Email Importing

From WHMCS Documentation

Email importing is distinct from email piping and requires a different configuration. We recommend using email importing instead of email piping if you use any control panel other than cPanel or if you want to import email from multiple domains.

Begin by configuring your support ticket departments. You can do this at Configuration () > System Settings > Support Departments or, prior to WHMCS 8.0, Setup > Support > Support Departments. Add each of your departments and the email addresses that you assigned to them.

RFC 3834
In WHMCS 8.1 and later, the system sends support emails with RFC 3834-compliant headers by default.

  • You can disable this at Configuration () > System Settings > General Settings in the Mail tab.
  • Regardless of your settings, WHMCS will not accept email that contains the Auto-Submitted header via email piping or email importing.

Email Importing Service Providers

In addition to traditional POP3 or IMAP service providers, WHMCS supports email importing via Gmail in WHMCS 8.1 and higher and via Microsoft® services in WHMCS 8.6 and higher. These integrations provide access to your mail provider via secure protocols. Some mail providers require you to use these capabilities or have announced a requirement for it in the future.

To use these service providers, you will need to both configure your mail service provider and create an app for it via either the Google console or Microsoft Azure®. For more information, see Email Importing Integrations.

Configuring Email Importing

The cron command

To configure email importing for a support department:

  1. Set up your email accounts:
    • For POP3 or IMAP, create a unique email account on your mail server for each support department. This must be a mailbox; an alias is not sufficient.
    • For Google or Microsoft, configure your mail service provider and create an app for it:
  2. In WHMCS, navigate to Configuration () > System Settings > Support Departments or, prior to WHMCS 8.0, Setup > Support > Support Departments.
  3. Create a new department and enter the top section of information or, for existing departments, click Edit.
  4. Enter the email information for the department:
    1. Select a Service Provider.
    2. Enter the appropriate details for your service provider.
    3. If you selected OAuth2 as your Authentication type for Google, enter your Email Address and the ClientID and Client Secret that you generated. Then, click Connect.
  5. Set up a cron job to run the pop.php file using the Ticket Importing using Mail Importing (POP3/IMAP) command on the Support Departments page every few minutes. We recommend that you set this to run every five minutes.

The system will delete email in the source mailboxes upon successful import into WHMCS.