Question
How can I switch my Zendesk Support address from the Gmail connector to standard email forwarding?
Answer
To switch from the Gmail connector to standard email forwarding, we recommend following the below steps during off-hours to not miss any support requests from customers.
- Browse to Admin (
) > Channels > Email. - Hover your mouse to the right of your original Zendesk support address (support@subdomain.zendesk.com).
- Click make default if this email address is not already your default support address.
- Select disconnect to the right of your external support address (for example, support@company.com) to delete the Gmail connector.
- Set up email forwarding from your external support address to your default support address (for example, support@company.com to support@subdomain.zendesk.com). See the article: Forwarding your incoming support email to Zendesk using Gmail/Google Apps.
- Select Add address > Connect External Address and enter your external support address in the Enter current support address field and click Go.
- Click through the next screens. Zendesk validates that the email forwarding is already set up.
- Hover your mouse to the right of your external support address and click make default. Note that this step is optional, but many customers prefer their external support address to be their default support address.
- Have your Network/IT team add the Zendesk entry of include:mail.zendesk.com to the SPF record for the domain of your external support address. This section of the Setting up SPF for Zendesk to send email on behalf of your email domain article provides guidance.
Note: After making this change, you will no longer see your sent Zendesk notifications in your external support address Sent Mail folder. Zendesk will manage the sending of your notifications instead of Gmail.
10 Comments
Ian - To see if support addresses are connected via forwarding or the Gmail connector, please check if Connected to Google Mail is displayed to the right of the support address. If it is displayed, this means that the support address is connected via the Gmail Connector.
Is there a way to verify if I am already using forwarding?
Can I assume if it says "Forwarding verified" in zendesk admin that it is using email forwarding instead of the Gmail connector?
FYI...I believe the title of this post has a typo. Reads as "formatting" (instead of "forwarding").
Bonnie Leib Brilliant! Thank you.
Referred to instructions in the article, and it doesn't work..
Step 3 - made default
Step 4: Select disconnect ..
After that step, support@mydomain.com removed from the list (expected)
Step 5 - Gmail FW Done
Step 6 - Select Add address > Connect External Address and then Step 7 - Click through the next screens.
Failed with:
"Please make sure you’ve updated your Gmail settings by following the steps above."
It works, when I did instead:
Select Add address > "Connect Other"
After that step, Add address > "Connect External Address" wizard works too
Note - side task of #6640721 case
Hi JJ! Thanks for pointing this out...I'll check with our team to see if this was intended or not. :)
ETA: You were right! Bonnie has fixed the title. Thanks for flagging it for us!
No problem. Typos happen to the best of us.
Any reason not to conduct step #5 [Set up email forwarding from your external support address] before step #4 [select disconnect to delete the Gmail connector] in the interest of preventing any gaps in the creation of Zendesk tickets from received emails?
We have 17 email accounts utilizing Gmail Connector and I, as Zendesk Admin, don't have admin access to all email accounts; therefore, the process outlined in this article will require multiple people working synchronously unless we can disconnect Gmail Connector in Zendesk after activating standard email forwarding from within the email account.
Could this suggested process result in duplicate tickets being created, or will the Zendesk system even permit this?
Anyone test this yet? Thanks!
Hi Kevin, you should be able to set up the email forward (step 5) before disconnecting the Gmail connector (step 4), if that will be easier for your team. Zendesk rejects any incoming email that arrives with the same Message-ID so you should not see any duplicates.
Hi Alex, thanks so much for sharing. Yes, for specific types of email addresses (usually email addresses that are also distribution lists, aliases, or groups) you will need to use the Connect other option instead. With most support addresses, the Connect external address option will still work. This support tip Unable to add Gmail address as an external support address discusses the Connect other option.
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