# Any way to check for the absence of an expected email?

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/any-way-to-check-for-the-absence-of-an-expected-email/53603>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [11 November 2021 22:47 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/any-way-to-check-for-the-absence-of-an-expected-email/53603 "2021-11-11T22:47:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![theloneranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@theloneranger](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/theloneranger)\
**Post date:** [11 November 2021 22:47 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/any-way-to-check-for-the-absence-of-an-expected-email/53603/1 "2021-11-11T22:47:06Z")

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Every X days I receive a task result from a system by email. If a system is not working properly, for example if email stops working, if it has network issues, whatever reason, then I won't receive the email. The absence of the email itself is an indicator of an issue, and I'd like it to be a trigger to send me a notification.

node-red-node-email triggers messages when it finds an unseen email, so doesn't work here.

I looked at the other packages with "email" in the title and none seem to act in a way that lets you download the last X days from an inbox.

Would this require writing my own node using nodemailer?

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**Author:** ![E1cid](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/e1cid/32/77971_2.png) [@E1cid](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/E1cid)\
**Post date:** [11 November 2021 22:53 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/any-way-to-check-for-the-absence-of-an-expected-email/53603/2 "2021-11-11T22:53:34Z")

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Every time you receive the email store a timestamp, then using a timer node check daily hourly or what ever, that the timestamp is less than X days ago.

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**Author:** ![theloneranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@theloneranger](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/theloneranger)\
**Post date:** [12 November 2021 20:50 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/any-way-to-check-for-the-absence-of-an-expected-email/53603/3 "2021-11-12T20:50:24Z")

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That's a great idea, thanks. I need to change my way of thinking and adapt to NodeRed. I was considering the inbox to be the source of truth, and not thinking of NodeRed tracking things.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/1X/d073cd938eafa2e558d7c2cd59003b3ef4963033.png) [@system](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [11 January 2022 20:50 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/any-way-to-check-for-the-absence-of-an-expected-email/53603/4 "2022-01-11T20:50:26Z")

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