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When you sign up for a Freshdesk account, you will get 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. 


You can also add multiple email addresses, 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 Freshdesk to capture them as tickets in your account. Each support email added becomes the reply-to address for customers.


User Requirements: Ensure that you have admin access to set up and configure Email. 


Notes: 
  • Freshdesk converts the emails landing only in the primary folder of your mailbox as tickets.
  • You can add multiple emails from the Growth plan. However, if you are on the Free plan, you can add only one Email.


This article contains the following sections:


How to add a new support email?

To add an email:

  1. Log in as an admin. 

  2. Go to Admin > Channels > Email.

  3. You can see the default Email address here. This is the same email that was used when you signed up for Freshdesk.



  4. Click New support email.

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

    1. Name: Enter the email name used in ticket replies.

    2. Your support Email: Add the support email (e.g., support@yourcompany.com), also serving as your Reply-to 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: Associate the email with a product. You can also add a new product if needed.

      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: Manage all your email transactions outside Freshdesk using public domains such as Gmail.com, yahoo.com, or self-hosted email servers. Learn more here.

    2. Freshdesk Email server: Allow Freshdesk to handle incoming and outgoing emails with domains like <yourcompany.com> for example, freshdesk.com.


  7. When you enter the support email address, Freshdesk generates a forwarding address for setting up forward rules in your Email client (for example, Gmail) to capture emails as Freshdesk tickets.

  8. Click Save.

  9. Proceed with forwarding and email verification.


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 below.

  5. Once the email set up with Freshdesk mail server is complete, make sure you set up DKIM for improving email deliverability.


Set up forwarding rules 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.
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  8. You can choose from the following options based on your requirements:
    Keep Gmail’s copy in the Inbox - the mails will remain unread once forwarded

    Mark Gmail’s copy as read - the mails will be marked read once forwarded

    Archive Gmail’s copy - the mails will be archived once forwarded

    Delete Gmail’s copy - the mails will be moved to Trash once forwarded

  9. Go back to Freshdesk again and click Next to complete verification.


Set up forwarding rules 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 for the email address you want to activate.

  3. Check your mailbox for the activation link and click to verify your email.

  4. For more details, refer to your custom mail server settings.

  5. 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 folder in your Freshdesk account. Your email provider could have blocked or marked the emails as Spam due to email restrictions. 
  • Try resending the activation mail by verifying your mail again.



How to forward emails from other/agent's 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. Avoid typos in the support email address.
  2. Ensure the support email and forwarding address are different when setting up forwarding.
  3. Copy-paste the forwarding address correctly when setting up rules in your mailbox.
  4. Make sure you save the changes after adding SMTP/IMAP details in the custom mailbox configuration.
  5. Make sure you have set up DKIM once the email is successfully verified using the Freshdesk mail server.

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



Frequently asked questions


Can I disable automatic ticket creation when a customer sends email to my support email address?

Disabling the automatic ticket creation from the support email address may not be feasible. Removing the email configuration entirely would impede all incoming email responses, hindering their integration with the helpdesk system, creating issues with email threading


Is it possible to trace/check the logs for the emails sent from my Freshdesk?

Currently, it is not possible to check the logs for emails sent from FD via the UI. However, you can reach out to our support to check the logs.


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 are using the From and To email addresses configured as support emails, the ticket will not be created. Make sure you test with a different 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. Here 'admin@testkanha2.onmicrosoft.com' is the email address of the user who has access to the shared mailbox. The email '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 typically forwards emails sent to the group to the specified forwarding address.

  1. Create a guest user on Azure with the forwarding address from Freshdesk <yourcompanycomsupport@yourcompany.freshdesk.com>
  2. Invite this user into the GROUP or in the shared mailbox


I was using Gmail as a custom mail server initially. However the connection with Freshdesk was lost and if I re-connect, will there be any duplicate tickets and how to avoid it?

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 did not receive verification email. What could be the reason?

The verification email could be blocked/queued at the user's end. It is advisable to reach out to our support when you do not receive a verification email on the second attempt.


I have saved my email configuration with O365. But I see authentication error. What should I do?

Try clearing cache/cookies of the browser and try again. If it doesn't try using an Incognito window. If it does not authenticate and a specific error appears on the screen, kindly reach out to our support.