Notifications are coming back to us instead of reaching someone

Someone on your team is not getting LittleDesk notifications about ticket assignments, mentions and customer replies.

The mail is not being lost by their email provider. It is reaching us. Their email address forwards mail into LittleDesk, so every notification we send them arrives back at LittleDesk instead of in their mailbox, and we throw it away. Until recently we did not tell anybody this was happening, which is why it may have been going on for a while.

Their other notifications still work. Everything in the notification panel inside LittleDesk is arriving normally. Email is the only part that is broken.

The fix

Stop forwarding mail from support@littledesk.io into LittleDesk.

That is the whole change for an address with a mailbox behind it. You do not need to stop forwarding your customer mail into LittleDesk. Customer mail keeps arriving exactly as it does now.

An address with no mailbox of its own is the exception, and it needs a different fix: see When the address has no inbox below.

This does not block anything. Mail we send still reaches the mailbox it was addressed to, including replies from our own support team. The change only stops a copy of it being passed on to LittleDesk, which is the part that was throwing it away.

Every provider can do this. The steps below cover the three most common.

Gmail, for one mailbox

In Gmail, select Settings, then See all settings, then the Filters and Blocked Addresses tab.
Find the filter that forwards mail to LittleDesk and select Edit.
In the Doesn't have field, enter from:support@littledesk.io. Keep the from: part. Without it, Gmail also skips any email that mentions the address anywhere in its text, and that email never reaches LittleDesk.
Select Continue, check that Forward it to is still selected, then select Update filter.

Gmail also has a plain forwarding setting, on the settings tab named Forwarding and POP/IMAP. If the mail is going out through that rather than through a filter, it forwards everything and takes no exceptions. Turn it off there, then set the forwarding up again as a filter, using the condition above.

Google Workspace, for a whole domain

In the Admin console, go to Apps, then Google Workspace, then Settings for Gmail, then Routing. Routing is near the bottom of a long page. It is not Default routing, which is higher up and does a different job.
Find the routing setting that sends mail to LittleDesk and select Edit. Leave the rest of the setting alone.
Select Show options. Under Address lists, select Use address lists to bypass or control application of this setting, then choose Bypass this setting for specific addresses / domains.
Select Create or edit list. It opens in a new browser tab, and the rule stays open in the first one.
Select ADD ADDRESS LIST, give the list a Name, then select ADD ADDRESS and enter support@littledesk.io. If the list offers Authentication required, leave it on. Our notifications are signed, and both DKIM and DMARC pass, so the list still matches them. Select Save.
Go back to the first tab and select Use existing list, then pick the list you just made.
Select Save. Google says most changes take effect within a few minutes, and can take up to 24 hours.

Use the address list, not the envelope filter. An address list checks the From address you see in the message, which is support@littledesk.io. The Envelope filter checks a different address, the one the sending server used, and every notification we send carries a different one ending @bounce.senddy.io. A filter written against support@littledesk.io there matches nothing, and the mail keeps coming back. Matching the bounce domain instead would work, and would be worse: it covers every sender who uses the same mail provider we do, so ordinary customer mail could stop reaching LittleDesk without anyone noticing.

A rule written for the whole domain forwards every address on it, including the ones people sign in with. That is the most common reason several people lose their notifications at once.

Microsoft 365

In the Exchange admin center, go to Mail flow, then Rules.
Select the rule that redirects or forwards mail to LittleDesk, then Edit rule conditions.
Under Except if, select The sender, then address matches any of these text patterns, and enter support@littledesk.io. Do not use address includes any of these words. Microsoft's documentation warns that a search containing the @ sign may not match with that option.
Save the rule. Then select Edit rule settings and check that Match sender address in message is set to Header, which is the default. Microsoft says a changed rule can take 30 minutes or more to apply.

Leave the sender match on Header. Header checks the From address you see in the message. Envelope checks the address the sending server used, which is different on every notification we send, so an exception set to Envelope matches nothing.

Forwarding can also be switched on for a single mailbox in the Microsoft 365 admin center, rather than by a rule. That kind forwards everything and takes no exceptions. Turn it off there, then set the forwarding up again as a mail flow rule, using the exception above.

How to tell which setup you are in

We cannot see your forwarding rules, so we do not know which of these applies to you. One of them usually fits.

One person answers support from the address they signed up with. Their own address forwards into LittleDesk, so their own notifications come back to us. Common for a sole trader or a very small team.

A routing rule was written for the whole domain. Every address on the domain forwards, including the ones people sign in with. If more than one person is affected, this is the likely cause.

A shared address is also somebody's sign-in address. Mail to something like accounts@yourcompany.com forwards into LittleDesk, and one person also signs in with it.

The fix above is the same in all three, as long as the address has a mailbox behind it.

When the address has no inbox

Some addresses have nowhere to deliver to. A Google Group, a distribution list, or forwarding set up at the domain registrar takes mail and passes it straight on, and keeps no mailbox of its own. If the address somebody signs in with is one of those, stopping the forwarding sends their notifications nowhere at all, and they are no better off.

That person needs to sign in with an address that has its own inbox. They can change it themselves:

Select the account menu, then Preferences.
Select Sign-in address, then Change address.
Enter an address with its own inbox, and the account's current password if it has one.
Open the link we send to the new address and select Confirm this address.

Signing in with the new address starts straight away, every other device is signed out, and a note goes to the old address with an Undo this change button that works for 7 days.

Someone who owns or administers a workspace is asked twice. A second email goes to the address they are leaving, and that address has to approve the change as well. Either link can be opened first, and the account moves only once both are done. Until then nothing changes and nobody is signed in. A change approved this way gets no note afterwards and no Undo this change button, because approving it already proved who holds the old address.

An admin cannot change somebody else's sign-in address. LittleDesk support can, and it takes effect straight away. Both addresses get a note saying it happened, and the password is not changed.

A rule that forwards a whole domain catches a new address on that domain too. If mail to yourcompany.com is routed into LittleDesk for every address, moving from support@yourcompany.com to carlos@yourcompany.com changes nothing by itself. Either add the exception above to the routing rule, or choose an address on a domain the rule does not cover.

After you change it

Nothing needs to be done in LittleDesk. The next notification we send will reach the person's mailbox normally.

The alert in LittleDesk carries a button marked I've fixed this, which hides it straight away. If mail comes back to us again after that, the alert returns with an updated count. That is not a judgment about your change. Forwarding is often set up in more than one place, so a rule can be corrected and mail can still arrive back here through another one.