Exporting shared inbox history from Front and Help Scout

Can you export full conversations from Front and Help Scout?#

Full conversations from Front and Help Scout can be exported, but generally through each product's API rather than through the reporting exports most admins try first. Help Scout says its in-app export covers reporting data from the All Channels, Email, Company and Happiness reports as CSV or XLSX, and that it does not include the content of conversation threads.

Help Scout points to its APIs, such as the Inbox API, for customer, user and conversation data. Front's analytics exports are likewise built around metrics, so plan on Front's API for message bodies and internal comments, and confirm what your plan includes in Front's current documentation.

The working rule follows from that split: use report exports to measure the inbox, and API exports to keep it.

Export paths compared#

Export paths for shared inboxes differ above all in whether they carry the words of the conversation. The comparison below covers the routes a COO or support operations lead usually weighs.

Third-party backup and migration tools can help, but they add another party that reads every conversation. Review the tool's security terms and data handling before granting access, and keep your own raw export regardless.

Which fields should a shared inbox archive keep?#

A shared inbox archive should keep the conversation, every message in order, every internal note and the workflow events around them. Internal notes are the part people forget, and they often explain the policy call behind a reply: a refund approved as an exception, a bug escalated to engineering, an account flagged for the renewal team.

A step-by-step export plan#

A step-by-step export plan keeps the job bounded and the result checkable. The same order works for either tool, and for an account you are about to merge into the other.

• 1Confirm who holds the Account Owner or admin role and whether your current plan includes API access, since the whole export depends on it.
• 2Inventory inboxes or mailboxes, teammates, tags, custom fields and rules, and flag inboxes holding billing, HR or legal correspondence for exclusion or separate handling.
• 3Create a dedicated API credential with the narrowest access that still reads conversations, and record when it will be revoked.
• 4Pull conversations by inbox and date window, then pull each conversation's threads or messages and its notes or comments.
• 5Save responses as raw JSON, and fetch attachments only from inboxes where they are needed, keeping each file tied to its conversation ID.
• 6Use the reporting export as a control total: compare conversation counts per inbox per month against the API results and explain any gap.
• 7Keep the finished archive in read-only storage, with a short index naming the source account, export dates, scope and a field guide.

Before you cancel, downgrade or merge accounts#

Canceling a shared inbox account before the export is verified is the one mistake that cannot be fixed later. Help Scout says an account becomes inaccessible as soon as Delete Account is clicked, that all account data is permanently deleted 60 days after cancellation, and it advises exporting data before canceling.

Front's terms and your own contract govern what happens to Front data after cancellation, so check both rather than assuming a grace period. Downgrades deserve the same care, because a lower plan may change the API access or reporting features the export relies on.

Account mergers carry a quieter risk. When an acquired team moves from Help Scout into Front, or the reverse, a migration may bring conversations across without internal notes, original timestamps or assignment history. Keep a raw archive from the old account even when the migrated copy looks complete.

Redaction notes for email-based inboxes#

Email-based inboxes hide personal details in places that ticket-style help desks rarely do, so redaction rules need to fit the format. Run them on a working copy, never on the archive itself.

Scope by inbox first. A support inbox and a billing inbox in the same account can carry very different privacy burdens, and excluding one entirely is often simpler and safer than redacting it.

• 1Signatures: strip names, titles, phone numbers and street addresses from customer and staff signatures.
• 2Quoted history: remove or deduplicate quoted reply chains, which repeat earlier messages and every personal detail in them.
• 3Forwarded threads: look for third parties who never wrote to your company directly, such as a customer's vendor or accountant.
• 4CC and BCC fields: pseudonymize every address, not just the sender's.
• 5Attachments: exclude invoices, contracts, screenshots and identity documents unless a specific, approved use requires them.
• 6Pasted secrets: mask card fragments, bank references, license keys and passwords that customers typed into messages.

Illustrative: a print estimating software company retires an acquired inbox#

Illustrative: a fictional software company sells estimating and job-tracking software to commercial print shops and runs support and account management in Front. It recently acquired a smaller competitor whose support team worked in Help Scout, and the COO wants that Help Scout account closed once customers have moved over.

The first export from Help Scout's reports gives volumes and ratings but no thread text. The team scripts an export through the Inbox API by mailbox and month, pulls threads and notes, keeps attachment metadata only and reconciles against the report totals. A billing mailbox full of invoices and payment questions stays out of the working copy.

Only after the archive is verified and stored read-only does the COO approve cancellation. The acquired product's support history stays searchable for the engineers who now maintain it, and when the company later reviews licensing options, it can describe that history accurately without reopening the old account.

How SourceX looks at shared inbox history#

SourceX treats shared inbox history as customer support data. Under the SourceX five-step transaction (Supply, Rights, Preparation, Approval and Delivery), the first conversation is a metadata-only fit check: which tools and inboxes you run, how much history is retained and whether internal notes are present. No conversations are requested at that point.

The Rights step reviews customer terms, privacy notices and vendor terms before anything is released; Preparation removes personal and confidential details; and the supplier approves the final scope. Each approved package is documented in a SourceX Evidence Packet. The company licenses the records rather than selling them, and ownership stays with it.