Skip to content

Move an inbox channel to help desk

Last updated: October 28, 2026

Available with any of the following subscriptions, except where noted:

Move existing channels and conversations from the conversations inbox to help desk so your support team can manage tickets in one workspace. Help desk provides advanced ticket organization, custom reporting, and AI-powered tools to help your team manage customer issues more efficiently.

You can move existing chatflows, team email, form, and calling channels to help desk. When moving a channel, you can also choose to migrate historical conversations and their associated tickets.

Permissions required Super Admin permissions are required to move channels from the conversations inbox to help desk.

Before you get started

Before migrating an existing inbox channel or chatflow to help desk, keep the following considerations and best practices in mind:

  • Supported channels: you can move chatflows, connected team email, calling, and form channels to help desk. Fallback email addresses cannot be migrated.
  • WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger: these channels cannot be migrated directly. You must delete the channel from the conversations inbox and reconnect it to help desk.
  • Historical conversations: you can choose whether to move existing conversations and associated tickets during migration. You can also revert channels to the inbox after migration.
  • Ticket creation: incoming conversations from channels connected to help desk automatically create tickets. This may trigger ticket-based workflows if the tickets meet their enrollment criteria. Learn more about managing workflow enrollment settings.
  • Notifications: ticket creation and assignment during migration may trigger notifications. To reduce unnecessary notifications, consider turning off notifications before migration and turning them back on afterward.
  • Mobile access: help desk is not available in the HubSpot mobile app.

  • It's highly recommended that all agents in your account have access to help desk and you've set up help desk SLAs.

  • Although HubSpot will automatically detect any new conversations that come in while you're actively migrating your inbox, it's recommended that you begin the migration during low volume times of the day to reduce disruptions to your support staff and existing processes.

  • Due to the connected nature of forms and email, it's recommended you move any connected email channels that are used by your agents to respond to form submissions.
    • Moving the form channel to help desk may not move in-progress communications that started from a form and then continued in email.
    • If you move the email channel your agents use to respond to form submissions, then the conversations and tickets will show in help desk instead of the inbox with the history of both the form submissions and follow-up emails.

If you're moving a rule-based chatbot from the conversations inbox to help desk, the following must be true:

Learn more about how to choose your bot actions.

Move a channel to help desk

  1. In your HubSpot account, click the settings icon in the top navigation bar.

  2. In the left sidebar menu, click Inbox & Help Desk > Channels. 

  3. In the Move channels and conversation history section, click Move channels to help desk.
  4. To move all channels, select the Move all channels checkbox. 
  5. To move specific channels, select the checkboxes next to the channels you want to move.
  6. Click Next. 
  1. By default, all conversations will be moved to help desk. To change your preference for moving historical conversations, click Back. Then, on the Move conversations page, select an option:
    • Move all conversations from all channels: all existing conversations from the channel will be moved to help desk, as well as any associated tickets. Conversations without tickets will have a ticket created as they enter help desk.
    • Leave all conversations in the inbox: existing conversations will remain in the current conversations inbox. If you select this option, you'll be taken to the Review page.
    • Move conversations from specific channels: select the channels whose conversations you want to move to help desk. Conversations from unselected channels will remain in the current inbox.

      help-desk-channels-migration
  1. On the Select pipelines page, click the Pipeline dropdown menu and select a pipeline to route tickets to.

    help-desk-assign-pipelines-moved-channels
  2. Click Next.
  3. On the Assign statuses page, click the dropdown menus under the Open and Closed statuses and select an associated ticket status to map them to.
  4. Click Next.
  5. On the Review page, confirm the channels you've selected to migrate. Once you're ready to move your inbox or chatflow, click Migrate channels.

Please note: the option to move historical conversations to help desk is only available during migration. If you choose not to move historical conversations during the initial migration, you can move them later by reverting the channel to the conversations inbox and migrating it to help desk again.

Once you move your channel, you will see a page confirming the migration is in process. The time it takes for the migration to be complete depends on the amount of data being moved. Leaving this page will not interfere with the migration process.

When the channel has successfully migrated, you will see it in the help desk workspace instead of the inbox.

help-desk-move-channels

Understand migration behavior 

When you move a channel to help desk, the following actions will occur:

  • Channel settings are preserved: existing settings, including signatures, routing, automation, and ticket creation settings, are retained rather than reset to help desk defaults.
  • New conversations create tickets: incoming conversations from the migrated channel automatically create associated tickets in help desk.
  • Help desk access and SLAs apply: help desk access settings and SLAs apply to new tickets created from the migrated channel.

If you choose to move historical conversations to help desk:

  • Conversations with associated tickets are moved along with their existing tickets.
  • Conversations without associated tickets have new tickets created and associated with them. For these tickets:
    • The ticket creation date matches the conversation start date.
    • The ticket status is mapped to the selected open or closed ticket status.
    • The ticket owner is set to the existing conversation owner, provided they have help desk access. Otherwise, the ticket remains unassigned.
  • New replies to migrated conversations appear in help desk with their associated tickets.
  • Help desk access settings and SLAs apply to migrated conversations and tickets.
  • If a conversation was started on one channel and then moved to another, only the original channel is considered when moving the historical conversation data. For example, if a conversation started in a live chat channel and then moved to a connected email channel, that conversation will not be moved into help desk if you move the connected email channel and its historical conversations.

A message will appear in your inbox settings and the inbox to inform users in your account that a move is in progress. This is critical for agents who might start to notice that their assigned conversations are changing.

Once a migration has started, it cannot be stopped. However, after the migration is complete, you can revert the channel back to the conversations inbox.

As a channel is actively moving to help desk, HubSpot will detect and move any new conversations that come into the migrating inbox channel.

Revert a channel back to the inbox

  1. In your HubSpot account, click the settings icon in the top navigation bar. 
  2. In the left sidebar menu, click Inbox & Help Desk > Channels.
  3. In the Move channels and conversation history section, click Revert a channel back to inbox.

  1. Select the reason you want to move back to the inbox. 

  2. Click Select channels. 

  3. Click the dropdown menu and select the inbox you want to move the channels to. 

  4. Select the checkbox next to the channels you want to move. 

  5. Click Move back to inbox. 
Was this article helpful?
This form is used for documentation feedback only. Learn how to get help with HubSpot.
Table of contents Menu

Related content

New to HubSpot? Use these guides to get started.