Auto-replies, bounces and mail loops
Hushdesk ignores out-of-office replies, bounces and its own replies coming back, so they never become tickets or start an endless email loop.
Last updated 2 min read
Automatic emails are everywhere: out-of-office replies, delivery failures, "we got your message" confirmations. If a helpdesk treated them as customers, two systems could answer each other forever. Hushdesk recognises these emails and keeps them out of your inbox.
Before you start
- Who this affects: everyone. There is nothing to switch on.
- Plan: all plans.
Step by step
Every email that reaches your forwarding address goes through these checks before it can become a ticket:
- Forwarding confirmation? Gmail and Zoho confirmation emails show their code on the setup page.
- The setup test? The forwarding test turns the setup step green.
- Automatic? Out-of-office replies, auto-responders, Hushdesk's own replies coming back and bounces are skipped and noted on the address.
- Already received? The same email delivered twice is kept once.
- Otherwise: the email joins a ticket or starts a new one. See How email threading works.
What happens next
Skipped emails never appear in the inbox and never count toward your plan. Hushdesk records when it last skipped one and why (for example "bounce" or "auto-reply") on the email address, which helps support investigate if something goes missing.
On the sending side, if our email provider refuses a reply, the reply in the ticket shows Email failed with the reason. See Check if a reply was emailed.
Loop protection in workflows
Rules never set off other rules. A rule that sends an automatic reply cannot cause another rule to fire, so your own automations cannot loop either. See Create a rule.
Tips
- Turn off "we received your message" auto-responders in your own mailbox once Hushdesk answers. Customers do not need two confirmations.
- If you use a rule to send an automatic first reply, keep it short and honest about when a person will answer.
- A customer whose own mailbox marks every email as automatic may be skipped. Ask them to write from another address if they say you never replied.
Troubleshooting
A real customer email was skipped
Some mail systems mark ordinary emails as automatic. Look for the original in your support mailbox and reply from Hushdesk with a new ticket if needed. See Start a new ticket.
I see bounces in my own mailbox but not in Hushdesk
That is expected: bounces are skipped in Hushdesk. Check the reply's delivery line in the ticket instead.
Frequently asked questions
Do out-of-office replies create tickets in Hushdesk?
No. When a customer's mailbox answers your reply with an automatic out-of-office message, Hushdesk recognises it as an auto-reply and does not create a ticket or add it to the conversation. It only notes the skip on the email address, so your inbox stays clean.
What happens when an email I send bounces?
The bounce message is not turned into a ticket. Hushdesk notes it on the email address. If our email provider refused the reply in the first place, the reply in the ticket shows Email failed with the reason, so you know the customer did not receive it.
Can Hushdesk get stuck in an email loop?
It is designed not to. Hushdesk ignores its own replies coming back, automatic replies and bounces, so two automatic systems can never keep answering each other. Rule actions also never trigger further rules, which prevents loops inside your workflows.
Why did an email from a customer not appear?
If the customer's email looks automatic, for example a mailbox that marks every message as auto-generated, it may be skipped as an auto-reply. Ask them to write from a normal mailbox, and check your own mailbox's copy in the meantime.
Do auto-replies affect my plan usage?
No. Skipped auto-replies and bounces never become tickets, so they never count as conversations toward your plan. Only real customer emails create tickets and count toward your monthly conversation cap, which means a busy week of out-of-office replies in the holidays costs you nothing.
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Related articles
- How email threading worksHow Hushdesk keeps a customer's replies in the same ticket using email headers, a private reply address and the subject, and when a new ticket opens.
- Check if a reply was emailedEvery email reply shows a delivery line under it. Learn what Emailed to, Not emailed and Email failed mean, and what to do about each one.
- Troubleshoot email forwardingEmails not reaching Hushdesk? Work through the common causes, from forwarding left off or blocked to filters, typos and confirmation codes.
Still stuck?
Chat with the Hushdesk team. A person answers on every plan.