Set Up Email Importing

You can import support ticket reply emails into WHMCS using IMAP or POP3 and an email account. This tutorial sets up email importing using Google®.

  • Email piping and email importing use separate configurations and are distinct methods of importing email replies.
  • In WHMCS 8.1 and later, we recommend using email importing with OAuth2. This allows you to use OAuth security with your Google account. For more information, see Set Up Email Importing with Google.
  • Email importing is part of our support ticket system and does not impact how your WHMCS system sends mail to admins and clients. For steps to configure system mail, see Mail Providers.

Set Up Email Importing with Google

To do this:

  1. Create your Google account.
  2. Verify your WHMCS installation’s domain with Google and complete the Google setup process.
  3. Log in to the Google Admin Console and create the email account that your support department will use.
        - Make certain that you use a different email account for each support department.
    - Enable <a href="https://support.google.com/a/answer/9003945" target="_blank">IMAP</a> and <a href="https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7104828" target="_blank">POP3</a>. If the email account already contains mail, enable **Enable POP for mail that arrives from now on** to ensure that you do not import old email from before you set up email piping.
  4. Check to ensure that Imap-SSL/Pop3-SSL is enabled in your WHMCS installation’s PHP configuration.
    For help updating your PHP configuration, contact your hosting provider or system administrator.
  5. In the WHMCS Admin Area, go to Configuration () > System Settings > Support Departments.
  6. Create a new support department. Use the following settings for the hostname and port:
    • Hostname — pop.gmail.com
    • Port — 995
  7. Use your preferred method to create a cron job that runs the /crons/pop.php script every 5 minutes.

Workaround for SSL Handling

In some cases, your server may not handle SSL with POP3 correctly.

To work around this issue:

  1. Create another POP3 email account using a different domain name that is not in Google and does not require SSL.
  2. Forward your Google email account to that email address.
  3. In WHMCS, use POP3 to retrieve the email from the new email address.
google email-importing support-tickets

Last modified: August 21, 2024