Automation #3 - Auto-sync email attachments to tickets

Automation #3 - Auto-sync email attachments to tickets




This is a monthly series where we pick some common use cases that have been either discussed or most asked about in our community and explain how they can be achieved using one of the automation capabilities in Zoho Desk.









Most of our customers use email as their primary channel for customer support. Keeping that in mind we ensured Zoho Desk's multi-channel capability allowed for every email received in your inbox to be automatically converted into tickets in Zoho Desk. But for some time now, we have been receiving question on how to convert email attachments into ticket attachments within Zoho Desk. This process, which is mostly achieved manually now by many customers, can be automated using a simple script.




This automation involves two components: a connection and a workflow rule. We will first start by creating the connection and then set up the workflow rules to execute the custom function.






To create the connection, perform the following steps:
  1. Go to Setup > Connections under Developer Space
  2. Click "Create Connection"
  3. Select "Zoho Desk" under "Default Services"
  4. Give the connection name as "ticketattachment"
  5. Under Scope below values
    Desk.tickets.READ
    Desk.tickets.UPDATE
  6. Click "Create and Connect"

  7. Click "Connect" and click "Accept"


Connection is created successfully.

To create workflow rule and associate custom function, perform the following steps:
  1. Go to Setup, and under Automation, click Workflows.
  2. On the left panel, under Workflows, click Rules > Create Rule,
    In the Basic Information section, carry out the following steps:
  3. In the Module drop-down menu, select Tickets.
  4. Enter a name and description for the rule.
  5. If you want to activate the rule right away, select the Active checkbox. Else, you can just create the rule now and activate it later, on the Rules page.
  6. Click Next.
    In the Execute on section, perform the following steps:
  7. Select the Create checkbox to execute this rule every time a new ticket is created. 
    NOTE: If you would like to fetch all the attachment sent out and received in tickets, select "Customer Reply" and "Agent Response"
  8. Click Next, skip the "Criteria" and Click Next.
  9. In the Actions section, carry out the following steps:
  10. Click the + icon under "Action" and select "New" next to Custom Functions
  11. Enter a name and description for the custom function.
  12. In the script window, input the Custom Function you find below:

    1. //Replace your zoho desk URL accordingly
    2. getTicketThread = invokeurl
    3. [
    4. url :deskDomain + "/api/v1/tickets/" + ticketID + "/latestThread"
    5. type :GET
    6. connection:"ticketattachment"
    7. ];
    8. dir = getTicketThread.get("direction");
    9. info "Direction " + dir;
    10. if(dir == "in")
    11. {
    12. prefix = "customer_";
    13. }
    14. else
    15. {
    16. prefix = "agent_";
    17. }
    18. listAttachments = getTicketThread.get("attachments");
    19. for each  attach in listAttachments
    20. {
    21. attachmentURL = attach.get("href");
    22. filename = prefix + attach.get("name");
    23. getAttachment = invokeurl
    24. [
    25. url :attachmentURL
    26. type :GET
    27. connection:"ticketattachment"
    28. ];
    29. if(getAttachment != null)
    30. {
    31. if(isText(getAttachment))
    32. {
    33. getAttachment = getAttachment.toFile(filename);
    34. }
    35. //info getAttachment;
    36. param = Map();
    37. param.put(filename,getAttachment);
    38. getAttachment.setParamName("file");
    39. uploadResponse = invokeurl
    40. [
    41. url :deskDomain + "/api/v1/tickets/" + ticketID + "/attachments"
    42. type :POST
    43. parameters:param
    44. headers: {"Content-Type":"multipart/form-data"}
    45. connection:"ticketattachment"
    46. ];
    47. info uploadResponse;
    48. }
    49. }



  13. Click Edit Arguments
  14. In the Name field type TicketID, and from the Value drop-down list select Ticket Id under Ticket Information
  15. Click "Save" to save the custom function

  16. Click "Save" again to save the workflow.
This should help you fetch attachments from incoming or outgoing response of a ticket and update them under tickets attachments tab.

      • Sticky Posts

      • Register for Zoho Desk Beta Community

        With the start of the year, we have decided to take a small step in making the life of our customers a little easier. We now have easy access to all our upcoming features and a faster way to request for beta access. We open betas for some of our features
      • Share your Zoho Desk story with us!

        Tell us how you use Zoho Desk for your business and inspire others with your story. Be it a simple workflow rule that helps you navigate complex processes or a macro that saves your team a lot of time; share it here and help the community learn and grow with shared knowledge. 
      • Tip #1: Learn to pick the right channels

        Mail, live chat, telephony, social media, web forms—there are so many support channels out there. Trying to pick the right channels to offer your customers can get pretty confusing. Emails are most useful when the customer wants to put things on record. However, escalated or complicated issues should not be resolved over email because it's slow and impersonal.  When you need immediate responses, live chat is more suitable. It's also quick and convenient, so it's the go-to channel for small issues. 
      • Welcome to Zoho Desk Community - Say hello here!

        Hello everyone! Though we have been here for a while, it’s time to formally establish the Zoho Desk Community; we’re really happy to have you all here! This can be the place where you take a moment to introduce yourself to the rest of the community. We’d love to hear all about you, what you do, what company or industry you work for, how you use Zoho Desk and anything else that you will like to share! Here’s a little about me. I am Chinmayee. I have been associated with Zoho since 2014. I joined here
      • Webinar 1: Blueprint for Customer Service

        With the launch of a host of new features in Zoho Desk, we thought it’ll be great to have a few webinars to help our customers make the most of them. We’re starting off with our most talked about feature, Blueprint in Zoho Desk. You can register for the Blueprint webinar here: The webinar will be delivered by our in-house product experts. This is a good opportunity to ask questions to our experts and understand how Blueprint can help you automate your service processes. We look forward to seeing

        • Recent Topics

        • Hiding Pre-defined Views

          You can enhance Zoho with custom views - but you cannot hide the pre-defined views. Most users focus on 4 or 5 views. Right now for EVERY user EVERY time they want to move to one of their 4 or 5 views - they have to scroll down past a long list of pre-defined
        • why can't agent see accounts & contacts

          My new user, with 'Agent' privileges, cannot see records that don't belong to them. How can I give them access? Why isn't this the default configuration in Zoho?
        • Sender Email Configuration Error.

          Hello Team, Hope you are all doing well. We are in the process of creating the Zoho FSM environment in the UAE. When we try to add the sender email address “techsupportuae@stryker.com”, we receive the error message: “Error occurred while sending mail
        • 【Zoho CRM】フィルター機能のアップデート:ルックアップ項目を使ったデータフィルタリング

          ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。コミュニティチームの藤澤です。 今回は「Zoho CRM アップデート情報」の中からフィルター機能のアップデートをご紹介します。 ルックアップ項目を使ったデータフィルタリングがより詳細に行えるようになりました。 この機能は詳細フィルターとカスタムビューで利用でき、必要な情報を正確に取得できます。 これにより、タブ間を移動することなく、より深く正確な方法でデータを絞り込むことが可能になります。 ◉できること 詳細フィルターとカスタムビューで、ルックアップ先タブの項目が選択可能
        • This will be long, Please bear with me - Next Gen Layout - Search

          In general, I think that Zoho are going in the right direction with the Next Gen UI. The latest update brings some nice improvements and all-in-all from a user's perspective I think the improvements are generally very good. However, there are some areas
        • Zoho Books | Product updates | July 2025

          Hello users, We’ve rolled out new features and enhancements in Zoho Books. From plan-based trials to the option to mark PDF templates as inactive, explore the updates designed to enhance your bookkeeping experience. Introducing Plan Based Trials in Zoho
        • Zoho Books | Product updates | August 2025

          Hello users, We’ve rolled out new features and enhancements in Zoho Books. From the right sidebar where you can manage all your widgets, to integrating Zoho Payments feeds in Zoho Books, explore the updates designed to enhance your bookkeeping experience.
        • Quotes Approval

          Hey all, Could you please help in the following: When creating quotes, how to configure it in a way, that its approval would work according to the quoted items description, not according to quote information. In my case, the quote should be sent to approval
        • Important Update: Facebook Pages API Deprecation

          Dear Zoho Analytics users, As of January 26, 2026, Facebook has officially deprecated Facebook Pages API version 18. This update involves the removal of several metrics that were previously supported by the API. As a result, these changes will affect
        • Adding a Deal to and Existing Contact

          I want to easily add a Deal to an existing Contact. If I click on New Deal on the Contact page this currently this is what happens: All of the mandatory field (and other field) information exists within the Contact. Is there a simple way for it to automatically
        • Custom SMTP is now available in Zoho Sign

          Hi there! Want to send Zoho Sign emails from your organization's or personal email server? Look no further! Zoho Sign has introduced custom Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) for Enterprise users across all data centers. By enabling custom SMTP, you
        • Email was sent out without our permission

          Hi there, One customer just reached out to us about this email that we were not aware was being sent to our customers. Can you please check on your end?
        • Flexible Partial-Use Coupons (Stored Value Credits)

          Subject: Feature Request: Ability for users to apply partial coupon balances per transaction Problem Statement Currently, our coupons are "one-and-done." If a user has a $50 coupon but only spends $30, they either lose the remaining $20 or are forced
        • Prevent accidental duplicate entry of Customer Ordersome

          Zoho Support has confirmed that Zoho currently does not have any method (using Deluge, flow or any other method) to alert a user when a sales order has been entered twice using the same customer reference number (i.e. a duplicate). Most ERP platforms
        • Collapsing and expanding of lists and paragraphs

          hello Would you ever implement Collapsing and expanding of lists and paragraphs in zoho writer ? Best regards
        • Migrating Brevo Automation Logic to Zoho Campaigns

          Hello Zoho Campaigns Support Team, I am in the process of migrating my email marketing from Brevo to Zoho Campaigns. I have around 10,000 contacts, which I have already successfully exported from Brevo and imported into Zoho Campaigns. I now need guidance
        • Is there a way to delete workspaces?

          I want to remove one of the workspaces in my Campaigns account. I don't see any obvious way to do this. Am I missing something?
        • New Custom View -Sorting the Custom fields

          While creating a New Custom View in invoice , Customers, Bills ,expense etc , the sorting of custom fields are not available , a query function "order by / sort by  " may also be included in  Define new criteria module  which will be more beneficial to
        • Make CAMPAIGNS email look as simple as possible

          Hi there I'm trying to make my Campaigns email look as much like a normal email as possible. I'm a bit stuck with the "justification" of the email email block. Can I LEFT JUSTIFY the "whole email" to make it look "normal"? (Please see screenshot attached)
        • [Webinar] Top 10 Most Used Zoho Analytics Features in 2025

          Zoho Analytics has evolved significantly over the past year. Discover the most widely adopted features in Zoho Analytics in 2025, based on real customer usage patterns, best practices, and high-impact use cases. Learn how leading teams are turning data
        • Sorry! we encountered some problems while sending your campaign. It will be sent automatically once we are ready. We apologize for the delay caused.

          Hello. Lately we are having problems with some campaigns, which show us this error message. Sorry! we encountered some problems while sending your campaign. It will be sent automatically once we are ready. We apologize for the delay caused. We can't find
        • Can I remove or divert certain contacts from an active Campaigns workflow?

          I have created a workflow in Zoho Campaigns, which sends different emails, once contacts have been added to a mailing list. To choose which email to send to the contacts, there are conditions, which divert contacts based on their company type and their company size. There was a subsection of this workflow, where company size wasn't selected correctly, and some contacts have been sent down the wrong path and received the wrong email. The workflow contains a reminder loop and a further series of emails.
        • How to map fields from Zoho Recruit to Zoho People

          I've got these fields from my Job Offer that I'm trying to map to the Work information fields in Zoho People, but they arent showing up. For example, how do I get the department name field (in the job post) to map to the work information field in Zoho
        • UTM in zoho campaigns

          Helloo everybody!!! Someone know how IF ZOHO CAMPAIGNS has UTM for tracking the url of any campaigns. thank u
        • Full Context of Zoho CRM Records for Zia in Zoho Desk for efficient AI Usage

          Hello everyone, I have a question regarding the use of Zia in Zoho Desk in combination with CRM data. Is it possible to automatically feed the complete context of a CRM record into Zia, so that it can generate automated and highly accurate responses for
        • Knowledge base printing

          I saw a posting about printing the knowledge base as I was looking for the answer, but we would like the ability to print out the entire knowledge base with a click, keeping the same organization format.   Bonus would include an index of keywords and
        • Search not working!

          I have items in my notebook tagged but when I search for a tag nothing comes up! Any fix for this?
        • Zoho Books | Product updates | January 2026

          Hello users, We’ve rolled out new features and enhancements in Zoho Books. From e-filing Form 1099 directly with the IRS to corporation tax support, explore the updates designed to enhance your bookkeeping experience. E-File Form 1099 Directly With the
        • Updates for Zoho Campaigns: Merge tag, footer, and autoresponder migration

          Hello everyone, We'd like to inform you of some upcoming changes with regard to Zoho Campaigns. We understand that change can be difficult, but we're dedicated to ensuring a smooth transition while keeping you all informed and engaged throughout the process.
        • Sharing my portal URL with clients outside the project

          Hi I need help making my project public for anyone to check on my task. I'm a freelance artist and I use trello to keep track on my client's projects however I wanted to do an upgrade. Went on here and so far I'm loving it. However, I'm having an issue sharing my url to those to see progress. They said they needed an account to access my project. How do I fix this? Without them needing an account.
        • How do i integrate google analytics to Zoho Campaigns?

          Looking to track Zoho Traffic from email Current topic is outdated
        • How do teams manage meeting follow-ups across Zoho tools?

          We’re using Zoho tools for collaboration and tracking, but managing meeting notes, action items, and follow-ups across teams is still challenging. Curious how others are handling this within Zoho workflows. Are there best practices or integrations that
        • Customize Colors used on graphs and charts according to users desire.

          It would be great if we could customize the graph's colors as we see fit. I hate that yellow is always the default color!
        • Let us view and export the full price books data from CRM

          I quote out of CRM, some of my clients have specialised pricing for specific products - therefore we use Price Books to manage these special prices. I can only see the breakdown of the products listed in the price book and the specialised pricing for
        • Mejoras urgentes para ZOHO MEETING

          Tengo unos meses usando Zoho Meeting. En general, es buena, pero hay cosas vitales que no logra cumplir con mínima calidad. 1) Calidad de audio y video: urge mejoras. Audio con retraso, imagen borrosa, mal recorte de silueta con fondos virtuales. Además,
        • Multiple header in the quote table???

          Hello, Is it possible in Zoho CRM to add multiple headers or sections within the Quote product table, so that when the quote is printed it shows separate sections (for example “Products” and “Services”)? To clarify, I’m asking because: This does not appear
        • Saving sent email campaign as PDF

          I'm looking to add all campaigns sent to an archive folder in sharepoint. Is there anyway to accomplish this in Zoho Flow ? I'm falling at the first hurdle ... can I automatically save a sent campaign as a PDF to a folder location ?
        • Exporting All Custom Functions in ZohoCRM

          Hello, All I've been looking for a way to keep about 30 functions that I have written in Zoho CRM updated in my own repository to use elsewhere in other instances. A github integration would be great, but a way to export all custom functions or any way
        • Conditional Layouts On Multi Select Field

          How we can use Conditional Layouts On Multi Select Field field? Please help.
        • Appreciation to Qntrl Support Team

          We are writing this topic to appreciate the outstanding level of support from Qntrl Team. We have been using Qntrl since 2022 after shifting from another similar platform. Since we joined Qntrl, the team has shown a high level of professionalism, support,
        • Next Page