Receiving emails using POP/IMAP

Learn how to receive emails using a POP or IMAP connection.

Full Help allows you to import emails from an existing email mailbox by using a POP or IMAP connection. To see a list of other supported inbound email methods, check the Receiving emails guide.

Before getting started

Make sure you are using the latest version of Full Help, as there are frequent fixes and enhancements for POP and IMAP connections. For this documentation we assume that you are using the latest Full Help version. If for some reason you cannot upgrade to the newest release, and you have issues using POP or IMAP, feel free to contact us so we can assist you.

Enable POP/IMAP feature

This feature is disabled by default. To enable it, add the following environment variable to the .env file located in the application's root directory:

ENABLE_IMAP_POP_FETCHING=true

Once the environment variable is added, refresh the application's config cache by executing the following command from the application's root directory:

php artisan config:cache

Remember to refresh the help desk dashboard if you have already it open in your web browser.

Configure a cronjob

Please configure the application's cronjob so the system can fetch emails on a regular interval.

Things to keep in mind when using POP or IMAP connections:

• New emails are fetched automatically every five minutes.
• The system will only retrieve the emails received since the last retrieval. If a mailbox has not been fetched before, the system will default to the last 3 days' worth of emails; this is done to prevent potential issues with huge mailboxes.

To start using a POP or IMAP connection:

1. Click Manage in the top navigation bar, then click on Mailboxes, then pick an existing mailbox or create one.
2. In the mailbox's setting form, select either "IMAP" or "POP" in the Inbound connection select input.
3. Fill out the connection form with your mailbox's connection details, which are provided to you by your email service provider. Please note that the ability to specify which POP/IMAP Folders to retrieve emails from was introduced in v0.15.0.