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.

General Support Ticket Issues

For more information, see Support Tickets.

You may encounter the following common issues:

Error or Issue	Explanation	Next Steps
Your attempts to upload files to support tickets fail.	This issue may occur due to an incorrectly-configured list of allowed file attachment types.	Attachment Upload Failures
`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
`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. To break the cycle, WHMCS did not import the email.	Email Loop Errors

Support 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	Explanation	Next Steps
Admins are not receiving email notifications of support ticket replies.	There is a problem in the admin’s settings, the admin role configuration, or the support department configuration.	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	Explanation	Next Steps
DirectAdmin is sending piped email replies twice.	The `unseen` line in the DirectAdmin server’s `exim.conf` file is causing a problem.	Duplicate Piped DirectAdmin Replies
Email replies have incorrect timestamps.	The system is executing the PHP importing script using a PHP configuration with a different `date.timezone` value than your WHMCS installation.	Incorrect Timestamps in Replies
`Call to undefined method WHMCS\Mail\Incoming\Mailbox::getRawHeader()`	A `pipe.php` file has become outdated.	Undefined Method Importing Errors
`Department Not Found` or `Department Not Found. Exiting`	This usually occurs when the support department is a `CC` or `BCC` recipient.	Department Not Found Errors
`local delivery failed`	This error occurs due to incorrect file permissions for the `/crons/pipe.php` file or problems with the email forwarding command.	Local Delivery Failed 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 enabled Clients Only for the support department, and the sender’s email address does not exist for a client or user in WHMCS.	Unregistered Address Errors
`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. To break the cycle, WHMCS did not import the email.	Email Loop 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 emailed reply contained the `Auto-Submitted` attribute in its headers. WHMCS cannot accept replies that contain this header using email piping or email importing.	Auto-Submitted Header Errors
`Unable to communicate with the WHMCS installation`	This error occurs when a system cron issue prevents the `pop.php` or `pipe.php` files from communicating with the WHMCS installation.	Unable to Communicate 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	Explanation	Next Steps
Email replies have incorrect timestamps.	The system is executing the PHP importing script using a PHP configuration with a different `date.timezone` value than your WHMCS installation.	Incorrect Timestamps in Replies
Full Administrators receive a warning email indicating that POP3 details exist for a support department but the required cron job is not configured to import the emails.	The mail importing cron job could not run successfully or if it does not exist.	POP3 Cron Not Running
You receive a POP3 Connection Error report email with the following error: `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 )`	The system cannot resolve the invalid or unreachable Hostname value in the support department’s mail importing configuration.	Cannot Connect to Host Errors
You see duplicates of imported email replies.	This often indicates that you have configured multiple support departments to use the same mailbox.	Duplicate Imported Replies
`Argument 7 passed to processPoppedTicket() must be an instance of WHMCS\Mail\AutoSubmittedHeader, array given, called in /path/to/crons/pop.php on line 0`	This issue is due to the presence of a `pop.php` file from an older version of WHMCS.	Argument 7 Ticket Errors
`Call to undefined method WHMCS\Mail\Incoming\Mailbox::getRawHeader()`	A `pop.php` file has become outdated.	Undefined Method Importing Errors
`Connection refused`	The server’s firewall is blocking traffic to Google.	Connection Refused Errors
`Department Not Found` or `Department Not Found. Exiting`	This usually occurs when the support department is a `CC` or `BCC` recipient.	Department Not Found Errors
`Error: read failed - connection closed?`	WHMCS cannot connect to the support department mailbox using the details that you set in the mail importing configuration.	POP3 Read Failed Errors
`Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password` or `Too many login failures` or `Can not authenticate to POP3 server` or `Password command failed`	WHMCS cannot authenticate with your mail server. This often occurs due to invalid credentials in your email importing configuration, a mailserver block, or the use of unsupported authentication methods.	Logon Failure Errors
`Sender Verify Failed`	The sending email address is invalid or does not exist on the SMTP server.	Sender Verify Failed Errors
`The Mail Import test failed: cannot select INBOX, is this a valid transport?`	The mail importing configuration is using the wrong port number (often, `993` instead of `995`).	Mail Import Test Failed 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 enabled Clients Only for the support department, and the sender’s email address does not exist for a client or user in WHMCS.	Unregistered Address Errors
`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. To break the cycle, WHMCS did not import the email.	Email Loop 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 emailed reply contained the `Auto-Submitted` attribute in its headers. WHMCS cannot accept replies that contain this header using email piping or email importing.	Auto-Submitted Header Errors
`Ticket ID not found`	You attempted to open a new ticket via email as an admin or attempted to reply to a ticket without including the ticket ID.	Ticket ID Not Found Errors
`Unable to communicate with the WHMCS installation`	This error occurs when a system cron issue prevents the `pop.php` files from communicating with the WHMCS installation.	Unable to Communicate Errors
`WHMCS Pop Cron Did Not Run`	You have entered POP3 details for a support department, but the cron job does not exist or experienced an error.	POP3 Cron Not Running

Google®

You may encounter the following common issues when using Google for email importing:

Error or Issue	Explanation	Next Steps
`last request failed: invalid SASL argument`	Some of the required information for POP3 email importing via the Google OAuth2 authentication method is missing.	Invalid SASL Argument Errors
`Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password` or `Too many login failures` or `Can not authenticate to POP3 server` or `Password command failed`	WHMCS cannot authenticate with your mail server. This often occurs due to invalid credentials in your email importing configuration, a mailserver block, or the use of unsupported authentication methods.	Logon Failure Errors

Microsoft Entra® ID (formerly Microsoft Azure®)

You may encounter the following common issues when using Microsoft Entra for email importing:

Error or Issue	Explanation	Next Steps
`Bad Request`	The URL that you specified during app registration in the Microsoft Entra portal is invalid.	Microsoft Bad Request Errors
`Connection unsuccessful. Please close this window and try again.`	The Application (client) ID and Client Secret combination for your Microsoft Entra app 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.	Microsoft Import Query Errors
`Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password` or `Too many login failures` or `Can not authenticate to POP3 server` or `Password command failed`	WHMCS cannot authenticate with your mail server. This often occurs due to invalid credentials in your email importing configuration, a mailserver block, or the use of unsupported authentication methods.	Logon Failure Errors

Last modified: November 15, 2024