Using Gmail for the SMTP server

Question

Can't use Gmail as the SMTP server with dbFront. We get the following errors:

 Can't send Summary Report
 The SMTP server requires a secure connection or the client was not authenticated.
 The server response was: 5.7.0 Authentication Required.

Answer 1

Google keeps making security improvements to ensure that users email can't get hacked.

Using regular account passwords in applications in order to access SMTP servers used to be an acceptable option but Google has purposely broken that functionality because it made compromising users passwords too easy.

You now need to sign up for App Passwords but that functionality is only available for those that sign up for 2-Step Verification (2FA or MFA).

Therefore you need to enable 2-Step Verification before you can get a App Password:

1. Enable 2-Step Verification for your Google Account (myaccount.google.com)
2. Generate the App Password (myaccount.google.com/apppasswords)
3. Use the App Password in dbFront.

The Email setting should be:

• SMTP Host: smtp.gmail.com
• SMTP Port: 587
• Enable SSL/TSL: Checked
• SMTP Account: %youraccount%@gmail.com
• SMTP Account Password: %ApplicationPassword%

Once saved, you can click Test Email to verify that it works as intended.