# Can't forward an email to a group & preserve the content
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/cant-forward-an-email-to-a-group-preserve-the-content/42897
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [April 20, 2016, 5:42pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cant-forward-an-email-to-a-group-preserve-the-content/42897 "2016-04-20T17:42:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@downey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/downey)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2016, 5:42pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cant-forward-an-email-to-a-group-preserve-the-content/42897/1 "2016-04-20T17:42:03Z")
Continuing the discussion from [Category not accepting "anonymous email" from known users](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-not-accepting-anonymous-email-from-known-users/42871):
On a similar note, I tried to forward an email from the user having problems to a **different** email alias that was mapped to the Group X membership.
**Reproduce:**
1. Create a group to which anyone can @mention or send messages.
2. Assign a valid POP alias to that group.
3. As an admin, forward an email to that group alias with some introductory text & CC the original author.
**Expected Results:**
- The original author, whose email address matches a valid Discourse user, is added to the direct message.
- The original email content is preserved and appears in the lead post within the Group Message.
**Actual Results:**
- The original author, whose email address matches a valid Discourse user, is added to the direct message. (Yay!)
- The original email content is **not** preserved and **does not appear** in the lead post within the Group Message. Only the introductory text is posted.
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2016, 5:43pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cant-forward-an-email-to-a-group-preserve-the-content/42897/2 "2016-04-20T17:43:26Z")
Why would it be? This is a quoted email, exactly the kind we try to suppress when an email reply comes through.
I don’t see any feature that promised forwarding email would work – that has never been on the table, ever.
---
### Author:  [@downey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/downey)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2016, 5:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cant-forward-an-email-to-a-group-preserve-the-content/42897/3 "2016-04-20T17:47:49Z")
> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> that has never been on the table, ever
Well, it was on the table a year ago. I guess I’d assumed it was fixed.
> [@Text of forwarded emails don't show up in posts](https://meta.discourse.org/t/text-of-forwarded-emails-dont-show-up-in-posts/23155/14):
>
> It is on my list, but low priority. A PM to me with details/findings would be appreciated. Latest version of GitHub email\_reply\_parser.
---
### Author:  [@DeanMarkTaylor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/DeanMarkTaylor)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2016, 5:54pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cant-forward-an-email-to-a-group-preserve-the-content/42897/4 "2016-04-20T17:54:03Z")
Because it might be relevant here, this is how Help Scout handles manually forwarded messages:
> **[Manually Forward Email to Help Scout - Help Scout Support](https://docs.helpscout.com/article/59-manual-forwarding)**
>
> Every now and then, you might get an email in your inbox that needs to be a conversation in Help Scout. All you have to do is forward the email from your person
“Notes” in Help Scout are akin to to “Whispers” in Discourse.
---
### Author:  [@downey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/downey)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2016, 5:55pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cant-forward-an-email-to-a-group-preserve-the-content/42897/5 "2016-04-20T17:55:56Z")
> [@DeanMarkTaylor](#):
>
> Because it might be relevant here, this is how Help Scout handles manually forwarded messages:
FWIW, that doc seems to be how [Desk.com](http://Desk.com) handles support cases as well. It seems like a solid model, although to be clear I’d take anything that could preserve the content. (Since it’s easy enough to change post ownership in Discourse.)
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2016, 2:33am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cant-forward-an-email-to-a-group-preserve-the-content/42897/6 "2016-04-22T02:33:15Z")
For the record I find “Forwarding” support a great feature if we can work out all the mechanics.
Ideally I would like this to work:
- I get an email to my personal mailbox with a Discourse question.
- I forward “email” to team
- We create a topic on behalf the person who originally sent me the email.
- (profit) another email in my mailbox I don’t need to deal with in GMail and team can help triage
The case of “introductory text” though is tricky. That would have to be injected as a whisper.
---
### Author:  [@downey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/downey)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2016, 4:27am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cant-forward-an-email-to-a-group-preserve-the-content/42897/7 "2016-04-22T04:27:18Z")
In my case, the only reason there was intro text was because I was explaining why the email was being forwarded ([due to this bug](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-not-accepting-anonymous-email-from-known-users/42871)). 🙂
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2017, 7:13am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cant-forward-an-email-to-a-group-preserve-the-content/42897/8 "2017-02-10T07:13:45Z")
Forwarding single emails will work as of Discourse 1.7.
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2017, 7:13am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cant-forward-an-email-to-a-group-preserve-the-content/42897/9 "2017-02-10T07:13:51Z")