Connecting your Microsoft Exchange account to Zendesk

Verified AI summary ◀▼
Connect your Microsoft Exchange account to automatically convert emails into tickets and manage them through your support system. Ensure the Exchange account is not used elsewhere and test in a sandbox first. Manage connections by checking status, disconnecting, or reconnecting as needed. Troubleshoot permissions and avoid duplicate emails by following best practices. Consider FAQs for switching methods and handling shared mailboxes.


As described in About the Microsoft Exchange connector, you
can connect your non-Zendesk email servers, based on Microsoft Exchange, directly to
your Zendesk Support account. Once connected, the connector uses an Exchange API to
fetch email from your Exchange inbox and automatically convert email messages to
tickets. The API is also leveraged to deliver outbound email from Zendesk to your
Exchange mailbox.
The Zendesk Exchange connector is compatible with Microsoft Exchange Online only.
Exchange Server on-premises versions are not supported.
You must be a Zendesk administrator to connect your Exchange account to Zendesk. Zendesk
recommends testing this feature in your Zendesk sandbox environment before using it in production.
This article includes the following topics:

Important considerations
Connecting your Exchange account to Zendesk
Managing your Exchange connections
Troubleshooting your connection
Frequently asked questions



Important considerations


Do not make a newly added address the default support address until you have
verified that it is functioning correctly. Doing so will risk locking yourself
out of your account if you can't receive password reset and access emails.
Ensure the Exchange mailbox isn't used by any other connection method (such as
email forwarding) or any agent or end user in your Zendesk account.
See About the Microsoft Exchange Connector
for technical details, requirements, and limitations.




Connecting your Exchange account to Zendesk

When you connect your Exchange account to Zendesk, make sure you sign in to the
Exchange account you want to connect to. If you sign in to a different Exchange
account in the same browser as your instance of Zendesk Support, you will connect to
the wrong account.
To connect your Exchange account to Zendesk

Sign in to the Exchange account you want to connect to Zendesk.
In Admin Center, click
Channels in the sidebar, then select Talk and email > Email.
Click Manage support addresses.
Click Add address, then click Connect external address.
If you have multiple brands, select the brand for the email address from the
drop-down menu.
Select Microsoft Exchange connector.
You have the option to Create tickets from last 300 emails. When
selected, the 300 most recent emails in your account are imported as tickets,
regardless of whether they've been read. The import can take up to 15 minutes to
complete. Zendesk suppresses ticket triggers at creation for those 300
tickets. If you don't want to import pre-existing emails as tickets,
deselect Create tickets from last 300 emails.

Click Next.
Click Accept to approve access to the email account. You may need to
sign in to Microsoft using your account credentials for that email
address.

Click Done.


Your Zendesk Support account is connected to your Microsoft account. If you want to
connect to multiple accounts, repeat these steps.



Managing your Exchange connections

In Admin Center, admins can check the status of their Exchange connections, as well
as disconnect or reconnect Exchange accounts as needed.


Checking the status of a connection

Checking the connection status of your Exchange account helps you confirm the
setup was successful and emails are being received from Exchange. Properly
configured connections show a Verified label in the Status column. If the
account isn't connected, you'll see a Failed message in the Status column, and
can access a details page to learn more.
To check the status of an Exchange connection

In Admin Center, click
Channels in the sidebar, then select Talk and email > Email.
Click Manage support addresses.
Locate the Exchange connection by expanding the name of the brand associated
with the connection. Exchange connections display "MS Exchange connector"
in the Connection type column.

Click the options menu icon ( ) next to the address, then click View
details to view the connection status.




Disconnecting an Exchange account

You can disconnect an Exchange account anytime to stop importing email from that
inbox.
If you want to disconnect the inbox tied to your default support address, you must set
a different default support address before continuing.
To disconnect an Exchange account

In Admin Center, click
Channels in the sidebar, then select Talk and email > Email.
Click Manage support addresses.
Locate the Exchange connection by expanding the name of the brand associated
with the connection. Exchange connections display "MS Exchange connector"
in the Connection type column.

Click the options menu icon ( ) next to the address, then click
Delete. If you don’t see the Delete option, it means the
connection is set up as the default connection. You must set a different
default support address before
continuing.

Confirm you want to delete the connection by clicking Delete
address.




Reconnecting an Exchange account

If you see a warning in the Support addresses section indicating that your
Exchange account has been disconnected, you can restore the connection.
When a support address is disconnected, outgoing email is not sent from that
address, and Zendesk doesn’t fall back to other connections you may have set up.
To reconnect an Exchange account

In Admin Center, click
Channels in the sidebar, then select Talk and email > Email.
Click Manage support addresses.
Locate the Exchange connection by expanding the name of the brand associated
with the connection. Exchange connections display "MS Exchange connector"
in the Connection type column.

Click the options menu icon ( ) next to the address, then click
Reconnect. If the account has disappeared from the Support
addresses list, try reconnecting it as a new connection or contact Zendesk Customer
Support.


Once re-authorized, the connector will restart fetching any unfetched emails. You
should continue to receive all new emails sent to that Exchange account.




Troubleshooting your connection


If you see error messages regarding permissions (such as, "Couldn't verify your
Microsoft account. Check your permissions and try again"), review the
permissions on the Exchange account you’re connecting to Zendesk. The following
permissions are required:
openid
offline_access
email
User.Read
Mail.Send
Mail.ReadWrite


The Microsoft email address you’re connecting to Zendesk can’t be used by any
other connection method, agent, or end user in your Zendesk instance. If the
email address is in use, you’ll receive the following message and will be unable
to connect: “This email is used by Support and can’t be added. Ensure the email
address isn’t already connected or in use by an agent or end user.”




Frequently asked questions

How do I switch from email forwarding to using the Exchange connector? If I have
existing email channels, what's the best way to convert them to use the Exchange
connector? Can I delete the channel and re-add it as an Exchange
connector?
To switch from email forwarding to the Exchange connector, you must first remove all
previous connections and configurations associated with the email address you wish
to configure in the Exchange connector. Additionally, ensure that email forwarding
is turned off on your email server.

What happens to existing emails in the Exchange mailbox when I connect that
mailbox to Zendesk?
When you connect your Exchange account
to Zendesk, you have the option to Create tickets from the last 300
emails. When selected, the 300 most recent emails in your account are
imported as tickets, regardless of whether they've been read. Zendesk suppresses
ticket triggers at creation for those 300 tickets. If you don't want to import
pre-existing emails as tickets, deselect Create tickets from last 300 emails.

How are duplicate emails managed?
Duplicate emails are managed by existing deduplication mechanisms, including those
that may have reached Zendesk through different methods (for example, once through
forwarding and again through the Exchange connector). However, due to the complexity
of email protocols, deduplication may not always be possible. For more detailed
information about the underlying mechanisms, see Understanding how incoming emails are matched to
tickets.

What happens to emails after they are fetched?
All emails that are successfully fetched are marked as read and categorized under
"Zendesk." These emails can be safely removed; however, Zendesk strongly recommends
archiving them instead of deleting them.

Can I connect to a shared mailbox?
To connect the Microsoft Exchange Connector to a shared mailbox, you must first
convert the shared mailbox into a regular user mailbox. Once converted, you can set
a password for it like any other user mailbox. For more information, see the Exchange Online documentation.


{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "TechArticle",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8994395472922",
"url": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8994395472922-Connecting-your-Microsoft-Exchange-account-to-Zendesk",
"headline": "Connecting your Microsoft Exchange account to Zendesk",
"description": "You can connect your Microsoft Exchange Online account to convert emails into tickets and manage them through your support system while monitoring and troubleshooting the connection status as needed.",
"articleSection": "Setting up your email channel",
"datePublished": "2025-03-07T02:35:53+00:00",
"dateModified": "2025-12-04T17:25:24+00:00",
"inLanguage": "en-US",
"mainEntityOfPage": {
"@type": "WebPage",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8994395472922"