Getting email into SquawkDesk

Option 1: Microsoft 365

1. In SquawkDesk, open Settings, Mailboxes, and click Connect Microsoft 365.
2. Sign in as the support mailbox. For a shared mailbox, sign in as a user who has Full Access and Send As on it, or give the shared mailbox a license and sign in as it.
3. Approve the permissions: read mail, send mail, stay signed in.
4. New messages in the inbox become tickets within a minute. Replies go out from the mailbox itself and land in its Sent Items.

Only mail that arrives after you connect is picked up, so an old inbox never floods your helpdesk. If you want recent history, use Re-sync on the mailbox page to pull in the last day, 7 days or 30 days. If your tenant blocks user consent, a Global Administrator can grant admin consent for SquawkDesk once when prompted.

Option 2: Google Workspace or Gmail

1. Open Settings, Mailboxes, and click Connect Google.
2. Sign in as the support address and allow SquawkDesk to read, compose and send email.
3. New inbox mail becomes tickets within a minute. Replies are sent from the same address and stay in the same Gmail thread.

Google Workspace admins who restrict third-party apps can mark SquawkDesk as trusted under Security, API controls, App access control.

Option 3: Another provider, with IMAP and SMTP

1. Click Set up IMAP and pick your provider (Yahoo, iCloud, Zoho, Fastmail, GoDaddy, IONOS, Rackspace) or choose Other and enter the server names.
2. Use an app password where your provider requires one. We test the connection before saving.
3. Choose what happens in the mailbox after a message becomes a ticket: mark it read, move it to a folder, or leave it alone.

Microsoft 365 no longer allows IMAP with a password, so use Option 1 for Microsoft 365 mailboxes.

Option 4: Forwarding

1. Click Set up forwarding and enter your support address. You get a private address like [email protected].
2. Forward all mail for the support address to that private address. The mailbox page has steps for Microsoft 365, Gmail and others. If Gmail asks for a confirmation code, it shows up on the mailbox page within a minute.
3. Click Check forwarding. SquawkDesk mails your support address and watches for the message to come back; the mailbox shows Working when it does.

Replies send from SquawkDesk under your mailbox name and customer replies come straight back to the ticket. To send from your own address instead, add your SMTP server on the mailbox page.

Every mailbox

• Default group, priority, type and tags for new tickets.
• A mailbox signature added under each agent's signature, and its own automatic acknowledgement if you want one.
• An activity log showing every message in and out, what happened to it, and why anything was skipped.
• If a mailbox stops working (a changed password or revoked access), its status changes to Reconnect needed and your administrators get an email.

Threading, loops and spam

• Every reply carries proper Message-ID, In-Reply-To and References headers, so it threads in your customer's mail client.
• Replies match to tickets by those headers first, then by the [#1234] token in the subject.
• Out-of-office and bounce messages are detected and dropped. Mail from blocked contacts is dropped.
• Mark a ticket as spam and optionally block the sender; blocked senders never create tickets again.