Deprecation of Password-Based Authentication for Google & Microsoft Email :

Last updated: 2022-12-07

Source: https://support.freshservice.com/support/solutions/articles/50000004192-deprecation-of-password-based-authentication-for-google-microsoft-email

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


Deprecation Date	Changes	Action Required
31st May 2022	Google will no longer support basic auth. Mailboxes that continue to use password-based authentication beyond this date cannot send and receive Freshservice mail.	When you see a ‘Migrate Now’ sign next to your custom email server(s), you need to re-authorize the configuration.
30th September 2022	Microsoft will no longer support basic auth. Mailboxes that continue to use password-based authentication beyond this date cannot send and receive Freshservice mail.

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 flaggedagainst 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 flaggedagainst 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.