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Configure test email addresses, journal entries, and time zone format for outbound email - Support and Troubleshooting
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KB0521751

Configure test email addresses, journal entries, and time zone format for outbound email


3025 Views Last updated : Jun 17, 2025 public Copy Permalink
KB Summary by Now Assist

Issue

This knowledge article addresses the following issues:

  • While testing email notifications, unwanted emails are sent unintentionally.
  • Email notifications do not show all of the activity log.
  • When an email is sent, the current time zone is not applied to the date and time.

Release

All supported releases.

Cause

  • There is no test user email address where all emails are sent.
  • The number of journal entries is not defined.
  • The time zone property is disabled.

Resolution

Administrators can control the number of journal entry notifications that are sent, set up a test email address to receive messages during testing, and add the time zone values to sent emails. There are three types of journal fields: journal, journal_list, and journal_input. They each behave differently. 

All times are stored in the platform in Universal Coordinated Time. They are displayed globally based on the system time zone, but are displayed to users in their local time zone, according to user preferences. The notification system uses the System time zone for its date and time stamp rather than the time zone of any recipient. 

To configure email properties for testing and general formatting:

    1. Go to System Properties > Email.
    2. Verify that the following properties are set correctly.

      FieldDescription
      Number of journal entries included in the email notifications.Define the number of entries from a journal field (such as Additional comments and Work notes) included in email notifications. A value of -1 includes all journal entries.
      Email address to which all emails will be sent.Enter a test email address to which the instance will send all email messages. This property prevents emails from being sent to real users during testing.

      Note: Typically used in non-production instances for testing purposes.

      Append the time zone to all dates and times in outbound emails.

      The instance appends the system time zone to date or date/time values in outbound emails. For example, 2010-07-02 04:01:14 PST.



    3. Select Save.

 

ServiceNow video tutorials are a great way to help find solutions. These video tutorials guide you, step-by-step, to a solution and provide common troubleshooting methods. This tutorial covers common issues, their causes, and the required steps to resolve them. 


 

Related Links

For more information, see the product documentation:

  • Using Journal Fields. 
  • Using Time Zones

For details on other properties that are used to configure email processing in ServiceNow, see Email Properties. 


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