IntelliDesk doesn't host your email. It connects to the mailbox you already use, such as support@yourcompany.com. Email that arrives there becomes tickets, and your replies go out from the same address, so customers can answer straight back into the ticket.
Each help desk has its own mailbox. To connect one:
- Go to Settings → Help Desks and pick the desk.
- Open the Channels tab. (A desk without a mailbox shows a yellow No email channel connected yet reminder with a Connect a mailbox button that takes you there.)
- Choose how to connect: Gmail, Outlook / Office 365, or IMAP/SMTP for anything else.
Before you connect: Skip initial sync
Skip initial sync (recommended) is on by default. Only email that arrives after you connect becomes tickets; everything already in the mailbox is left alone. Switch it off only if you're moving from another helpdesk and want recent history imported.
Gmail and Google Workspace
Click Connect Gmail and sign in with the Google account that owns the mailbox. IntelliDesk asks permission to read and label mail and to send as you. New mail arrives almost instantly.
Outlook, Hotmail and Microsoft 365
Click Connect Outlook / Office 365 and sign in with the Microsoft account. IntelliDesk asks permission to read and send mail. If your organization requires admin consent, your Microsoft 365 admin approves IntelliDesk once for the whole organization.
Microsoft no longer allows password sign-in over IMAP, so for Outlook and Microsoft 365 always use this button rather than the IMAP form.
Any other mailbox (IMAP/SMTP)
For Zoho, iCloud, Yahoo, your own mail server, or the email that comes with your web hosting:
- Click Connect IMAP/SMTP.
- Pick your Email provider. This fills in the server names and ports, and tells you which password to use. For your own hosting or mail server, pick Other (my web host) and copy the settings your host or IT team gives you (often mail.yourdomain.com).
- Enter the email address and password. Most providers need an app password rather than your normal one: Gmail, Yahoo and iCloud all create them in the account's security settings. Passwords are stored encrypted.
- Username (only if different from the email address): leave this empty in most cases. Fill it in when your mail server signs in with something other than the address itself, for example a shared mailbox on Exchange or a hosted server where the login is
supportorDOMAIN\supportwhile the address is support@yourcompany.com. IntelliDesk then signs in to both IMAP and SMTP with that username, and still sends from the email address. - Click Test connection. IntelliDesk signs in to both the incoming (IMAP) and outgoing (SMTP) server and shows OK or the error for each.
- Click Connect account.
IMAP mailboxes are checked every 5 minutes.
Checking it works: Sync mailbox and Check mail
Once connected, the Channels tab shows the mailbox address, Connected, and Last sync. To check straight away instead of waiting for the next automatic check, click Sync mailbox: it reports what it found, for example 1 new ticket, or No new email since the last check.
From the Inbox, Check mail (top of the page) pulls every mailbox on the desks you belong to at once, and tells you how many new tickets and updates it found.
A quick test: send an email to the address from another account, click Check mail in the Inbox, and look for the new ticket.
When something goes wrong
If sign-in stops working (a changed password, an expired app password, revoked access), the status changes to Error and the card shows the reason. Email isn't lost while a mailbox is in error: it waits in the mailbox and is picked up once you reconnect.
Recent events under the card lists connections and disconnections, plus any failed syncs or sign-ins, which helps when you're troubleshooting with your email provider.
One mailbox per desk
Each desk has one mailbox. Connecting a different one replaces it. For several addresses (support@, billing@, returns@), create a desk for each; see Running several teams and mailboxes in one workspace.
Disconnecting
Disconnect stops new email arriving on that desk. Existing tickets and messages stay where they are.
Related: Running several teams and mailboxes in one workspace · Setting up your workspace: team, desks and roles · Keeping the inbox clean: merge, block and delete