Bring older email into a support inbox

Choose how a support inbox treats email from before it went live, preview what would come in, import it in a batch, and turn the messages that still need an answer into tickets.

In the sidebar, open Settings, then choose Ticketing under Communications. Under Support inboxes, press Import on the inbox. The page address is /settings/communications/ticketing/inboxes/ followed by the inbox and /import. The tabs Setup, Routing and Import & Cutover move between the inbox's three pages.

Before you start

• Making the inbox create tickets from new email is covered in Turn on ticket creation for a support inbox. This article is about email that arrived before that.
• Your role needs permission to manage historical imports. Without it the buttons on the import page stay greyed out. Turning old email into tickets also has to be part of your plan.
• Nothing is imported until you run a batch. A preview only counts.

Steps

First, choose what the import does. This is saved on the inbox's Setup tab:

1. Open Historical email handling.
2. Choose the Historical import default: From now forward brings nothing older than the go-live moment, From selected date brings the window you pick, Full history brings everything.
3. Choose the Historical ticketization default: None keeps old email as history only. Unread only, Rules only or All historical explicit let imported email become tickets. The Ticket creation from history box explains each choice.
4. Press Save inbox ticketing settings.

Then run the import on the Import & Cutover tab:

1. Set Historical window from and, if you want an end, Historical window until. A start is required for From selected date.
2. Type Batch notes that say what you are bringing in.
3. Press Preview historical import. Latest preview counts what would come in.
4. Press Create import batch. The batch appears in the list, selected.
5. Tick Run import batch in background for a large mailbox, then press Run selected batch. Nova shows Import batch queued.
6. When the batch's status reads Completed, choose a Ticketization queue (or leave Use default queue) and, if you like, a Ticketization max messages cap.
7. For All historical explicit, tick Confirm explicit all-historical ticketization.
8. Press Ticketize selected batch. Nova shows Historical ticketization started.

What you see

• Current consequences repeats what your saved choices will do and when the inbox goes live.
• Latest preview shows Selected, Importable, Skipped and Ticketizable counts, the Skip reasons and a few Sample messages.
• Each batch shows its status, when it started and finished, and how many messages were imported and ticketized. Press a batch to see Selected batch outcome: its window, notes, and why messages were skipped.
• Email from after the go-live moment is left out when ticketizing, because it is already handled as new email. Tick Include active cutover window to include it.

If something looks different

• Every message is skipped as "Ticketization Disabled": the Historical ticketization default is None. Change it on Setup and save.
• Ticketize selected batch is refused: the batch has not finished yet, or Confirm explicit all-historical ticketization is not ticked.
• Cancel selected batch stops a batch that has not finished. A finished batch cannot be cancelled, and a cancelled one cannot be run again: create a new batch.
• Review historical import on the Setup tab does nothing there. Use the Import & Cutover tab.
• The batch list reads No import batches exist for this inbox yet.: create one with the steps above.
• You land on Email Accounts or a no-access page instead: ticketing is not part of your plan, or your role cannot see ticketing settings.

Open Ticketing