Email Receiving on PDI

[MikhaylaA]

I have set up my email account successfully on my PDI. Tested connection and it is working fine. But when I to send email to PDI for my inbound action, gmail says address not found. I have checked email properties. I cant seem to figure this out.

[Community Alums]

Hi @MikhaylaA 

When you set up an email account on your PDI (Personal Developer Instance), ServiceNow uses it to send emails out (like notifications), or to simulate receiving emails for inbound actions. But by default, your PDI doesn’t have a real, publicly routable email address like something@yourinstance.service-now.com that external email systems (like Gmail) can actually deliver mail to.

Here’s why:

• In a PDI, the inbound mail works by polling a mailbox that you configure (usually an external mail provider like Gmail, Outlook, etc.) using IMAP or POP3.

• When Gmail says “address not found,” it means the address you’re emailing to (e.g., my.instance@service-now.com) isn’t a real mailbox hosted anywhere Gmail can reach.

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✅ How to actually test inbound emails on a PDI:

1. Use an external mailbox:

   • Create a Gmail or Outlook mailbox dedicated to your PDI, e.g., mypdi.test@gmail.com.

2. Configure your PDI to poll that mailbox:

   • Go to System Mailboxes > Administration > Email Accounts.

   • Set up a new incoming email account with the Gmail IMAP/POP3 details, and enter the credentials.

3. Send emails to that Gmail address (e.g., mypdi.test@gmail.com).

4. Your PDI, via the inbound email account, will pull new emails from there and process them using inbound actions.

[Dr Atul G- LNG]

Hii @MikhaylaA 

Emails are restricted in Personal Developer Instances (PDI) — which means outgoing and incoming emails won't work by default in a PDI.

If you still want to test email functionality, follow this post and set up an email account within your PDI accordingly.

https://www.servicenow.com/community/developer-forum/solution-how-to-configure-email-account-in-serv...

[CT_SNCommUser]

Try sending email to dev<instance number>@servicenowdevelopers.com

e.g. -> dev123456@servicenowdevelopers.com  [This is just an example, you need to use your instance]

[NowBuilderNoob]

Hi @CT_SNCommUser, 
Is it still working, this @servicenowdevelopers.com  address ? I've activated emails capability on developer portal, then activated email receiving on email properties, but emails never arrive... Still, I do not receive any error from the mail server (I do, if I use the devxxxxx.service-now.com , adapting the same logic than on non pdi instances). 

Thanks for your feedback.