This article includes:

Overview of custom Email servers

When you sign up for a Freshdesk account, you will receive 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 at 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 for incoming and outgoing communications.

In addition to the default Freshdesk mail server, you can also set up additional emails and choose public email servers like Gmail and Microsoft Office 365 or your own custom email server to manage your email transactions.

Note: When you set up a custom mailbox, the last day's emails in the mailbox (both read and unread emails) from the Inbox will be fetched and created as tickets in Freshdesk.

Setting up emails via custom email servers

To add a support email via a custom mail server:

1. Log in as an administrator.
2. Go to Admin > Channels > Email.
3. Click New support email.
4. In the Email settings page, enter the following details:
   
   • Name: Enter the name of the support email. This will be used in the ticket replies sent from your account.
   • Your support email: Enter the support email you want to add. This could be an email of your company domain. For example, support@yourcompany.com. Also, note that this will also be your Reply-to email address.
   • Assign to group: Select the group/team to which you want to assign the incoming tickets reaching this support email. For example, Billing, Finance, Accounts, etc. Alternatively, you can configure automation rules to automatically route tickets to a specific group.
   • Link this support email with a product: Select the product to which you want to associate the support 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 support mailbox to each product.
5. Under the Email Server section, choose Custom Mail Server. You can use public Email systems like Gmail, Microsoft, or your email servers in this case. 

Using Gmail Server or Microsoft Office 365

If you use Gmail or Microsoft Office 365, click on the Sign in option and proceed with the further steps. For example, if you choose Gmail, click Sign in with Google and you will be redirected to your Gmail account, where you can enter your credentials and proceed with verification and authentication. 

Note: If you are logged in to your personal Outlook or Gmail account with SSO and use the Sign In option, the authentication will be done on your personal credentials. To avoid this, ensure to complete the authentication in an incognito/guest browser.

Using other custom mail servers

You can also choose other custom servers to manage your email transactions for incoming, outgoing, or both.

Setting up incoming mail settings

1. Under Email server, choose Custom mail server and then select Other.
2. Under Use Email server for, select Incoming only.
   
3. Enter the IMAP server name from where the incoming mails have to be fetched. Also, enter the port details. Check this article to learn how to find your IMAP and port details.
4. To establish a secure connection, ensure that you select the Use SSL option.
5. Choose your Authentication method based on your server settings.
   Note: The authentication method varies for different email servers. For example, Gmail uses plain or CRAM-MD5 authentication. Ensure that you choose the correct authentication method.
6. Enter the username and password of your Email account.
7. Click Save.

Setting up outgoing mail settings

1. Under Email server, choose Custom Mail server and then select Other.
2. Under Use Email server for, select Outgoing only.
3. Enter the IMAP server name from where the outgoing mails have to be fetched. Also, enter the port details. Check this article to learn how to find your IMAP and port details.
4. To establish a secure connection, ensure that you select the Use SSL option.
5. Choose your Authentication method based on your server settings.
   Note: The authentication method varies for different email servers. For example, Gmail uses plain or CRAM-MD5 authentication. Ensure that you choose the correct authentication method.
6. Enter the username and password of your email account.
7. Click Save.

Note: If you wish to use a different custom mail server for both your incoming and outgoing emails, choose Both and follow the same steps for incoming and outgoing mail systems.

Check out this video for a quick guide on how you can set up a support email using a custom mail server. 

Tips and best practices

• You can configure advanced Email settings to customize your emails. For example, you can allow your agents to send outbound emails to customers. For details, check Configuring Advanced Email Settings.
• If the password for the support email account is modified, it is crucial to re-authenticate using the updated password within Freshdesk. Failure to do so will result in emails not being converted into tickets.
  If you’re unsure about the setup, check with your email service provider or IT administrator. 
• If you use Microsoft Office 365 mail authentication, note that the default lifetime for the refresh tokens is 24 hours for single-page apps and 90 days for all other scenarios. You may have to reauthenticate your tokens every 90 days.

  However, if you own the email exchange authentication, you can modify this policy. 

Why is it important to set up a custom mail server?

• Currently, you can configure support emails from public domains like Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail, etc. However, if you choose the Freshdesk email server to send emails, Freshdesk cannot sign emails on behalf of public email domains.
• Due to DMARC enforcement by public domains, this can affect email delivery and your emails may either be dropped or go to spam. 

How to fix the "Something went wrong" error

To address the recurring "Something went wrong" error despite successfully reauthorizing a support email, you can try the following alternate troubleshooting steps:

1. Go to Admin > Channels > Email.
2. Temporarily, designate a different support email or create and assign a dummy email as the primary support email using the STAR icon. The original support email that requires reauthorization will now become the secondary email.
3. Reauthorize the secondary email (support@domain.com).
4. Once this is done, click on the star icon again to revert the previously designated support email to the primary status.