Migrate Your Email Support
Converge Team
Part of the Help Scout migration guide
How to migrate your email support workflows, templates, and history from Help Scout without losing data.
Migrating Email Support from Help Scout
Help Scout uses email forwarding to route messages into shared inboxes. Your emails are forwarded from your domain (e.g., [email protected]) to a Help Scout address (e.g., [email protected]). Migrating means updating where that forwarding points.
Step 1: Document Your Current Email Setup
In Help Scout, go to Manage → Inbox(es) → [Your Inbox] → Connect Email & Social to see which custom email addresses are connected and what Help Scout inbox addresses they forward to. Note all connected email aliases -- you may have multiple addresses (support@, help@, billing@) forwarding to different Help Scout inboxes.
Step 2: Understand the Forwarding Chain
Help Scout receives email via forwarding rules you set up at your email provider (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, cPanel, Namecheap, etc.). The forwarding points to a helpscoutapp.com address. When migrating, you'll redirect this forwarding to your new platform instead. Help Scout has no direct SMTP connection or OAuth email -- it's purely forwarding-based.
Step 3: Set Up Email on Your New Platform
Different platforms handle email differently. Some use forwarding (similar to Help Scout), others use direct Gmail OAuth or Mailgun inbound routing. Set up your new platform's email channel before changing any forwarding rules so you can test it first.
Step 4: Update Forwarding Rules
At your email provider, change the forwarding destination from your helpscoutapp.com address to your new platform's inbound address. This is where the actual cutover happens -- new emails will immediately start routing to the new platform. The process varies by provider: Google Workspace uses routing rules, Microsoft 365 uses mail flow rules, cPanel uses email forwarders.
Step 5: Recreate Email Templates
Copy your Help Scout saved replies and recreate them in your new platform. Help Scout doesn't export saved replies, so you'll need to copy them manually. Also note any workflow automations that triggered based on email content or sender -- you'll want to recreate these as auto-reply rules or routing rules.
What Carries Over vs What Doesn't
- ✓ Your email address ([email protected]) -- it's your domain, not Help Scout's
- ✓ SPF/DKIM/DMARC records -- may need updating depending on your new platform's requirements
- ✗ Conversation history -- export via API before switching, it won't transfer automatically
- ✗ Saved replies -- must be manually copied
- ✗ Workflow automations -- must be recreated in the new platform
- ✗ Collision detection -- specific to Help Scout, your new platform may handle duplicate replies differently
Need the full migration guide?
This page covers migrate your email support specifically. For the complete step-by-step migration process:
Read the complete Help Scout migration guide →Ready to try Converge?
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