Use GMail with WatchDirectory or WatchFTP |WatchDirectory, WatchFTP and WxRemote news

Wednesday, 20 February 2013

Use GMail with WatchDirectory or WatchFTP

Our programs can send an email when new files are detected. A few years back most people used their own SMTP server to send email, these days webmail is growing more popular than regular SMTP servers.

WatchDirectory

For WatchDirectory you will need to use the v4.7 beta version. Earlier versions did not implement the secure SSL/TLS connections needed by SMTP services like Gmail, Yahoo and Exchange.

WatchFTP has supported those secure connections from its very first release.

Email Settings

SMTP Server:     smtp.gmail.com
Port:            465
Userid:          your gmail username (without @gmail.com)
Password:        your gmail password (but see below if you enabled 2-step verification)
SSL:             enable this option
TLS:             disable

2-step verification

If you have enabled 2-step verification on gmail, programs like WatchFTP and WatchDirectory can not login to your GMail account as they can not prompt you for your verification code. Luckily you can work-around this by creating an application specific password for those programs.

Open GMail in your browser
Open "Settings" (see picture)
Open "Accounts and Import"
Select the option "other google account settings"
Select "Security"
Select "Manage Access" (last button on the "Security" page)
On the following window you can add an application specific password for WatchFTP or WatchDirectory.

Now use this password on WatchFTP or WatchDirectory's SMTP settings instead of your own GMail password.