Google and Microsoft are going to deprecate support for username and password based authentication for email. Going forward, only OAuth-based authentication will be supported. Thus, it will not support any apps which ask you to sign in to your Google/Microsoft Account using only your username and password, including Freshservice.
To prevent any disruption to your ticketing system due to this deprecation and to continue to allow Freshservice to send and receive email through your Gmail/Microsoft account, you’ll need to reauthorize Freshservice to access it using OAuth.
What is Basic Authentication?
If you have an email server configured and use email and password to authenticate then you are using basic authentication. You can check this under 'Email Settings and Mailboxes' section in Admin -> Channels -> Email.
Timelines
Who will be impacted by this change?
It applies to all the customers who have configured their service desk mailboxes using Google or Microsoft email addresses through password-based authentication.
How to check who is getting impacted?
If you are getting impacted, we have set-up two prompts inside the product to inform you about the migration.
To check whether you are getting impacted or not, go to Admin > Channels > Email -> Email Settings and Mailboxes.
You might see a banner talking about the migration, like the one shown in the image below image
or,
You might see a ‘Migrate Now’ action tab next to some/any of your custom email servers
If you see the above two things on your Email Settings page, that means you are using the basic username and password email verification and need to migrate to the OAuth verification method.
How to migrate?
For Customers using Google Email:
Go to Admin > Channels -> Email -> Email Settings and Mailboxes
Click on Migrate now next to the custom email server(s)
You will be taken to the email settings page of the custom mailbox
Click on Sign in with Google
- Select the account for which the re-authorization is required
In case you don’t find the email-id in the list, click on Use another account and your email address and password
Google will request your permission to allow Freshservice to access the Google account
Click on Allow
You will be redirected to the email settings page of the custom email server. Click on Update
Repeat this process for all the other mailboxes which have Migrate Now flagged against them
For Customers using Microsoft Email:
Go to Admin > Channels > Email -> Email Settings and Mailboxes
Click on Migrate now next to the custom email server(s)
You will be taken to the email settings page of the custom mailbox
Click on Sign in with Microsoft
Select the account for which the re-authorization is required
In case you don’t find the email-id in the list, click on Use another account and add your email address and password
You will be redirected to the email settings page of the custom email server. Click on Update
Repeat this process for all the other mailboxes which have Migrate Now flagged against them
What happens if you don’t migrate?
If you don’t migrate, Google will stop supporting username and password-based authentication. As a result of this, Freshservice will not be able to sign-in to your google account and access emails that have to be converted into tickets, disrupting your ticketing system.
Feel free to reach out to us at support@freshservice.com for any support or query.