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Once you sign up, you will get an email address in the format support@yourcompany.freshdesk.com (also known as a wildcard support address, for example, support@acme-tech.freshdesk.com) by default to handle your support operations via Email. Any emails you receive on this address are automatically converted to tickets with the customer as the requester.
You can also add multiple support email addresses of your email domain, such as support1@yourcompany.com, support2@yourcompany.com, etc for incoming and outgoing communications, streamlining support operations. For example, each department/team in your company can have different email addresses that can be configured with Freshdesk to handle support.
To use the alternate emails, you have to forward the emails from your current email address to capture them as tickets in your account. Each email added becomes the reply-to address for customers.
User Requirements: Ensure that you have an administrator role to set up and configure Email for your account.
Notes:
- We recommend you to use a support email of your email domain to avoid any issues with ticket creation.
- Only the emails received on primary folder of your support mailbox will be converted as tickets.
- You can add multiple support emails from the Growth plan. However, if you are on the Free plan, you can add only one email.
This article contains:
How to add a new support email?
To add a support email:
Log in as an administrator.
Go to Admin > Channels > Email.
You can see the default support email address here. This is the same email that was given when you signed up.
Click the New support email option.
In the Email settings page, enter the following details:
Name: Enter the email name used in ticket replies.
Your support Email: Add the support email (for example, support@acme-tech.com), which also serves as your Reply-to address.
Assign to group: Select the group (department/team) to which you want to assign the incoming tickets when addressed to this support email. For example, Billing, Customer Support, Accounts, etc. Alternatively, you can configure automation rules to automatically route tickets to a specific group.
Link this support email with a product: Associate the email with a product. You can also add a new product under Admin > Support operations > Multiple products if needed.
Note: If you are on the Pro/Estate or Enterprise/Forest plans, you can set up multiple products and assign a different support mailbox to each product.
Select the Mail server to manage your email transactions (incoming and outgoing). You can choose from the following options:
Custom Mail server: Manage all your email transactions outside Freshdesk using public domains such as Gmail.com, Yahoo.com, or self-hosted email servers. Learn more here.
Freshdesk Email server: Allow Freshdesk to handle incoming and outgoing emails with private domains like <yourcompany.com> for example, acme-tech.com.
When you enter the support email address in Your support Email section, a long forwarding address will be automatically generated for setting up forwarding rules in your support mailbox (for example, Gmail) to forward emails as tickets in your Freshdesk account and hence cannot be edited.
Click Save.
Proceed with email forwarding and support email verification.
Setting up a primary email address
When you have multiple support emails, you can mark a specific email as the global primary support email.
To do this, click on the star icon next to the support Email. The reply emails from Freshdesk will automatically use this primary support email when tickets are created through channels other than Email.
Similarly, when you have multiple product-specific support emails configured, you can mark a specific product support email as primary, and this support email will be used for emails sent on other channel-sourced tickets.
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 your mail server option, you must complete the DKIM configuration to successfully verify your email. Once you have finished configuring DKIM, follow the steps below to verify your support email and configure the steps for email forwarding in your support mailbox settings.
Go to Admin > Channels > Email.
Click Verify corresponding to the support email to be activated.
Copy the Freshdesk long forwarding address generated for the support email.
Proceed with setting up forwarding rules in your support mailbox settings. Based on your Email client, the verification and steps to configure the forwarding rule vary. In this article, you will find the steps for Gmail and Microsoft Office 365 below.
Once the support email setup with the Freshdesk mail server is complete, make sure you set up DKIM for improving email deliverability.
Set up forwarding rules in Gmail
Log in to the Gmail account of your support email, go to Settings > Forwarding and POP / IMAP.
Click Add a forwarding address in the Gmail Settings page and paste the copied email from Freshdesk as a forwarding address.
Click Next and proceed with the forwarding action.
A Gmail forwarding confirmation link will be sent to the forwarding address to verify the forwarding rule added to your support mailbox settings. This would be created as a ticket in your account, navigate back to Freshdesk > Ticket list view > Click on the specific ticket and confirm the forwarding verification request using the link.
Now, switch to your Gmail settings again, select Forward a copy of the incoming email to option, and click Save Changes.
You can choose from the following options based on your requirements:
Keep Gmail’s copy in the Inbox - The emails will remain unread once forwardedMark Gmail’s copy as read - The emails will be marked read once forwarded
Archive Gmail’s copy - The emails will be archived once forwarded
Delete Gmail’s copy - The emails will be moved to Trash once forwarded
- Once the forwarding rule is successfully added and verified in the support mailbox, navigate back to the support email verification page under Freshdesk Admin > Emails and click Next.
- You will receive a Freshdesk test mail to your support mailbox with the subject line, Woohoo.. Your Freshdesk test email from rachel@freshdesk.com to verify the support email.
- Check if this test email is converted as a ticket in your Freshdesk account. If so, the support email will be successfully verified in your Freshdesk account.
To ensure only relevant emails from Gmail are processed as tickets in your account while keeping your inbox organized, follow the steps below:
- Create a Filter: Go to Settings > Filters and Blocked Addresses > Create a new filter.
- Set Criteria: Define criteria like specific keywords, email addresses, or domains.
- Choose Action: Select "Apply the label" and create a label like "Support Tickets".
Set up forwarding rules in Microsoft Office 365
Check this article for support email verification and setup in Microsoft Office 365.
To ensure only relevant emails from O365 are processed as tickets in your account while keeping your inbox organized, follow the steps below:
- Create a Rule: Go to Home > Rules > Manage Rules & Alerts > New Rule.
- Set Conditions: Choose "Apply rule on messages I receive" and click Next. Define conditions such as specific words in the subject or sender's address.
- Choose Actions: Select "move it to the specified folder" and choose the appropriate folder where support emails should be moved. Click Finish and Apply the rule.
Verify the support email for the custom mail server configuration
If you use a custom email server like Outlook or Gmail, follow the steps below to verify your support email post authenticating your mail servers.
Go to Admin > Channels > Email.
Click Verify for the support email address you want to activate.
Check your support mailbox for the email activation link and click on the same to verify your email.
For more details, refer to your custom mail server settings.
DKIM configuration is considered less important for a custom mail server because administrators have direct control, it may be used for internal communication, external validation needs are reduced, and its implementation depends on the organization's security requirements.
Notes: If you do not receive verification emails from Freshdesk, try the following steps:
- Check your Spam and Trash folder in your support mailbox. Your email provider could have blocked or marked the emails as spam due to email restrictions.
- Try resending the email activation mail by clicking the 'Verify' button for your support email again. If you still do not receive the verification email, contact support@freshdesk.com.
How to delete a support email?
Go to Admin > Emails and click the 'Delete' button next to the specific support email. Please make sure to delete the forwarding rule from the support mailbox settings when using Freshdesk Mail Server.
To delete a primary support email (indicated by golden star
)
- Global primary support email - Add another support email that is not associated with any multiple products and then mark the newly added support email as the primary by clicking the star next to it. You can now delete the required support email.
- Product primary support email
- Go to Admin > Support operations > Products and click Edit next to specific product > Add another email > Enter a new support email and mark it as primary support email.
- Now, you can remove the previous support email.
Note: Make sure to remove the forwarding rule setup in the support mailbox settings when you delete the support email in Freshdesk (for the Freshdesk Mail Server option only).
How to forward emails from other/agent's inbox to your support portal?
Note: This feature is currently supported only in the following languages - English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch, and Brazilian Portuguese.
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 from the respective mailboxes.
If you enable the For forwarded emails, use original sender as requester option under Advanced Settings, emails forwarded from a verified agent's email address will be created in the name of the customer (original sender) 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.
Important: If you have multiple support emails configured in your account, emails sent from one support mailbox to another will not be converted into a ticket. For example, if you have support email A and support email B associated with your Freshdesk account, emails sent from support email A to B (or B to A) will not convert as tickets. This is done to prevent email looping.
In case you would like to customize this behavior, please drop an email to support@freshdesk.com.
Tips and best practices
Here are a few tips and best practices that you can follow to ensure that you configure the Support Email setup accurately:
- Avoid typos in the support email address.
- Ensure the support email and forwarding address are different when setting up forwarding.
- Copy-paste the forwarding address correctly when setting up forwarding rules in your support mailbox.
- Make sure IMAP is enabled in your support mailbox forwarding settings when using Freshdesk mail server.
- Make sure you save the changes after adding SMTP/IMAP details in the custom mailbox configuration.
Make sure you have set up DKIM once the support email is successfully verified using the Freshdesk mail server.
Here is a quick video on troubleshooting issues while setting up Support Email.
FAQs
- Can I disable automatic ticket creation when a customer sends an email to my support email address?
We do not recommend disabling the automatic ticket creation from the support email address unless you have valid requirements. Removing the support email configuration impacts all the incoming email responses, and restricts their integration with your account, leading to email threading issues.
However, if you need to temporarily disable automatic ticket creation, you can disable IMAP in the support mailbox forward setting while using the Freshdesk Mail Server. Please note that no new tickets or incoming email responses will be created/appended to existing tickets unless the IMAP is enabled again. Also, you have to manually forward the emails from your support mailbox to record them in your account during this time. - Is it possible to trace/check the logs for the outgoing emails sent from my Freshdesk?
Currently, it is not possible to check the logs for outgoing emails sent from Freshdesk via the UI. However, you can contact support@freshdesk.com for this request. - I am testing the ticket creation after setting up my support email configuration. It looks like the ticket is not created. What could be the reason?
If you use the same From and To email addresses configured as support emails, the ticket will not be created. Make sure you test with a different email as To email. - How to add a shared mailbox with Freshdesk?
Shared mailbox is supported in IMAP and SMTP. Ensure that the email address is in the following format admin@testkanha2.onmicrosoft.com\imap@testkanha2.onmicrosoft.com (or) admin@testkanha2.onmicrosoft.com\imap.
'admin@testkanha2.onmicrosoft.com' : is the email address of the user who has access to the shared mailbox. 'imap@testkanha2.onmicrosoft.com' / 'imap' : is the email address/username of the shared mailbox. - How to add a shared mailbox in Azure?
In an Azure group email setup, if one of the emails in the group is a forwarding address, the system forwards emails sent to the group to the specified forwarding address.- Create a guest user on Azure with the forwarding address from Freshdesk <yourcompanycomsupport@yourcompany.freshdesk.com>
- Invite this user into the GROUP or in the shared mailbox
- I initially used Gmail as a custom mail server. However, the connection with Freshdesk was lost. If I re-connect, will there be duplicate tickets, and how can I avoid them?
By default, Freshdesk fetches emails from the connected inbox for the past 2-3 days (48-72 hours). This retrieval leads to a substantial number of emails being imported into Freshdesk. To prevent importing all historical emails, you can delete the tickets that were initially created during the Gmail connection. - I have saved my email configuration with my O365/Gmail account. But I see an authentication error and can't save the changes. What should I do?
- Clear the browser cache/cookies or use an incognito window and reauthorize the custom mailbox of your support email.
- Recheck the mailbox credentials used and if the IMAP and SMTP of your support mailbox have been enabled. Most newer Office 365 tenants have SMTP authentication disabled by default at the tenant level to enhance security.
If required, you can enable it for individual mailboxes. It takes about 30 minutes for the changes to take effect. For more details, refer to the Microsoft Learn documentation. (TECHCOMMUNITY.MICROSOFT.COM). If it does not authenticate and a specific error still appears on the screen, kindly reach out to support@freshdesk.com.
- I get an 'Something went wrong' error while trying to verify my support email. I set up the forwarding rule already and emails are coming in as tickets. How can I resolve this?
To verify your support email address, the forwarding rule must be set up in the support mailbox settings. Post this, you will receive Freshdesk test mail from rachel@freshdesk.com to your mailbox which will in turn be created as a ticket if the forwarding setup is correct and verify the support email.
Kindly recheck if the forwarding rule is correctly added to the support mailbox, the support email is added without any typos under Admin > Emails in your Freshdesk account. If the setup is right, check if you received the Test email to your Freshdesk account as a ticket. You can also check the spam and trash folder to see if the test email landed there.
If you did not receive the test email to your Freshdesk account as a ticket but received it in the support mailbox, please contact support@freshdesk.com. - When we forwarded an email to our Freshdesk email inbox it has been added as a note rather than creating a ticket. Why does this happen?
For every incoming email, Freshdesk checks 3 email markers to understand whether the email is a reply to an already-existing ticket. If the email is identified as a reply, Freshdesk performs additional sender email checks to make sure it's not spam and appends the email as a note to an existing ticket. Learn more here. - How can I check my forwarding rule settings and email settings for my support email?
To check the forwarding rule settings of your support email, go to your support mailbox account and click on the forward settings. You can reach out to your IT team to locate the forward rule based on your email service provider.
To check the email settings of your support email, go to your Freshdesk account > Admin > Emails > Edit next to a specific support email and check your current configuration. - I recently added a support email and set group assignment as Billing but when tickets come in, they are assigned to different groups. Why is this happening?
There could be multiple reasons why the tickets are assigned to an irrelevant group:- Support email is unverified: If the newly added support email is not yet verified, the group ticket assignment will not work as expected.
- Forwarding rule is not added correctly: If another support email's forwarding rule is added as the new support email's forwarding rule in the mailbox settings, the group ticket assignment will happen based on the other support email's group configuration only.
- Automation rule configured to assign tickets to a group: Check the ticket show activities to see if there are any existing automation rules to assign tickets to groups and modify the rules.
- I see all emails are converted as tickets but I do not want some emails to be created as tickets. Is there an option to control ticket creation for emails?
Once the support email is set up, all emails reaching your primary folder will be automatically created as tickets in Freshdesk. To restrict ticket creation for certain emails, you can set up a filter in your support mailbox level to move such emails to another folder. Alternatively, you can set up ticket creation automation to automatically delete/spam tickets based on certain conditions. - I clicked 'Verify' for the support email from the Product I configured, but I did not get any verification email.
Go to Admin > Emails > Click the 'Verify' button next to the specific product support email. When using the Freshdesk Mail Server, follow the steps guided to set up the forwarding rule in the mailbox settings and verify the support email in your account post receiving the Freshdesk test email. If you use the Custom Mail Server option, you will receive an activation link in your support mailbox to verify your support email. - Hi, how do I set my email address to be shown as from email when I reply to a ticket?
By default, the primary support email address indicated by golden star will be the From email address when replying to a ticket. If you have more than one support email, you can use the Customize From Email address app. For more details, check here. - I see a banner "Ensure your emails are delivered successfully by configuring DKIM. Configure now." What should I do now?
We have mandated the DKIM verification to avoid any email delivery issues if the Freshdesk mail server is used. Please follow the instructions here to verify DKIM.
