# Why can't I find a conversation in the inbox?

> A thread you know exists is not in the inbox: the owner and channel filters, where LinkedIn conversations live, and what the inbox does not hold at all.

**Nearly always a filter rather than a missing message. The inbox filters by owner, by channel and by category at the same time, and each one is applied independently, so a thread can be hidden by a filter you did not set on this visit.**

_Status: Reviewed – written against Reply's product documentation on 2026-09-21, not yet confirmed against the running product._

## Quick fix

1. Clear **every** filter, not just the one you last touched. Owner, channel and category are separate and all apply at once.
2. Set the owner filter to show all members. Set to your own, it hides every colleague's conversation.
3. Check the channel – a LinkedIn conversation does not appear under an email filter.
4. Search by the contact's email address or name rather than scrolling.
5. If it is still missing, open the contact and check its **Activity** tab; that shows what happened even when the inbox does not show the thread.

Didn't work? [Contact Reply support](https://support.reply.io/); the team can check your account directly.

## Symptom

A reply you know arrived, or a conversation a colleague can see, is not in your inbox view.

## Most likely causes

| Cause | How to recognize it |
| --- | --- |
| **The owner filter is set to your own** | You see none of your colleagues' conversations anywhere, not just this one |
| A channel filter is active | Email threads show and LinkedIn ones do not, or the reverse |
| A category filter is active | Only some threads show, and they share a category |
| The reply was never detected | Nothing about it exists in Reply – see [Why was a reply not detected?](/troubleshooting/reply-was-not-detected/) |
| It was classified as automatic | Automatic replies are not displayed by default – see [Why was an automatic reply counted as a reply?](/troubleshooting/automatic-reply-was-counted/) |
| You are in a different workspace | Nothing familiar is there at all – see [Why can't a teammate see a sequence or mailbox?](/troubleshooting/teammate-cannot-see-sequence-or-mailbox/) |
| It is a direct message outside Reply | Reply holds conversations that went through it; a message sent from elsewhere is not there |

## Diagnostic checklist

1. **Clear all filters first.** It costs a moment and removes the most likely explanation before you investigate anything harder.
2. **Search by address rather than browsing.** Search cuts across the view and finds threads a filter is hiding.
3. **Check the contact's Activity tab.** It tells you whether Reply knows about the message at all, which splits a display problem from a detection problem.
4. **Ask a colleague to look.** If they can see it and you cannot, it is owner scope or workspace, not the thread.
5. **Check the channel.** LinkedIn and email conversations are filtered separately and this catches people out regularly.

## Resolution

### A filter is hiding it

Clear the filters and set the owner filter to all members. Filters persist, so a view you narrowed for one task stays narrowed until you widen it again.

### It is on another channel

Switch the channel filter, or clear it. LinkedIn conversations are held separately from email threads.

### The reply was never detected

Work through the reply-detection page. If Reply never saw the message, no inbox setting will show it.

### It was classified as automatic

Automatic replies are hidden by default. Change the handling in **Settings → Emails → Email Safety** to display them.

### You are in the wrong workspace

Switch workspace. A whole inbox that looks unfamiliar is almost always this.

### It happened outside Reply

A message sent directly from your mail client or from LinkedIn does not appear. Only what went through Reply is held here.

## Verification

With every filter cleared, search for the contact and confirm the thread appears. Then re-apply only the filters you actually want, one at a time, so you know which one was hiding it.

## Prevention

- Clear filters when you finish a task rather than leaving a narrowed view in place.
- Use search rather than browsing when you are looking for one specific conversation.
- Agree a team convention on the owner filter, so people are not permanently looking at their own slice by accident.

## FAQ

### Why can a colleague see a thread I cannot?

The owner filter. Set it to show all members.

### Are LinkedIn conversations in the same inbox?

Yes, but they filter separately from email. An email-only filter hides them.

### Why do I not see automatic replies?

They are hidden by default. Change the setting under Settings, Emails, Email Safety to display them.

## Still stuck? Contact Reply support

If these steps didn't solve the problem, the Reply support team can look at your
account directly. Open the [Reply Help Center](https://support.reply.io/) and send
the team a message.

To get an answer faster, include:

- the contact, and roughly when the message arrived
- which filters are set – owner, channel, category
- whether the contact's Activity tab shows the message
- whether a colleague can see it

Don't send passwords, API keys, or access tokens.

## Related

- [Why was a reply not detected?](/troubleshooting/reply-was-not-detected/)
- [Why was an automatic reply counted as a reply?](/troubleshooting/automatic-reply-was-counted/)
- [Why can't a teammate see a sequence or mailbox?](/troubleshooting/teammate-cannot-see-sequence-or-mailbox/)

## Build with Reply

- REST API: [Inbox](https://docs.reply.io/api-reference/introduction) – list threads without the view's filters
- MCP: [docs.reply.io/mcp](https://docs.reply.io/mcp/overview) – find a conversation from an assistant