Use SMTP to Send From Help Scout
If you are using your own email address with Help Scout, we send email on your behalf via our own Help Scout mail servers by default. You may choose to configure Help Scout to send from your email provider using SMTP instead.
If you're using Google Workspace or Gmail, see Use Google OAuth to Send From Help Scout instead.
Note: If you are using your Help Scout email address directly — e.g. support@jg-clothing.helpscoutapp.com — you cannot configure SMTP to send from that address. SMTP is an option only if you are using a custom email address and your email provider offers SMTP access.
In this article
Setup
You'll need the outgoing server name, inbox username/password, port, and security details from your email provider to set up a custom SMTP connection. Reach out to your IT team, email administrator, or the support for your email provider to find out their specific information if you need it.
Head to Manage > Inbox(es) > Choose your Inbox > Outgoing Email. and choose Use custom SMTP, then choose Send with other SMTP to fill in the details.
Make sure you click Save at the bottom after testing the connection!
Note: For a standard Microsoft 365 account, the server information is found in their article How to set up a multifunction device or application to send email using Microsoft 365 or Office 365. They note there that basic SMTP is not compatible with Microsoft Security Defaults or MFA (multi-factor authentication) at Microsoft 365; if your organization requires those settings for your inbox address, you may not be able to use SMTP to send from Help Scout. See Outgoing Email Settings: Use Help Scout for the other outgoing email option.
Troubleshooting SMTP Bounces
If we're unable to hand off an email to your SMTP server, you'll find the message in the Needs Attention folder with a status of Bounced.
Click into the conversation to see more information along with your options.
Click the View details link to open a pop-up window showing the error we received from your SMTP server.
The error you see in the pop-up window is what your server reported at the time we tried to connect. If you are unsure as to why you are seeing an error, you may need to reach out to your email admin, IT team, or email provider for assistance.
Authentication error with SMTP server simply means that when Help Scout tried to connect to your SMTP server, the credentials we were given to pass along as a part of the setup were rejected by your email provider. Double check that the the correct username, password, and server information has been entered in the SMTP setup above. If you're sure that information is correct, check in with your email admin, IT team, or email provider for further assistance. Provide them with the error that Help Scout is seeing and the credentials that you're using.
Click Retry to attempt delivery after you have resolved the SMTP connection issue. Click Dismiss if you are unable to resolve the delivery issue but would like to no longer see this alert. This will remove the conversation from the Needs Attention folder, and the reply will be saved in the conversation history though no email out was generated to the customer. You will no longer have the option to Retry to send that reply.
You may also choose to change your Outgoing Email settings to Use Help Scout and retry the bounced email to send from our servers instead.
Common questions
Are sent emails synced to my email provider if I use SMTP?
Most email providers do not offer a way to do this via SMTP by default, but you can check with your email provider to see if they offer any sort of options there. Google based email will sync sent messages if you send email through Google OAuth.