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Reply-All Storm Catcher™

Reply-All Storm Catcher™ is a feature that prevents duplicate tickets when multiple people reply to the same email thread. It works by tracking email relationships and automatically routing replies to the correct existing ticket, even when those replies don't contain a ticket number.

The Problem​

Consider this scenario:

  1. A customer sends an email to your support address, copying several coworkers
  2. MSPintegrations creates a new Autotask ticket (e.g., T20240115.0042)
  3. One of the copied coworkers hits "Reply All" to add information
  4. Their reply doesn't contain the ticket number because the original email didn't have one yet

Without Reply-All Storm Catcher™, that reply would create a second ticket. If five coworkers reply-all, you'd end up with six tickets for the same issue.

The Solution​

Reply-All Storm Catcher™ solves this by tracking the relationship between emails and tickets:

  1. When Create Autotask Ticket creates a new ticket, it logs the email's Message-ID header and associates it with the new ticket number
  2. When Update Existing Autotask Ticket processes an incoming email that has no ticket number, it checks the email's headers
  3. Email replies contain references to the original message (via In-Reply-To and References headers)
  4. If those references match a previously logged Message-ID, the action uses the associated ticket

Result: All replies in the thread are added as notes to the original ticket, regardless of whether they contain the ticket number.

Throughout the rest of this document, "Reply-All Storm Catcher" refers to Reply-All Storm Catcher™.

How Email Threading Works​

Email clients use standard headers to track conversations:

HeaderPurpose
Message-IDUnique identifier assigned to each email by the sending mail server
In-Reply-ToContains the Message-ID of the email being replied to
ReferencesContains Message-IDs of all previous emails in the thread

When someone replies to an email, their email client automatically includes these headers. Reply-All Storm Catcher uses this information to connect replies to the original ticket.

Enabling Reply-All Storm Catcher​

Reply-All Storm Catcher is enabled by default in the Update Existing Autotask Ticket action.

To verify it's enabled:

  1. Edit your rule containing the Update Existing Autotask Ticket action
  2. In the Ticket Matching section, confirm Enable Reply-All Storm Catcher is checked

No additional configuration is required for Create Autotask Ticket. It automatically logs the Message-ID association whenever it creates a ticket.

Requirements​

For Reply-All Storm Catcher to work:

  1. Both actions must be used together: Create Autotask Ticket logs the association; Update Existing Autotask Ticket looks it up
  2. Update Existing Autotask Ticket must run first: Place it before Create Autotask Ticket in your rule so it has a chance to find existing tickets
  3. Email headers must be preserved: The incoming email must contain valid In-Reply-To or References headers (standard for all major email clients)

Example Workflow​

Here's the recommended rule configuration:

Rule: "Process Support Email"
  1. Update Existing Autotask Ticket
     - Searches for ticket number in subject
     - If not found, uses Reply-All Storm Catcher to check email thread
     - If ticket found: adds note and stops
     - If no ticket found: continues to next action
  
  2. Create Autotask Ticket
     - Creates new ticket
     - Logs Message-ID for future Reply-All Storm Catcher lookups

How Long Are Associations Stored?​

Message-ID to ticket associations are stored indefinitely. This means Reply-All Storm Catcher can match replies even if they arrive days or weeks after the original email.

Limitations​

Reply-All Storm Catcher may not work in these situations:

  • Forwarded emails: When someone forwards an email (rather than replying), the email client typically doesn't include threading headers
  • New email threads: If someone starts a new email about the same topic instead of replying to the thread, there's no header relationship to match
  • Modified headers: Some email systems strip or modify threading headers, breaking the chain
  • Cross-mailbox scenarios: Associations are logged per MSPintegrations configuration; emails to different mailboxes won't share associations

Troubleshooting​

Duplicate tickets are still being created​

  1. Verify Reply-All Storm Catcher is enabled in the Update Existing Autotask Ticket action
  2. Check action order: Update Existing Autotask Ticket must come before Create Autotask Ticket
  3. Check the email headers: View the message logs to confirm In-Reply-To or References headers are present
  4. Confirm both actions are in the same rule or that the original ticket was created by a rule with Create Autotask Ticket

Reply was added to the wrong ticket​

This can happen if:

  • The email client reused threading headers incorrectly
  • The user replied to the wrong email in their inbox

Check the email's References header in the logs to see which Message-IDs it contained.