Enabling and Configuring Mail Sync for Google Accounts

Mail Sync is a powerful tool that allows you to connect your inbox to SharpSpring. Once enabled, any email you send through that inbox—and any Smart Mail that you send out of SharpSpring will be recorded. This way, you can keep track of you and your team’s emails with your leads. This article will provide details and information on how to connect your mailbox with your Google account. Article Contents When to Connect via Google Accounts Disabling Current Google Account Mail Sync Enabling Two-Step Verification Generating Application-Specific Passwords Syncing via Google Authentication Syncing Google Accounts and SharpSpring Validating Mail Sync Status			Available with:
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When to Connect via Google Accounts

There may be a time when your normal Mail Sync connection to Gmail fails. This is usually due to authorization issues between the two platforms, which is usually cleared up within a short time. 

However, this does not mean that you will be unable to connect to your Google account during this time. You can use your Google account to serve as the main connection mechanism. In this case, you will need to generate an application-specific password in your Google account settings. This is a special password that you will need to use to connect Google with SharpSpring.

An application-specific password enables you to sign in to securely access Google account from a non-Google application. Mail Sync uses this application-specific password to connect to your Gmail mailboxes from SharpSpring.

Disabling Current Google Account Mail Sync

You will need to disable your current Mail Sync connection with Gmail before you can connect your Google account.

To disable Mail Sync, do the following:

Enabling Two-Step Verification

In order to connect your Google account and SharpSpring, you will need to use an application-specific password. However, you can only use application-specific passwords after you have enabled Google's two-step verification security measure.

Two-step verification provides an additional layer of security to your Google account. It is, in essence, a second password that you use to log in to your account. This password is different from your primary Google password, however, in that this password is randomly generated. More than that, this second password lasts only a minute or so before it is replaced by another password that is randomly generated.

This password generation system is unique to your account. It is sent to your smartphone from Google via a SMS text message or through Google's own two-step verification app. This means that if a third party ever obtains your primary password—something you should change regularly to prevent exactly that—they most likely be unable to access your account because they will not have access to your smartphone.

SharpSpring strongly recommends using two-step verification, regardless of how you connect to Mail Sync.

To enable two-step verification, do the following: Open a new tab in your web browser. Navigate to https://www.google.com/landing/2step/ in that browser tab. Click Get Started. Click GET STARTED. Enter your Google account credentials. Select one of the following verification options:   •   Smartphone prompt  •   Text message or call  •   Security key Enter your phone information. Complete the configuration process. Optionally, add backup verification methods. Optionally, add recovery information. Refer to Google's help documentation for more information about enabling two-step verification in Google.		Click to enlarge.
		Important: Your system administrator might have already enabled two-step verification or might have certain requirements for Google security. Contact your system administrator for questions or assistance with configuring your two-step verification.

Generating Application-Specific Passwords

Once you have enabled and configured two-step verification, you can connect your Google account with SharpSpring. That said, in order to complete connecting your Google account with SharpSpring, you will need to generate an application-specific password.

To generate an application-specific password, do the following:

Syncing via Google Authentication

You can sync your Google account with SharpSpring by using Google's secure authentication process. As this is Google's main method of authenticating account information, SharpSpring recommends using this process.

To sync Google accounts with SharpSpring via Google's authentication process, do the following: 

Syncing Google Accounts and SharpSpring

If you would prefer to not use the Google authentication process, you can instead enter your account username and password. Your saved application-specific password will be used as the password when connecting the Google account to SharpSpring. 

To sync Google accounts with SharpSpring, do the following:

Validating Mail Sync Status

There are many moving parts with Mail Sync, so the process might not connect or may otherwise result in error. However, you can tell if Mail Sync was successful with just a glance. The Mail Sync settings page provides a running log of all recent errors. The page details the date and time that the error occurred, what the error was, and how best to fix the error. Click    User Menu > Settings > Mail Sync to access the log of all recent errors. In addition, user accounts with Mail Sync enabled will display their current connection status, as well as any relevant issues.  Once you have enabled Mail Sync, the associated email address will update with one of the following colors and statuses:		Click to enlarge.

Status		Color		Description
Connection Issue				Unable to connect for two days due to errors. No longer trying to sync. Billing will not be enabled for the duration of this issue.
Error				An error occurred when attempting to sync the user account's email. Errors include, but are not limited to, using an invalid email address or certain email connectivity issues.
Pending				This user account is waiting for a raise in the company's mailbox sync limit, or waiting for someone else to disconnect from the company mailbox so that they are below the sync limit.
Enabled				Mail Sync was successfully enabled for this user account.

Refer to the following help articles for more information on troubleshooting Mail Sync errors:

• Troubleshooting Mail Sync
• Troubleshooting IMAP Sync Errors