Gmail SMTP Configuration for Backup Alerts

If you plan to use a Gmail email account for sending email alerts, the configuration requires two steps.

First visit https://www.google.com/settings/security/lesssecureapps and able “less secure apps”. This step is only necessary once:

Then enter the Gmail settings in BackupChain’s Log Options tab as follows:

SMTP Server: smtp.gmail.com

Port: 587

Sender’s email address and User Name: your email address, for example: myaccountat@gmail.com

Check “my SMTP server requires a user name and password.

Check “Use SSL (=Starttls)”

“Send to email address” is the email where the email alerts are to be sent to, usually the same as above: joe@gmail.com

To enter multiple email recipients use a semicolon to separate email address, for example: joe@gmail.com;secondaccount@somewhere.com

Then enter and confirm your gmail password and run a quick test.

Hints

Email alerts can be styled using the HTML templates in the tab “Log Options”.

For very important backups it makes sense to check the option “Send email when this task starts” in addition to “send email when errors occur”. This way you will receive an email each time the backup starts so you know the task is actually being started as expected and that the server is alive and functioning.