Quick Links

• Incoming Mail Settings
• Outgoing Mail Settings
• Spam Filter
• Email Command
• Delimiter
• Other Configurations
• Disable Conversation Addition

Incoming Mail Server Settings

Configure your organization's mail server to receive and process incoming emails. You can use email protocols (POP, IMAP, POPS, or IMAPs), Exchange Web Services (EWS), or Microsoft Graph to connect ServiceDesk Plus with the mailbox.

 

Role Required: SDAdmin

 

 

• Configure Incoming Mail Server Protocol
  • Email Protocols
  • Exchange Web Services
  • Microsoft Graph
• Configure Incoming Mail Server Settings
• Move Error Emails to a Different Folder
  • Resolve Error Emails
• Edit Mail Server Settings
• Check Mail Server Connectivity
• Oversized Email Handling

Configure Incoming Mail Server Protocol

Configure Incoming Mail Server Settings 

• Fetch mails every - Enter the time interval(in minutes) to schedule the subsequent mail fetching processes.
• Enable proxy server - Process incoming emails through a proxy server. You can configure the proxy server in the application beforehand as discussed here.
• Enable Email Debug - Obtain debug prints of subsequent emails fetched in the application. Enable this option only if recommended by the support team.
• Disable new request creation by email - Restrict request creation via incoming emails. You can allow requests to be created from specific email addresses and domains by entering them in the given textbox.
  • You can allow requests creation from certain email addresses. For example, heather@zylker.com.
  • You can also allow request creation from certain domains by entering an asterisk (*) followed by @domain name. For example, *@zylker.com.

• Click Save.

Moving Error Emails to a Different Folder

In some cases, emails with processing errors can stop the mail fetching process. ServiceDesk Plus enables you to move such error emails to a different folder, thereby ensuring seamless mail fetching process.

You can create a separate folder in the application mailbox and direct the error emails to be moved to this folder.  

Enable the Move Messages to error folder and configure as explained below.

Name of the error folder	Provide the name of the folder you have created.
Stop mail fetching after [ ] mails	Stop mail fetching when the number of error emails moved to the folder reaches the specified count.
Total number of mails in error folder	This displays the number of emails moved to the configured error folder. This count will be reset when all error emails are resolved and moved to inbox.
Move mails to inbox	Move the emails back to the inbox after resolving the errors.
Notify by email when a mail is moved from inbox to error folder	Notify technicians each time an error email is received. Ensure Send e-mail when an application error occurs notification is enabled under notification rules.

 

 

Resolve Error Emails

When moving emails to the error folder, the details of each email and the exception will be saved as text files(.txt). These files will be encrypted as they might contain Personally Identifiable Information(PII) of the customer. Follow the steps given below to resolve the error emails.

1. Click Download next to Error Logs. The support files along with the error logs will be decrypted and downloaded in a zip file.
2. Send the files to support@servicedeskplus.com for analysis.
3. Once all emails in the error folder are resolved, click Move mails to inbox. The resolved emails will be further processed in the application based on your help desk workflow.

Edit Mail Server Settings 

In build 13001 or earlier, stop the mail fetching process and make the necessary changes.

In build 13002 or above, administrators can edit the mail server settings as needed. If a mail fetching process is ongoing, the application will prompt to disable mail fetching temporarily. After saving the changes, enable the fetching process manually.  

Check Mail Server Connectivity

Click Fetch a sample mail to test the incoming mail server connectivity.

If the settings are configured right and the connection is successful, the oldest email from your mailbox will be fetched, along with its properties. If not, an error message will be displayed on the screen.

To learn more about troubleshooting mail server errors, click here.

Other Configurations

Configure Notifications for Connectivity Issues

This configuration applies only to versions 11206 and above

When an issue occurs while processing emails, notifications will be triggered to the technicians configured for error notifications in Admin > Notification Rules. However, if the application fails to connect to the mailbox, the current mail fetching schedule will be skipped and the application will try to reconnect to the mailbox during the next schedule. With every schedule, this process will recur in a loop and no emails will be fetched until the application connects to the mailbox.

ServiceDesk Plus provides a default threshold value to track down the number of consecutive failures attempts to connect to the mailbox. When this threshold value is reached, SDAdmins and associated technicians can be notified via bell notifications and emails respectively.

The count of consecutive failure attempts will be reset after each notification.

 

To configure the threshold value,

• Connect to the ServiceDesk Plus Database
• Execute the following query to know the configuration

 

 

The configuration is instance based and hence 2 rows for each instance.

• The paramvalue of CONSECUTIVE_RETRY_THRESHOLD denotes the threshold value configured in the application.
• The paramvalue of NOTIFICATION_ENABLED denotes whether the notifications are enabled/disabled.

The given screenshot displays the default configuration, where 5 is the default threshold value and the notifications enabled by default.

• Use the following query to update the threshold value:

Provide the required value in place of X.

• Use the following query to disable the notification:

• Use the following query to enable the notification:

• Restart the service to implement the changes.

 

Notifications for Stripped Attachments  (version 13009 and later) 

ServiceDesk Plus validates the following entities in incoming email attachments and inline images:

• File Name
• Extensions
• Content Type
• Empty File
• File Size

If there are any errors in these entities,

• The attachment/inline image will be dropped.
• The sender and the technicians configured for error notifications will be informed by email.
• A system log entry will be added. 

To resolve dropping attachments or inline images, contact ServiceDesk Plus support with screenshot of the system log entry and the notification email.

 

System log entry for dropped attachment/inline image

 

Email notification for dropped attachment/inline image

 

The notification configuration is portal-specific, and it can be disabled by using the following query:

 

The notification sent when inline images are dropped can be disabled using the following query:

 

The file size for validating inline images can be modified using the following query. The default inline image size is 3 MB. You can configure -1 as the file size to skip validation. 

 

Use the following query to skip the validation of inline images or attachments. This prevents images or attachments from being dropped due to validation.

 

Restart the application after executing the query.

Configure Notifications for Emails from Unknown Email IDs 

You can notify users when they send emails from unknown email addresses. This applies when Process messages from new email ID is disabled in the advanced portal settings (application settings for ESM setups).

To enable notification, execute the following query:

By default, paramvalue is set to false, which means the notification is disabled. Make sure the value is set to true to inform users when their email is not processed due to unknown email address.

Errors and Solutions

The following section explains various errors and corresponding solutions.

1. Error: Attachment file name is invalid

Reason: File name of the attachment contains invalid characters.

Solution: Rename the attachment file. Use letters, numbers, dots, hyphens, and underscores in file names.

2. Error: Attachment files contain invalid content type

Reason: Content type in the attachment does not match the file extension. For example, an image file with the file name 'Alter.txt' will be dropped.

Solution: Ensure that the attached files have matching file content and extension.

3. Error: Attachment files contain invalid extensions

Reason: ServiceDesk Plus enables you to allow/restrict certain file types in the application. If the email attachments include files of the restricted type, the attachments will be dropped.

Solution: Ensure that the file type is allowed under Admin > General Settings > Attachments Settings. In ESM setups, go to ESM Directory > General Settings > Attachment Settings.

4. Error: Attachment contains empty files

Reason: ServiceDesk Plus does not allow empty files as attachments.

Solution: Ensure that the attachment file is not empty. If the file is not empty, it could have been dropped due to Antivirus/Firewall configurations. Please check with your IT administrator to check on antivirus/firewall settings.

5. Error: Attachment size exceeds the configured limit

Reason: Files that exceed the configured size will be dropped.

Solution: Check and modify the Maximum attachment size (MB) under Admin > General Settings > Attachment Settings. In ESM setups, go to ESM Directory > General Settings > Attachment Settings.

 

Disable Conversation Addition

Users can disable the addition of emails as conversations based on email headers by executing the below query.

In the above query, replace the <helpdeskid> with the portal ID. To find the portal ID, run the query given below.

After executing this query, all portal IDs are returned. Pick the portal ID where you need to run the update query and replace the <helpdeskid> in the update query with this portal ID. Restart the application for the updated query to take effect.

The addition of emails as conversations is disabled. After disabling, conversations will be added based on the request ID/entity ID in the email subject.

 

Oversized Email Handling

Emails larger than 50MB are either skipped or moved to the error folder during mail fetching.
 
In POP-based mail fetching, emails larger than 50MB are skipped from processing.

• When the skipped email count exceeds 10, bell notifications are sent to SDAdmins, and email notifications are sent to technicians configured under Notification Rules > Send e-mail when an Application Error Occurs.

• Users must move unprocessed emails from the Inbox to another folder or delete them.

 
When incoming email is configured with an error folder for non-POP protocols and the email size exceeds 50MB:

• When Notify by email when a mail is moved from Inbox to Error folder option is enabled and number of emails in the error folder is below the configured maximum limit in the Incoming Mail Server Settings, the emails are moved to the error folder, after which technicians configured under Send e-mail when an Application Error Occurs are notified via email. 

• If the Error folder has reached the maximum limit, the mail fetching is stopped.

In these scenarios, users can delete the unprocessed emails or increase the mail size limit using an update query as shown below:

Example: Set X to 60 to allow emails up to 60MB.