Tools

Web Help Desk throws an error Illegal character entity: expansion character, when saving Incoming Mail Accounts settings

Exchange Web Services (EWS) is unable to connect to the mail server while configuring the incoming email account in Web Help Desk and displays the following error: Illegal character entity: expansion character.

First published date

11/8/2018 2:17 PM

Last published date

11/8/2018 2:17 PM

Overview

Getting an error "Illegal character entity: expansion character" when connecting to the incoming mail account of the Web Help Desk for the Exchange Web Services (EWS). 

The issue is normally occurs due to an invalid characters that the WebHelpDesk is unable to process. Moving the email that causing it to a temp folder is required to correct the issue.

 

Product section

Web Help Desk

Cause

The email item contains invalid XML characters, which results in failure when connecting to the mail server.

Resolution

  1. Log in to the incoming mail account
  2. Create a Temp folder.
  3. Move the oldest email to the Temp folder.
  4. Go back to the incoming mail account settings in Web Help desk and click Save.
  5. Click the 'Confirm Settings' button to process all the emails. 
  6. Depending on how many emails were stuck in the Inbox, Web Help Desk might take several minutes to process them all
  7. Manually create a ticket for the email that was moved to the Temp folder as Web Help Desk will not be able to process it as a ticket