Outlook E-Mail Piping

Outlook E-Mail Piping — User Guide

A step-by-step guide to connect your Outlook / Microsoft 365 mailbox(es) to Awesome Support and turn incoming email into tickets.

What this add-on does

When a customer emails your support address, this add-on reads that mailbox through Microsoft 365 (the modern, secure “Sign in with Microsoft” method) and hands the emails to Awesome Support, which creates the tickets and replies. It replaces the old IMAP/POP3 password method that Microsoft has disabled.

You can connect:

One main mailbox (your primary support address), and
Any number of extra mailboxes (e.g. one per department, product, or VIP customer).

Before you start

Awesome Support and Awesome Support: E-Mail Support plugins are installed and active.
PHP 8.0 or higher (8.1 recommended).
Pretty permalinks are enabled: Settings → Permalinks must be set to anything other than Plain.
You can sign in to the Microsoft 365 / Outlook account of each support mailbox you want to connect.

Part 1 — Connect your MAIN support mailbox

This is the mailbox configured on the E-Mail Piping settings tab.

Step 1.1 — Open the E-Mail Piping settings

Go to TICKETS → SETTINGS → E-Mail Piping and scroll down to the section titled “Read mail via Outlook / Microsoft 365 (Outlook E-Mail Piping)”.

The settings area contains the Broker URL field, Microsoft connection area, and “Use Outlook for the main mailbox” checkbox.

Step 1.2 — Broker URL (usually leave as is)

The Broker URL is the “Sign in with Microsoft” service provided by your vendor. In most cases it is already filled in for you — leave it as it is.

Only change it if your vendor gave you a different URL.
If you leave it blank, the add-on uses the default bundled with the plugin.

Step 1.3 — Connect with Microsoft

In the Microsoft connection area, click “Connect with Microsoft”.

You are redirected to the official Microsoft sign-in page.
Sign in with the account of your support mailbox.
Approve (consent to) the requested permission to read mail.
You are returned to this page and should now see the connected account with a Disconnect button.

✅ Connected account: Your Name <you@yourdomain.com> — with a Disconnect button.

Step 1.4 — Choose the source: “Use Outlook for the main mailbox”

✅ Checked (default) → the main mailbox is read from Outlook / Microsoft 365. The IMAP/POP3 fields are ignored.
☐ Unchecked → Outlook is paused and the main mailbox falls back to IMAP/POP3. Your Outlook login is kept.

Step 1.5 — Save

Click Save Changes at the bottom of the tab to apply your choice.

ℹ️ Set the Interval near the top of the E-Mail Piping tab to control how often mail is checked automatically.

Part 2 — Add extra mailboxes (optional)

Use this when you want more than one support mailbox — for example a separate inbox per department, product, or VIP customer. Each extra mailbox can connect to its own Microsoft 365 account and stamp its own default values onto new tickets.

Step 2.1 — Create a new mailbox configuration

Go to TICKETS → Inbox Configurations and click “Add New Mailbox Configuration”.

Step 2.2 — Fill in the basics

Enter a Title at the top.
Set any default ticket values you want: Default Assignee/Agent, Department, Product, Priority, etc.
If connecting via Outlook, leave the IMAP/POP3 fields blank.

Step 2.3 — Save the draft FIRST

In the “Read this mailbox via Outlook / Microsoft 365 (OAuth)” box you will see a message asking you to save first:

Click Save Draft or Publish. This is required so the mailbox has an ID to attach the connection to.

Step 2.4 — Connect this mailbox to Microsoft

After saving, the “Connect with Microsoft” button appears in that box. Click it and sign in with this mailbox’s Microsoft account (it can be a different account than the main mailbox). Approve the permission.

Step 2.5 — Turn it on and save

Once connected, the box shows the connected account and a “Use Outlook for this mailbox” checkbox:

Keep “Use Outlook for this mailbox” checked.
Tick the “Active?” checkbox.
Click Update to save.

🔎 Two different checkboxes:
“Active?” turns the whole mailbox on/off in every fetch.
“Use Outlook for this mailbox” only chooses the source (Outlook vs IMAP/POP3).

Reading mail (Fetch)

There are two ways mail is read:

Manually: click the “Fetch Mails” button in the WordPress admin bar.
Automatically: the Awesome Support cron runs on the Interval configured on the E-Mail Piping tab.

To test, send an email to a connected mailbox, then click Fetch Mails. A new ticket should appear under TICKETS. For details, open TICKETS → Outlook Debug / Log.

Pause Outlook (switch back to IMAP) without disconnecting

Main mailbox: untick “Use Outlook for the main mailbox” → Save Changes.
Extra mailbox: untick “Use Outlook for this mailbox” → Update.

Your saved Microsoft login is kept. Re-tick the box and save to switch back to Outlook.

Disconnect vs Pause — what’s the difference?

Action	What it does	When to use
Untick “Use Outlook…”	Pauses Outlook and falls back to IMAP/POP3. Login kept.	Temporary switch.
Disconnect	Revokes the saved Microsoft login. You must connect again later.	You no longer use that Microsoft account.

Troubleshooting

“Connect with Microsoft” does nothing / permalink warning: enable pretty permalinks.
No “Connect” button on an Inbox Configuration: save the configuration first.
Mail isn’t being fetched: check “Active?”, “Use Outlook for this mailbox”, the connected account, and Outlook Debug / Log.
“Zend Mail” or “mixed” error / blank page: upgrade the server to PHP 8.1.
Many mailboxes make fetching slow or time out: keep the number reasonable for your hosting.

Quick checklist

Awesome Support + E-Mail Support active, PHP 8.1, pretty permalinks on.
Main mailbox: E-Mail Piping → Connect with Microsoft → Use Outlook for the main mailbox ✓ → Save Changes.
Extra mailboxes: Inbox Configurations → Title + defaults → Save Draft → Connect → Use Outlook ✓ + Active? ✓ → Update.
Test with Fetch Mails; verify a ticket is created; check Outlook Debug / Log if needed.