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When you sign up and create a Freshdesk account, Freshdesk automatically provides an email address in the format support@yourcompany.freshdesk.com. Any emails you receive on this address are automatically converted to tickets in Freshdesk, with the customer as the requester.


In addition to the default email, you can add alternate email addresses. For example, If you already have an email in your company domain like support@yourcompany.com, you can add them as an additional email in Freshdesk. 


Freshdesk lets you add multiple incoming and outgoing email addresses and makes it easy to manage all your support queries from one place. For example, in addition to your support email, you may have a sales contact you want to use for sales queries. Like your primary support email, all emails received in your additional mailboxes will also be automatically converted into tickets. 


To use the alternate emails, you have to forward the emails from your current email address to Freshdesk to capture them as tickets in your account. Each support email added will also be the reply to email for your customers.

Notes:

  1.  Freshdesk converts the emails landing only in the primary folder of your mailbox as tickets.

  2. You can add multiple emails from the Growth plan. However, if you are on the Free plan, you can add only one email.


In this article, you will learn about:

  1. How to add a new support email?
  2. How to verify your email?
  3. How to forward emails from a private inbox to your support portal?
  4. Tips and best practices

How to add a new support Email?

To add an email:

  1. Log in to Freshdesk as an admin.

  2. Go to Admin > Channels > Email.

  3. You can see the default Email address here. This is the same email you see when you sign up for Freshdesk.

  4. Click New support email.

  5. In the Email settings page, enter the following details:

    1. Name: Enter the name of the email. This will be used in the ticket replies.

    2. Your support Email: Enter the support email you want to add. This could be your email in your company domain. For example, support@yourcompany.com. Also, note that this will also be your Reply-to email address.

    3. Assign to group: Select the group/team to which you want to assign the incoming tickets. For example, Billing, Finance, Accounts, etc. Alternatively, you can configure automation rules to automatically route tickets to a specific group.

    4. Link this support email with a product: Select the product to which you want to associate the email address. To add a new product, click add product.

      Note: If you are on the Pro or Enterprise plans, you can set up a multi-product helpdesk and assign a different mailbox to each product. 

  6. Select the Mail server to manage your email transactions. You can choose from the following options:

    1. Custom Mail server: Choose this option to manage all your email transactions outside Freshdesk. You can use public Email systems like Gmail, Microsoft, or your own email servers. Learn more here.

    2. Freshdesk Email server: Choose this option if you want Freshdesk to manage your incoming and outgoing emails.
      As you enter your support email in step 5b, Freshdesk automatically generates a long forwarding address. This is required to set up forward rules in your Email client (for example, Gmail) so that your emails are captured as Freshdesk tickets.

  7. Click Save.

  8. Now, proceed with email verification and forwarding.

How to verify your email?

Based on the mail server and Email client you choose to add your support email, the verification and activation flow differs.


Verify and set up forwarding rules for the Freshdesk mail server

If you choose Freshdesk as the mail server, follow the steps below to verify your email and configure the steps for forwarding.

  1. Go to Admin > Channels > Email.

  2. Click Verify corresponding to the email to be activated. 

  3. Copy the Freshdesk long forwarding address generated for the email.

  4. Proceed with setting up forwarding rules. Based on your Email client, the verification and steps to configure forwarding rules vary. In this article, you will find the steps for Gmail and Microsoft Office 365.

Set up forwarding rule in Gmail

  1. Log in to Gmail, go to Settings > Forwarding and POP / IMAP. 

  2. Click Add a forwarding address in the Gmail Settings page and paste the copied email from Freshdesk as a forwarding address.
    blob1475776838534.png

  3. Click Next and proceed with the forwarding action.

  4. Now go back to the Freshdesk verification page and click Next.

  5. Freshdesk verifies your email by sending a test email to your inbox and checks whether it is created as a ticket. If verified, you will receive an activation code. 

  6. Now, switch to your Gmail settings again, paste the copied verification code, and click Verify.

  7. Next, select Forward a copy of the incoming email to option, and click Save Changes.
    blob1475778950432.png

  8. Once again, go back to Freshdesk and click Next to complete verification.


Set up forwarding rule in Microsoft Office 365

Check this article for verification and setup in Microsoft Office 365.

Verify and set up forwarding rules for custom mail server

If you use a custom email server like Outlook or Gmail, follow the steps below to verify your support email.

  1. Go to Admin > Channels > Email.

  2. Click Verify corresponding to the email address you wish to activate.

  3. You will receive an activation link to your mailbox. Click on the link to activate and verify your email.


Check custom mail server for more details. 


Note: If you do not receive verification emails from Freshdesk:

  1. Check your Spam folder in your Freshdesk account. Your email provider could block or mark the emails as Spam due to email restrictions. 
  2. Try resending the activation code by verifying your mail again.

How to forward emails from a private inbox to your support portal?

Sometimes, your customers may send emails directly to your agents, or you may have a mailbox with emails that you want to convert to support tickets. In this case, you can forward them to your support email. 

Tickets forwarded from a verified agent's email address will be created in the name of the customer who sent the email to the agent. However, when you forward existing emails from a mailbox that is not associated with an agent, the requester will be set to the email address you used to forward the message and the timestamp of the ticket will be the time the email was forwarded.

Note: This feature is currently supported only in the following languages - English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch, and Brazilian Portuguese.


Important:
If you have multiple mailboxes in your Freshdesk account, emails sent from one mailbox integrated with Freshdesk to another will not be converted into a ticket. For example, if you have mailbox A and mailbox B with your Freshdesk account, emails sent from mailbox A to B (or B to A) will not convert as tickets. This is done to prevent email looping.

Tips and best practices

Here are a few tips and best practices that you can follow to ensure that you configure the Email setup correctly:

  1. Ensure that there are no typos when you enter the support Email address.
  2. Ensure that the support email address and the long forwarding address are not the same.
  3. While setting up forwarding rules in your mailbox, ensure to copy-paste the forwarding address generated by Freshdesk as is, or the ticket may not be converted from emails landing in your mailbox. Also, check if you've saved the changes.
  4. Make sure to save changes after adding your SMTP/IMAP details in the custom mailbox configuration option.

Here is a quick video on troubleshooting issues while setting up Email.