What you are setting up
A copy of every email that arrives in your existing mailbox is delivered to your Uptick inbox. The original still arrives in your mailbox as normal, your email address does not change, and your customers keep emailing you exactly as they do now.
You set this up in your own email system rather than in Uptick, so it is one for whoever looks after your email. If that is not you, this article is written to be sent straight on to them.
Before you start
PLEASE NOTE: There are a number of pitfalls when setting this up. Please ensure you follow the instructions carefully.
You need two addresses.
Your existing mailbox. The shared address your customers already email, for example
[email protected].Your Uptick inbox address. It looks like
[mailbox]@[yourcompany].mail.onuptick.com. You will find your exact address in Control Panel > Inboxes. Copy it from there rather than typing it out, so there is no chance of a typo.
Then follow the one section below that matches your email system.
Microsoft 365 or Exchange Online
This is the option we recommend for anyone on Microsoft. It is a single tenant-wide rule, it leaves your own mail delivery untouched, and it avoids the external forwarding block that catches most teams.
Microsoft's documentation: Manage mail flow rules
Open the Exchange admin centre (
admin.exchange.microsoft.com) and go to Mail flow > Rules.Select Add a rule > Create a new rule, and give it a name such as "Copy service mail to Uptick".
Under Apply this rule if, choose The recipient > address includes any of these, and enter your existing mailbox address.
Under Do the following, choose Add recipients > to the Bcc box, and enter your Uptick inbox address.
Leave the rule mode as Enforce, save it, and check it is switched on in the rules list.
Add your Uptick inbox address as a safe sender, so your email security does not hold the copy back.
In PowerShell, the same rule is:
New-TransportRule -Name "Copy to Uptick" -SentTo "[email protected]" -BlindCopyTo "[email protected]"
Your mail is delivered to your mailbox as normal and a blind copy goes to Uptick, so it keeps arriving in Outlook while it also flows into the Inbox.
Use the BCC action rather than an auto-forward. A BCC passes the message through unchanged, so it keeps its security checks intact and stays in one conversation. A forward re-sends the message and can bounce. A mail flow rule is also not caught by Microsoft's external forwarding block, so unlike an Outlook mailbox rule you do not need to change your outbound anti-spam policy.
If a rule has already been set up and your own mailbox has stopped receiving email, switching that same rule to the BCC action will bring your copy back.
Outlook
Use this only if you cannot set a tenant-wide rule and need to work on the mailbox itself. It is the one option that can affect delivery to your own mailbox, so where you have the choice, use the Microsoft 365 or Exchange Online rule above.
Microsoft's documentation: Use rules to automatically forward messages
Sign in to the mailbox and open Settings > Mail > Rules.
Select Add new rule and give it a name such as "Copy to Uptick".
Set the condition to Apply to all messages.
Set the action to Redirect to, and enter your Uptick inbox address (a copy will still be sent to your original mailbox).
Save the rule and check it is switched on.
Use "Redirect to", not "Forward to". A forward changes the invisible security checks that email systems use to spot fakes, so forwarded mail either bounces or arrives split into separate conversations.
Then allow external forwarding
Microsoft 365 blocks external forwarding by default, so the rule above will not work until it is switched on.
Microsoft's documentation: Configure outbound spam policies
Open the Microsoft Defender portal and go to Email & collaboration > Policies & rules > Threat policies > Anti-spam.
Open your outbound anti-spam policy and edit the protection settings.
Set Automatic forwarding rules to On - Forwarding is enabled.
Add your Uptick inbox address as a safe sender.
Miss this step and mail bounces with "550 5.7.520". The change can take a little while to take effect.
Gmail or Google Workspace
Google's documentation: Redirect or forward Gmail messages to another user
Sign in to the Google Admin console and go to Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail > Routing.
Under Recipient address map, select Configure.
Add a mapping from your existing mailbox address to your Uptick inbox address.
Tick Also route to original destination, so mail keeps arriving in your own mailbox as well as Uptick.
Save, and allow a few minutes for the change to apply.
Add your Uptick inbox address as a safe sender.
Use the address map rather than Gmail's forwarding setting. A forward splits one conversation into separate tickets; the address map passes the message through unchanged.
If your shared address is a Google Group
Many teams run a shared address like service@ as a Google Group rather than a mailbox. A group cannot hold a routing rule, because it distributes mail to its members instead.
Instead, add your Uptick inbox address as a member of the group. Every email sent to the group is then delivered to Uptick like any other member. We recommend this over opening the group up to external senders, which some teams prefer to avoid for security reasons.
Check it worked
Send a test email to your existing mailbox from an outside address, not from an internal one. Internal test mail can pass while external mail is still being blocked, which hides the most common problem.
The email should appear in your Uptick inbox within a minute or two, and still arrive in your own mailbox as usual.
If mail is not arriving
There are two common causes, and neither shows an error at the point you set the rule up.
A forward was set up instead of a copy. A forward changes the invisible security checks that email systems use to spot fakes, and Uptick's mail system rejects emails that fail them. Use the Bcc mail flow rule, the Outlook redirect action, or the Gmail address map as described above.
Microsoft 365 is blocking external forwarding. If the bounce says "550 5.7.520 Access denied, your organization does not allow external forwarding", Microsoft 365 is refusing to send mail to an outside address, which it blocks by default. Either allow it in your outbound anti-spam policy, or switch to the Microsoft 365 or Exchange Online mail flow rule, which is not subject to that block.
If you have checked both and mail is still not arriving, get in touch and we will check from our side whether anything is reaching us.