Gmail as smtp service

[hart2hart]

I stopped getting Email notifications from ISY a couple days ago after like 12 years. I searched and it appears that Google has disabled simple username and password access to smtp. All this protection is killing me. I should be able to mark the account as non critical. Damn!

 

Can others confirm they have the issue. ? If so, what are you using for smtp now?

[Broyd]

Yes, it is happening to me as well. GMail has changed to Oauth2. So far, I don’t have a solution either. Would changing the ISY’s authentication method to allow for Oauth2 work?

I got an email from google some weeks ago that this change was in the works.

Edited June 9, 2022 by Broyd

[Teken]

I had this on the radar for quite a while but simply forgot. As a quick break fix I changed my SMTP to another email provider: GMX

Later I enabled 2FA on my Google account and followed their instructions to obtain their 16 character randomly generated password.

I inserted the same into a few network appliances and email has been restored. When time permits I’ll try the same on the three ISY Series Controllers.

NOTE: I used the same method on another appliance but it didn’t work. The vendor indicated other security formatting needed to be updated (firmware) to their network appliance for this to work.

I’ll make a how to later unless someone beats me to it today.

[upstatemike]

I applied the 2FA fix to Elk M1, Blue Iris, and my PC that is still running Outlook 2010. Worked fine on all of them.

Edited June 9, 2022 by upstatemike

[hart2hart]

I applied the 2FA fix to ISY, Blue Iris, and my PC that is still running Outlook 2010. Worked fine on all of them.

If you turn on two factor authentication for the account, where on ISY does it ask for credentials? If your ISP gives you a new IP address will it require authentication again?

I considering moving notifications smtp to an outlook.com account.

[upstatemike]

I edited my post because I meant Elk, not ISY. My ISY uses a different email account but it should work the same.

When you turn on 2 factor authentication in GMail it will give you an option under security settings to generate an app password. In ISY email settings replace your regular GMail password with the 16 character app password. Don't make any other changes to the email settings and everything should resume working.

Edited June 9, 2022 by upstatemike
spelling

[Geddy]

2 hours ago, hart2hart said:

Can others confirm they have the issue. ? If so, what are you using for smtp now?

No. No issues using Gmail here. But I planned ahead and heeded the warnings that have been posted here a half dozen times. 

The most recent was in this thread:

 

You can STILL use Gmail. Just have to use the more secure access to the account and thus an app specific password for sending email via the ISY.

I've always had more secure on the account I use for the ISY so didn't have to edit anything when this started becoming an issue. Surprised more people didn't take the 5 minutes to do this when Google started warning everybody of this many moons ago.

Gmail works just fine...like it always has...for me. 

Oh, and just so you won't be surprised...if you try to text yourself through the email server most phone systems will often delay the relay of email to text speed so if you're doing mission critical notifications of any type I would suggest using one of the node servers that can push notifications to your phone rather than relying on email and/or email to text options for notifications.

 

[sdynak]

Thanks guys.. got me today so just set up 2F. 

 The default was working but given the past issues there I prefer to use GMail. 

[hart2hart]

No. No issues using Gmail here. But I planned ahead and heeded the warnings that have been posted here a half dozen times. 
The most recent was in this thread:
 
You can STILL use Gmail. Just have to use the more secure access to the account and thus an app specific password for sending email via the ISY.

I've always had more secure on the account I use for the ISY so didn't have to edit anything when this started becoming an issue. Surprised more people didn't take the 5 minutes to do this when Google started warning everybody of this many moons ago.
Gmail works just fine...like it always has...for me. 
Oh, and just so you won't be surprised...if you try to text yourself through the email server most phone systems will often delay the relay of email to text speed so if you're doing mission critical notifications of any type I would suggest using one of the node servers that can push notifications to your phone rather than relying on email and/or email to text options for notifications.
 

So funny and not trying to pick a fight but I didn’t get any notice from Google and I don’t have time to read every post from here. The one you quoted looked to mention elk in title. I would clearly have invested 5 minutes if I’d known.

With 2FA in my experience, if the IP address changes, they ask you to authenticate again. which might negate the special app passcode. Wouldn’t that be an issue in the longer term? Xfinity changes mine at least once or twice a year.

I’ve been using Spark email client for about a year since texting changed.

FWIW I am moving this to an outlook.com account. Maybe just kicking can down the road but…

[MrBill]

17 minutes ago, hart2hart said:

I’ve been using Spark email client for about a year since texting changed.

FWIW I am moving this to an outlook.com account. Maybe just kicking can down the road but…

+1 for Spark email client.  I discovered that when looking for an easy way to get email notification on just one email account.

I spew google conspicuously theories so I'm one that doesn't use Google (after I started getting ads for something that was randomly spam emailed to me, I no longer felt good about google), so I use Spark with an email address I created at Comcast just for the ISY.   Another trick that I use is the ISY sends FROM: the same Comcast address that it sends TO:, which of course is the address that is configured in Spark.   The ISY sending TO the same account is great for speed/no delay).

[Geddy]

7 minutes ago, hart2hart said:

With 2FA in my experience, if the IP address changes, they ask you to authenticate again. which might negate the special app passcode. Wouldn’t that be an issue in the longer term?

The app specific password is not like the standard 2FA as you say needing to refresh if IP changes (or other factors change). I've had a spare Gmail account setup with the security settings since they were available (probably before 2016) so I've always used the more secure method. I've never had to change/update my Gmail settings. However, I do just because I think it's smart to change/update passwords (even system generated long (16 digit) passwords). But, if you didn't change it yourself then there's no need to change it. It just works. That is until Google changes their methods again.

It's possible that you have advanced security on already, but the old way still worked until the end of May. I simply picked the Elk post because I remember it recently. 

There's also an area in the Wiki that has always described the "optional" method for setting up Gmail. That's just the required method at this point. 

This can be found in the wiki- https://wiki.universal-devices.com/index.php?title=ISY994:Configure_Mail_Server_Settings#Configuring_gmail_Account

 

41 minutes ago, hart2hart said:

FWIW I am moving this to an outlook.com account. Maybe just kicking can down the road but…

Yeah, I know Yahoo! changed their process a while back as well so I guess it would be only a matter of time before Outlook does the same thing. 

[LarryCRetired]

@Geddy

After 2 hours of chasing my tail, I finally got this figured out thanks to you.  I went back and created a new gmail account and set up two step verification.  Once I did that, I was able to get the option to add the ISY.  The take away here, and maybe obvious for others, is you need the two step verification set up before you get the app password screen to add the ISY and generate the code.

I was at first concerned about setting up the two step verification for my original gmail account since I use that account for other things beside the ISY.  I did not want to figure out how to use the two step each time I accessed my gmail on an older apple device.  Maybe this is not a concern, but I thought I would just be safe.

Thanks again for your help.

 

 

[rayg]

This service stopped working for me early June when Google changed the approach to security for these type of non trusted Apps.  Supplying your account password no longer works.  Supplying an APP specific password is necessary.  BUT to generate one you need two factor auth to be turned on and THEN attempt to generate the APP password.   I still could not find the App password button where they said it would be.  I SEARCHED FOR APP PASSWORD and it took me to the correct dialogue.  I created the 16 character password for ISY under other Apps and pasted that in to the mail config in the admin console.  It took a couple of tries but it worked.  Then on the receiving side I had to mark the emails as important again.   Thanks for starting this thread. 

Hope this helps.

[milodorr]

And thank you @rayg for sharing your experience and the extra tips.  They helped me get going again too.