Forward email to Outpost

Forward a copy of your support mail to Outpost when you cannot, or do not want to, give Outpost access to the mailbox itself. Outpost gives the mailbox its own forwarding address, and your mail host sends a copy of every message there. Nothing signs in to your mailbox. For how email becomes tickets, see Email to ticket.

Forwarding fits any host that can forward mail, and it is the fallback when the other methods are not possible. It has these limits:

• Replies go out through your outgoing email provider in Settings > Email, with the support address as Reply-To, not from the mailbox itself. See Configure outgoing email.
• Forwarding can break SPF for the original sender. Mail that still passes DMARC through its DKIM signature is verified as usual. Mail that does not opens an unverified ticket. See Sender verification.
• A message larger than 25 MB is not accepted at the forwarding address.
• Forwarding is not available on Remote Outpost.

Forwarded mail is received for Outpost by Cloudflare Email Routing. Outpost keeps it encrypted until your Outpost collects it, for up to 7 days, and deletes it once collected.

Before you begin

• You need mailbox:manage in the console.
• You need admin access to the mail host, to set up forwarding.
• A forwarding mailbox stays a forwarding mailbox. To change it to another method later, delete it and add the mailbox again.

Get the forwarding address

1. In the console, go to Settings > Mailboxes and select Add mailbox.
2. In Support address, enter the address and select Continue.
3. Choose Forward mail to Outpost and select Continue.
4. The wizard shows Forward a copy of every message to: and the forwarding address, which ends in @outpostrmm.com. Select the copy button.
5. Set up forwarding at your mail host, as described below, then select I set up forwarding, test it.

Forward from Microsoft 365 or Exchange Online

Use a mail flow rule that redirects. A redirect delivers the original message with its original sender, and Microsoft 365’s block on automatic forwarding to outside addresses does not apply to it. An Outlook inbox rule that forwards sends a new message from your support mailbox instead, and Outpost ignores mail from its own mailboxes, so nothing would become a ticket.

1. Open the Exchange admin center, then Mail flow > Rules.
2. Add a rule that applies to messages sent to the support address.
3. Set the action to Redirect the message to the forwarding address.
4. Save the rule.

You can instead set forwarding on the mailbox itself, keeping a copy in the mailbox, but then you also need to allow external forwarding, as below.

Allow forwarding to an outside address

Microsoft 365 blocks automatic forwarding to outside addresses by default. The block covers inbox rules and forwarding set on the mailbox, not mail flow rule redirects. Blocked mail is not delivered to Outpost, and the non-delivery report shows:

550 5.7.520 Access denied, Your organization does not allow external forwarding.

To allow it for the support mailbox:

1. Open the Microsoft Defender portal, then Email & collaboration > Policies & rules > Threat policies > Anti-spam.
2. Create an outbound policy, or edit one, that applies to the support mailbox.
3. Set Automatic forwarding rules to On - Forwarding is enabled.
4. Save the policy.

A policy that applies only to the support mailbox keeps forwarding blocked for everyone else. A mail flow rule redirect needs none of this.

Forward from Gmail or Google Workspace

For a Google Workspace domain, a routing rule is simpler, because it needs no confirmation. In the Google Admin console, open Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail > Routing, and add a rule that also delivers mail for the support address to the forwarding address.

For a single Gmail mailbox, Gmail sends a confirmation code to a new forwarding address before it forwards anything. Outpost catches that message and shows the code in the wizard, and never turns it into a ticket.

1. In Gmail, open Settings > See all settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP, select Add a forwarding address, and enter the forwarding address.
2. In the wizard, select Check for the Gmail code. When the message has arrived, the wizard shows Gmail sent a confirmation code and the code.
3. Paste the code into Gmail’s Forwarding and POP/IMAP settings and select Verify. You can instead select Or confirm with Gmail’s link in the wizard.
4. In Gmail, choose Forward a copy of incoming mail to the forwarding address and keep Gmail’s copy in the inbox. Save the changes.

Proton Mail and other hosts

Paid Proton Mail plans can forward mail to an outside address. Set up forwarding to the forwarding address in Proton’s settings. Proton Mail has no direct IMAP, so forwarding is usually simpler than running Proton Mail Bridge.

For any other host, set it to forward a copy of every message to the forwarding address and keep a copy in the original mailbox. Prefer a redirect, or a server-side forward that keeps the original sender, over a forward made by a mail app’s rule.

Verify

The test sends a message to your support address, not to the forwarding address, so it travels through your forwarding rule. Send a test message and Receive the test message both pass when forwarding works. The test message is never turned into a ticket.

Outpost repeats this check once a day, so a forwarding rule that someone removes, or a policy that starts blocking it, shows on the mailbox’s health. See Troubleshoot a support mailbox.

If something goes wrong

Symptom	Cause	Fix
The test message has not arrived., and the sender gets 550 5.7.520	Microsoft 365 blocks external forwarding from mailbox forwarding or an inbox rule.	Use a mail flow rule redirect, or allow forwarding in the outbound anti-spam policy, as above.
Mail is forwarded but no tickets appear	The forward is made by a mail app’s inbox rule, which sends a new message from your support mailbox. Outpost ignores mail from its own mailboxes.	Use a mail flow rule that redirects, or server-side forwarding that keeps the original sender.
Gmail does not forward	The forwarding address is not confirmed.	Select Check for the Gmail code and verify the code in Gmail.

Next steps

• Configure outgoing email, so replies go out from your own domain
• Email threading
• Suspended mail