[Guide] Solving the email inactivity problem

This thread made me think:
http://mpsocial.com/t/dont-fall-victim-to-email-inactivity/5732?source_topic_id=8398

What I used to do (and also commented on that thread) is use IFTTT to send emails once a week from my main gmail account to all my other gmail accounts.

@abbecain also suggested on that thread to have an auto-resposnse on gmail, so the account will also send emails.

But after re-thinking it, I think gmail want you to LOGIN to the account (at least once in 9 months), and not just have the account receive emails.
And I think gmail will not count the auto-response as a login, since they can see it’s automated.

So today I thought about better ways to automate this.
But wait… MP can automate stuff really good… So here we go:

The idea is simple: Use MP to send and receive emails from each gmail account I have.
Why is this better than IFTTT?
Because MP will actually login to the accounts (using an app/api).

It did take me some time to get this running, since I never used MP with email accounts, as I never found a real use for that, although @Johnny wrote a good post about it:
http://www.massplanner.com/schedule-updates-web-2-0-blog-properties-via-email/

So I got stuck in 2 steps (steps #3 and #14 below), and I hope this guide helps you to set this up in 5 minutes.

So here’s how to set it up:

  1. MP --> social profiles --> add profile --> email, add profile

  2. enter the username and pswd for the gmail account. MP will fill out the other 2 fields (smtp blah blah and a number).

  3. This is the tricky part - if you press verify, it won’t work.
    press it again? won’t work…
    It took me some time to figure this out.

  4. Use a browser (or an embedded browser) to login to that gmail account.

  5. You will find a mail from gmail with the title “Review blocked sign-in attempt”

  6. The mail just says that you have a problem. So I went back to step #3 to see if my login or pswd were wrong.

  7. After a cup of coffee, and doing step #3 several times, I read the fine print in that mail.

  8. The mail says: Google just blocked someone from signing into your Google Account _____@gmail.com from an app that may put your account at risk.
    blah blah blah…
    and then it says
    You can continue to use this app by allowing access to less secure apps, but this may leave your account vulnerable.
    If you press that link (“allowing…”) it takes you to a gmail setting where you can ALLOW it.

  9. You will get another mail from gmail, with the title “Access for less secure apps has been turned on”. No need to do anything there.

  10. Now go back to step #3 and press verify, and it will work.

  11. You will get a mail from MP with the title: “MassPlanner Account Verification”, so now you know it works…

  12. MP --> social profiles --> select that profile —> select the PAGES tab

  13. In the “add other page” field, add an email address that you want to send to, and press the ADD OTHER PAGE button.

  14. If you get an error message (it doesn’t happen all the time) saying that you need to input the other page name too, just drink another coffee. No need to fix any error, it’s all good.

  15. Now add a new destination list with that email account.

  16. Now add a new campaign, add a post (“testing blah blah”), and choose the destination list.

  17. Done.

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Perfect this is extremely helpful, going to link to this on my post.

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You are completely right, sending /receiving automatic emails on that account won’t cut it, what they are looking for is an actual login.

As for your idea to use MP, brilliant :slight_smile: It’s not what it was intended for but it work nicely for this purpose. So thanks for the detailed guide :smiley:

3 Likes

Another quality post. I never thought email inactivity is real :smiley: . Also, great work around on this.

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Funny thing I had several email accounts I’ve not logged in for years. After reading this … I tried logging in without any problems. I have forwarding setup to send to my main account.

These are all Gmails.

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This is pure gold, @benny :smiley::+1:
Thank you very much for sharing that.

Maybe the requirements to log in is “softer” for older email accounts, as creating fake email accounts may have been a bigger problem only in the last 2-3 years… But as you said, it is funny :smirk:

If you are using gmail, (which i don’t for social accounts), then you can add them to your main account as delegated. They will still face some roadblocks if you actually logged in separately due to their security check.

I’m not entirely sure of it myself, but i never actually got gmail to be disabled due to inactivity. I’ve had like seriously old accs that i may have never touched, and once in a while pull it up to play with some things and it works. But Gmail is way too strict with security, and if you’ve got too many logging in using the same IP, or heck other IP, you’ll be facing some real roadblocks.

The more reason why i don’t use any other mail except for mail.ru and tuta.

Futhermore, you can actually get some pop3 providers setup and using http://mpsocial.com/t/how-to-email-verify-lots-of-accounts-with-ease/1722 to check the mails once in a few months. Some providers explitcly mentions they count pop3 logins as equal to web login.

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@Johnny
Thank you for your guide that @benny has mentioned (regarding web 2.0 etc).
Can you please :pray: help me to add a Rediffmail to MP? When I try it, MP says: “Invalid credentials”. I am not sure if there is any issue with the SMTP server & port. I have not added somewhere else a information regarding rediffmail, so if it is needed (maybe under the section Socieal profiles --> “Add Profile” --> “Email” --> “Pages” --> “add another page”), maybe you can give me some advice. Thank you very much. :smiley:

@all: There is website that shows the SMTP servers and port for some of the most used email servers:

are you sure you’re not stuck in step #3, like I was?

Pretty sure as I logged into my rediffmail account via Firefox and there is NO email like you have received it to your gmail-inbox (title “Review blocked sign-in attempt”). :confused:
So the problem must be something else. Maybe its me, I am a noob :smiley: :see_no_evil:
But thank you, @benny, for your quick response. :+1:

@SkinnyGirl Try with smtp.rediffmail.com instead of pop.rediffmail.com and 25 instead of 110. See if that works.

Thank you, Said. Unfortunately, this didnt work… :confused: Any other idea? :slight_smile:

Is it possible that you need a pro account to use pop3?

2 Likes

Just saw this one! Great guide @benny :clap:
Thanks for sharing this

Thank you for searching that, @benny :smiley:. Seems like you are right and therefore, it is not possible to add an rediffmail-account to MP - unless someone has a “PRO ACCOUNT”. Too bad. :confused:

@all:
Everyone who wants to manage a lot of accounts with Massplanner and is planning to buy aged accounts, better order accounts that are not dedicated to a rediffmail-account…