How to use GMAIL as SMTP server (the right way)

[Arkage]

Hi everybody,

would like to share this short guide to help other users out using gmail as official server to send email.
it works in both cases with @gmail.com domain and google managed one @my_domain.tld

CONFIGURATION

Server and Port: smtp.gmail.com : 587
Encryption: TLSv1.2
Connection timeout: 30 sec
Sender Display name: JAMF Software Server
Sender email address: ______@XXXX //your domain, gmail o gmail-managed
Username: _______@XXXX //your domain, gmail o gmail-managed

check AUTHENTICATED CONNECTION.
use same email and password we used for the SMTP account.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
Less secure app option should be turned at ACCOUNT LEVEL, not at organization one. as a console admnistrator I wasted hours debugging this issue and realized just now that the option must be on at account level, not at organization one.

Less secure apps & your Google Account

hope this will help!

brgds.
Arkage.

[sdecook]

I ran into this recently as well. Thanks for the write up.

One thing to note is that Google allows 2000 messages a day using this method. Depending on how many notifications you have and how big your organization is it could hit that. Google SMTP Settings

[joeharden]

until gmail disables that "feature"
I prefer to use the smtp-relay.gmail.com service for stuff like this, as it has a 10,000/day limit but can't get a lock on all the possible outbound IPs jamfcloud uses.

[macbrun]

Thank you @Arkage! This worked perfectly.

[TrafficJam]

Thanks Arkage. Once I enabled less secure option on my gmail account, the test email works!

[edgar]

Thanks @Arkage , this helped me set it up quick.

[justscrewitinc]

This is still not allowing to send. Thank you and i will update on our solution.

[user-NhRawIIVsG]

You can (and should) do this without enabling less secure apps. Create an app-specific password for the user and use that instead: https://myaccount.google.com/apppasswords

Accounts that have 2FA turned on are not allowed to enable less secure apps anyway.

[jmmoes]

Thanks a million, Arkage, you saved my day!

[Morningside]

I configured my smtp server as suggested in this post but it fails the test each time. Any tips on troubleshooting?

[atomczynski]

@Morningside

Try the following settings

Port: 465
Encryption Type: SSL
Connection Timeout: 5 Seconds

Requires Authentication is checked.

You are using an actual account username and password, are you able to sign in to the account itself (not using Jamf)?

[RJ52]

Just a heads up, this option has been depreciated and you're no longer able to enable the less secure option.

[jabberwalker]

So without being able to enable less secure apps is there no way to have Gmail as an SMTP server in Jamf?

[jabberwalker]

This was what got it working for us:

https://hcsonline.com/images/PDFs/Jamf_Google_App_Password.pdf 

[Darnell_Bartee]

Thank you! This was also my fix I did skip the first half with setting up LSA. 

[kevinv]

We followed the HCSOnline guide without issue. Just noticed it broke last week. No changes to the service account being used. Going to try deleting and re-creating the app password to see if that resolves it. Curious if anyone can speculate why this may have happened.