Connect your support email

Protodesk accepts customer emails via two paths. Both work the same way once set up: an incoming email becomes a ticket in your inbox, replies flow back out on the original channel.

Option A — Email forwarding (recommended)

The simplest setup. 60 seconds, zero DNS changes.

1. In Protodesk: Settings → Email → "Set up email forwarding"
2. We generate a unique inbound address for you, e.g. a1b2c3d4@inbound.protodesk.io
3. In your email provider (Gmail, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365), set up a forwarding rule from your support address (support@yourcompany.com) to the Protodesk inbound address
4. Send a test email to support@yourcompany.com. It should arrive as a ticket within 5–10 seconds

Limits: inbound forwarding has a 30 MB attachment cap and some anti-spam filtering. For very high-volume customers, contact us about a custom setup.

Option B — Gmail forwarding (fastest)

If you just have a Gmail or Google Workspace support address:

1. In Protodesk: Settings → Email → "Set up Gmail forwarding"
2. Copy the unique Protodesk address we generate
3. In Gmail: Settings → Forwarding and POP/IMAP → "Add a forwarding address"
4. Paste the Protodesk address, click Next, Gmail sends a verification email
5. We auto-detect the verification email in your Protodesk inbox — open it, click the verify link
6. Back in Gmail, enable forwarding for all incoming mail (or set a filter to forward only specific emails)

Works identically for Google Workspace users. For personal @gmail.com accounts, Gmail limits forwarding to 2 destinations total.

Outbound replies

Regardless of which inbound path you use, Protodesk sends outbound replies via our email delivery infrastructure. By default, replies come from no-reply@mail.protodesk.io. To use your own domain:

1. Verify your sender domain in Settings → Email → "Custom sending domain" (requires adding SPF + DKIM TXT records — we give you exact values)
2. Set your preferred From address (e.g., support@yourcompany.com)
3. Replies now send as your domain, not ours

Custom domain is available on Starter+.

Threading and signatures

Protodesk automatically:

• Strips reply quotes from inbound messages
• Threads replies to the original customer message (so their email client shows it as a reply, not a new message)
• Appends your team member's signature (set per-agent in Settings → Account → Signature)

Troubleshooting

• Emails not arriving? Check Settings → Email → Recent inbound — we log every accepted inbound with timestamp. If it's not there, the forwarding isn't firing.
• Emails arriving but no ticket? Check the customer's domain — if it's on our spam block list (some common spammer domains), we drop silently. Settings → Email → Spam filter lets you review + override.
• Replies bouncing? Almost always SPF/DKIM misconfiguration on the custom sending domain. We run the DNS check from the Custom domain page and tell you which record is wrong.

Summary

• Email forwarding: fastest, no DNS
• Gmail forwarding: zero DNS, 2-minute setup, best for MVP