How to import your Gmail/Office 365 inbox email history

Overview

When you connect a Gmail or Office 365 account as a shared inbox or individual inbox in Front, you can choose to import the most recent 50,000 messages.

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What imports and syncs?

To see what exact aspects import and sync, see these articles:

• Gmail history import and sync
• Office 365 history import and sync

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Instructions

Step 1

Make sure the inbox is a Gmail or Office 365 account when you add it. 

Step 2

Once you create the inbox and enter the details, you will see a section titled Import. In this section, you can:

• Choose to import all historical conversations, or do not import any historical conversations
• Choose to import and sync all folders or labels, or import/sync no folders or labels

If you do not wish to import these items, turn the toggle(s) off.

For a shared inbox, all conversations will be auto-archived upon import, so they will appear in the Archived inbox tab view.

Step 3

Once you click Continue, the import will begin. You will see a progress bar at the bottom of the conversation list that says Importing history.

Step 4 (for individual inboxes)

All messages for an individual inbox will import in their current status. This means if a message is unread in Gmail/Office 365, it will appear as unread in Front. For Office 365, upon import, we will also automatically add up to 500 folders (tags in Front) to your sidebar, retaining the original nesting structure. If you have more than 500 folders in Outlook, you can customize your sidebar in Front to show the tags you need to see.

Step 5 (for individual inboxes)

If you added an individual inbox and imported more than 50 emails, then you will see a prompt to ask you whether you want to archive your imported emails so that you start with a clean inbox.

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FAQ

Why didn't the Sent folder sync?

Front's Sent folder contains only emails sent directly from Front. Your sent messages from Gmail or Office 365 will import, but will appear within the email threads in the inbox. You can search for your imported sent emails in the inbox by using the search filter from:email. 

Can I import distribution list history or other email providers?

No, we cannot import the history for Google Groups, distribution lists, or from email providers other than Gmail and Office 365 full inboxes.

In what order do messages get imported?

Front will import your messages from the newest to the oldest.

Is Front able to import messages from other sources?

Yes! Front can also import your message history from Freshdesk, Zendesk, and Help Scout.