Troubleshooting the Support System
If you encounter errors or issues while working with WHMCS’s support ticket system and related tools, see the sections below to start troubleshooting and resolve the issue.
- For more information, see Support Tools.
- For general steps to troubleshoot problems in WHMCS, see Start Troubleshooting.
Support Departments
For more information, see Support Departments.
You may encounter the following common issues:
| Error or Issue | Cause | Next Steps |
Access Denied - You are not assigned to any ticket departments | Your admin account does not include access to the necessary support departments. | Department Access Denied Errors |
Department Not Found or Department Not Found. Exiting | The support department is a CC or BCC recipient. | Department Not Found Errors |
General Support Ticket Issues
For more information, see Support Tickets.
You may encounter the following common issues:
| Error or Issue | Cause | Next Steps |
| You experience timezone-related issues in WHMCS or while running WHMCS automation. | There is a timezone misconfiguration or a mismatch between the webserver’s PHP configuration and the cron engine’s PHP configuration. | System Timezone Issues |
The system could not find the ticket ID. (WHMCS 8.4 and later) or Ticket ID not found (WHMCS 8.3 and earlier) | Someone attempted to open a new ticket by sending an email from an admin’s email address or attempted to reply to a ticket without including the ticket ID. | Ticket ID Not Found Errors |
TypeError: Return value of WHMCS\File::guessFileExtension() must be of the type string, null returned in /path/to/whmcs/vendor/whmcs/whmcs-foundation/lib/File.php | The fileinfo function is missing or disabled in your server’s PHP configuration. | TypeError guessFileExtension Errors |
Ticket Actions
For more information, see Ticket Actions.
You may encounter the following common issues:
| Error or Issue | Cause | Next Steps |
| A scheduled action did not occur at the scheduled execution time and the status is set to Failed. | The system could not complete the action at its execution time. | Scheduled Action Failures |
Ticket Replies
For issues that are specific to different methods of handling email replies, see the sections below.
You may encounter the following common issues with support ticket replies:
| Error or Issue | Cause | Next Steps |
| Your attempts to upload files to support tickets fail. | There is an incorrectly-configured list of allowed file attachment types. | Attachment Upload Failures |
| Admins are not receiving email notifications of support ticket replies. | The admin’s email address, the admin role configuration, the support department configuration, or other settings are incorrect. | Missing Support Notifications |
Email Piping
You can begin the troubleshooting process for most email piping-related issues by checking the Ticket Mail Import Log at Configuration () > System Logs. This shows all the emails that WHMCS has processed and any errors that may have occurred.
If you cannot find any log entries in Ticket Mail Import Log at Configuration () > System Logs, the most likely cause is that the pop.php cron job isn’t set up or is unable to successfully import the emails.
You can also find error details by temporarily adding the following line to the configuration.php file and then visiting http://www.example.com/crons/pop.php, where www.example.com is your WHMCS installation’s location:
$pop_cron_debug = true;
For more information about updating the
configuration.php file, see The configuration.php File.You may encounter the following common issues:
| Error or Issue | Cause | Next Steps |
The system prevented an autoresponder from opening a ticket. (WHMCS 8.4 and later) or Prevented an Auto Responder from Opening a Ticket (WHMCS 8.3 and earlier) | An email ticket reply contained the Auto-Submitted attribute in its headers. | Auto-Submitted Header Errors |
| DirectAdmin is sending duplicates of piped email ticket replies. | A line in the exim.conf file is causing email piping to send email twice. | Duplicate Piped DirectAdmin Replies |
The system blocked a potential email loop. (WHMCS 8.4 and later) or Blocked Potential Email Loop (WHMCS 8.3 and earlier) | WHMCS received a large number of emails from the same email address, indicating an auto-responder loop. | Email Loop Errors |
pipe to |/home/username/public_html/whmcs/crons/pipe.php or generated by [email protected] or local delivery failed | Incorrect file permissions for the /crons/pipe.php file or an incorrect forwarder entry. | Local Delivery Failed Errors |
| You experience timezone-related issues in WHMCS or while running WHMCS automation. | There is a timezone misconfiguration or a mismatch between the webserver’s PHP configuration and the cron engine’s PHP configuration. | System Timezone Issues |
TypeError: Return value of WHMCS\File::guessFileExtension() must be of the type string, null returned in /path/to/whmcs/vendor/whmcs/whmcs-foundation/lib/File.php | The fileinfo function is missing or disabled in your server’s PHP configuration. | TypeError guessFileExtension Errors |
Unable to communicate with the WHMCS installation | The cron.php, pop.php, or pipe.php files cannot communicate with the WHMCS installation. | Unable to Communicate Errors |
Call to undefined method WHMCS\Mail\Incoming\Mailbox::getRawHeader() | A pop.php or pipe.php file has become outdated. | Undefined Method Importing Errors |
The sender's email address is not registered. (WHMCS 8.4 and later) or Unregistered Email Address (WHMCS 8.3 and earlier) | You have chosen to only allow registered clients to open tickets in this department. | Unregistered Address Errors |
Email Importing
You can begin the troubleshooting process for most email importing-related issues by checking the Ticket Mail Import Log at Configuration () > System Logs. This shows all the emails that WHMCS has processed and any errors that may have occurred.
You may encounter the following common issues:
| Error or Issue | Cause | Next Steps |
Argument 7 passed to processPoppedTicket() | This issue is due to the presence of a pop.php file from an older version of WHMCS. | Argument 7 Ticket Errors |
The system prevented an autoresponder from opening a ticket. (WHMCS 8.4 and later) or Prevented an Auto Responder from Opening a Ticket (WHMCS 8.3 and earlier) | An email ticket reply contained the Auto-Submitted attribute in its headers. | Auto-Submitted Header Errors |
Error: cannot connect to host ; error = stream_socket_client(): unable to connect to tls://mail.example.com:143 (php_network_getaddresses: getaddrinfo failed: Name or service not known) (errno = 0 ) | There is an invalid or unreachable Hostname value in the support department’s mail importing configuration. | Cannot Connect to Host Errors |
Connection refused | The server’s firewall is blocking traffic to Google®. | Connection Refused Errors |
| Email importing is importing the same email replies multiple times. | You have configured multiple support departments in WHMCS to use the same mailbox. | Duplicate Imported Replies |
The system blocked a potential email loop. (WHMCS 8.4 and later) or Blocked Potential Email Loop (WHMCS 8.3 and earlier) | WHMCS received a large number of emails from the same email address, indicating an auto-responder loop. | Email Loop Errors |
Can not authenticate to POP3 server or Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password or Password command failed or Too many login failures | You entered an invalid username or password, your mailserver has blocked (blacklisted) you, or you are using an authentication method that your POP mailbox does not support. | Logon Failure Errors |
The Mail Import test failed: cannot select INBOX, is this a valid transport? | The mail importing configuration is using the wrong port number. | Mail Import Test Failed Errors |
WHMCS Pop Cron Did Not Run | You have configured POP3 details for a support department but the cron job does not run successfully. | POP3 Cron Not Running |
One or more POP3 connections failed or Error: read failed - connection closed? | WHMCS cannot connect to the support department mailbox. | POP3 Read Failed Errors |
Sender Verify Failed | This error indicates that the sending email address is invalid or does not exist on the SMTP server. | Sender Verify Failed Errors |
Error: the single id was not found in response | When WHMCS attempted to import the message, it did not exist in the mailbox. | Single ID Errors |
| You experience timezone-related issues in WHMCS or while running WHMCS automation. | There is a timezone misconfiguration or a mismatch between the webserver’s PHP configuration and the cron engine’s PHP configuration. | System Timezone Issues |
TypeError: Return value of WHMCS\File::guessFileExtension() must be of the type string, null returned in /path/to/whmcs/vendor/whmcs/whmcs-foundation/lib/File.php | The fileinfo function is missing or disabled in your server’s PHP configuration. | TypeError guessFileExtension Errors |
Unable to communicate with the WHMCS installation | The cron.php, pop.php, or pipe.php files cannot communicate with the WHMCS installation. | Unable to Communicate Errors |
Call to undefined method WHMCS\Mail\Incoming\Mailbox::getRawHeader() | A pop.php or pipe.php file has become outdated. | Undefined Method Importing Errors |
The sender's email address is not registered. (WHMCS 8.4 and later) or Unregistered Email Address (WHMCS 8.3 and earlier) | You have chosen to only allow registered clients to open tickets in this department. | Unregistered Address Errors |
Google®
You may encounter the following common issues when using Google for email importing:
| Error or Issue | Cause | Next Steps |
last request failed: invalid SASL argument or The Mail Import test failed: Oauth2 auth failed, BAD Invalid SASL argument. | Required Google OAuth2 authentication information is missing. | Invalid SASL Argument Errors |
Microsoft Entra® ID (formerly Microsoft Azure®)
You may encounter the following common issues when using Microsoft Entra for email importing:
| Error or Issue | Cause | Next Steps |
Bad Request | There is a problem with your WHMCS System URL or Friendly URLs settings, or your WHMCS installation URL has changed. | Microsoft Bad Request Errors |
Connection unsuccessful. Please close this window and try again. | Your Microsoft Entra® ID app credentials are invalid. | Microsoft Connection Errors |
Failed to Create $app_name application. Error detail URL may not contain a query string. | Microsoft Entra apps do not support the redirect URI format in WHMCS if you have set Friendly URLs to Basic URLs. | Microsoft Import Query Errors |
Last modified: 2025 February 6