule, not tied to inbox sync.
Cost
Syncing is included in your plan. There's no per-sync fee and no bandwidth charge.
What's next
Frequently asked questions
Can I force an immediate sync?
Yes. Click Refresh at the top of the Inbox thread list. Winnr syncs every mailbox and reloads the list a few seconds later. On large accounts the sync can take a few minutes to finish, so click Refresh again if a message you expect hasn't appeared yet. You can also ask the Winnr Agent to refresh the inbox.
Does it sync when I don't have Winnr open?
No, not for the dashboard. Syncing happens while you have Winnr open, when you click Refresh, or when an API integration reads the inbox. When you come back, the first sync catches up on everything that arrived while you were away.
Are messages ever missed?
No. Each sync picks up every message that arrived in a mailbox since its last sync, however long ago that was. You may see a delay, but nothing is skipped. The only exception is warmup mail, which is hidden on purpose.
Is the 15-minute interval configurable?
No. It keeps the load on your mailboxes reasonable. Use Refresh whenever you want the latest mail.
Why doesn't the Inbox update in real time?
Winnr checks mailboxes in batches rather than holding a live connection to every one. If you need instant reply detection, most sequencers track replies in real time on their side, and Winnr's `email.received` webhook notifies your own systems when new mail is synced.
How does sync work for the API?
Reading the inbox with `GET /v1/inbox` with an API token triggers a background sync at most once every 10 minutes per account, so a polling integration stays current on its own. `POST /v1/inbox/refresh` triggers one on demand. Accounts with an active `email.received` webhook are also synced automatically about every 15 minutes. See the [API docs](https://app.winnr.app/docs).