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Overview

Connect a Gmail or Outlook account, and workflows can act on the attachments that arrive in it. A workflow can read an attachment, decide what it is, rename it, save it to the right folder, and email it on to someone else. Forwarded files are sent from The Drive AI’s address, not from your mailbox. See Send a Message. Connecting an account doesn’t save anything by itself. Attachments are saved only when a workflow with an Email Attachment trigger saves them, or when you run a historical import. The agent doesn’t read or send your email. Connected drives and accounts come with Max, Team, Business and Enterprise. See Plans & Pricing.

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Who can do what

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How many accounts you can connect

  • Personal workspace: one Gmail account and one Outlook account.
  • Team workspace: each member can connect several. Click Add account to connect another.

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Connect Gmail or Outlook

1

Open Integrations

Open Settings and choose Integrations. Under Email and messaging, click Gmail or Outlook.
2

Sign in

Click Connect Gmail (or Connect Outlook). A window opens where you choose your account and allow access. If nothing opens, allow pop-ups for The Drive AI and try again.
3

Import past attachments, if you want

When the account is connected, the Historical Sync panel opens so you can bring in attachments you already received. You can close it and come back later. See Import past attachments.
4

Set up a workflow

Create a workflow that starts with Email Attachment to decide what happens to incoming attachments. Only an owner or admin can create workflows. See Triggers.
Each connected account shows who connected it, when, and when its last import ran. Accounts you can’t act on show View only. Workflows act on mail that arrives after you connect. Mail you already had is only brought in by a historical import.

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What you allow

  • Gmail: Google asks you to let The Drive AI read your email and its attachments. It can’t send, change or delete email.
  • Outlook: Microsoft asks you to let The Drive AI read mail in your own mailbox, read your basic profile, and stay connected without asking you to sign in again.
The Drive AI connects through Google or Microsoft sign-in and never sees your password.

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Outlook with a work or school account

Many organizations require their Microsoft 365 administrator to approve The Drive AI before anyone can connect Outlook. If yours does, the sign-in window shows Outlook Integration Failed with a message that your organisation requires an administrator to approve The Drive AI. Ask your administrator to approve it, then connect again. Outlook only connects mailboxes hosted by Microsoft: Outlook.com, Hotmail.com and Live.com addresses, Microsoft 365, and custom domains that use Microsoft email hosting. Other addresses show Email Not Supported. For a Gmail address, use Gmail instead.

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Require approval for new connections

In a team workspace, owners and admins can make new email connections wait for approval:
  1. Open Settings > Integrations > Gmail (or Outlook).
  2. Under Workspace settings, turn on Require approval for new connections.
Gmail and Outlook each have their own switch. When it’s on:
  • A member’s new connection shows Pending until an owner or admin approves it. Connections made by owners and admins don’t wait.
  • Owners and admins see Approve and Reject on pending connections. Reject asks for a reason, which is shown on the member’s row as Rejected.

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Import past attachments

To bring in attachments you received before connecting:
1

Open Historical sync

In Settings > Integrations, open Gmail or Outlook. Open the … menu on your account and choose Historical sync.
2

Choose what to import

Choose a Time range: Last 30 days, Last 90 days or Last 180 days (6 months). Outlook also offers Last 365 days (1 year). Tick Include sent emails to also import attachments from mail you sent.
3

Start

Click Start Import. It runs in the background, so you can close the panel.
What to expect:
  • Where files go: imported attachments are saved to the top level of your workspace, as they are. They aren’t filed or renamed.
  • Workflows: imported attachments don’t start Email Attachment workflows. A workflow that watches uploads to The Drive AI can file them. Click Set up a workflow in the panel to make one.
  • Progress: reopen Historical sync to see how many emails have been processed, and how many files were imported and skipped. Click Cancel Sync to stop it. When it finishes, the panel shows Previous sync complete with the totals.
  • One at a time: each account can run one import at a time.
These are skipped and not saved:
  • Images and calendar files (such as .ics invitations)
  • Attachments from blocked senders
  • Attachments whose content was already imported into the workspace by an earlier import
  • Files found to contain malware
If the workspace runs out of storage, the import pauses with Workspace storage limit reached. Free up space or upgrade to continue. If the provider is busy, it pauses and continues by itself.

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Import History

Owners and admins can open Settings > Import History to see every file brought in by imports, with totals for Imported, Failed and Skipped. Filter by source (Gmail, Outlook, Slack, Teams) or by type, and click a file to open it.

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Block senders

Blocked senders’ attachments aren’t imported, and workflows skip them. The workflow’s activity says the attachment was skipped because the sender is on a blocklist. You can block an exact email address or a whole domain, such as example.com, and add a reason. For one account: open the account’s … menu and choose Blocked senders. Type an address or domain in Block an email or domain and click Block. To unblock one, remove it from the list and click Unblock Sender. For the whole workspace (owners and admins): open Settings > Email Blocklist. Blocks here apply to every connected email account in the workspace. Click Remove to unblock. On the same page, Allow members to manage their own blocked senders decides whether members can use Blocked senders on their own accounts. When it’s off, they see Your workspace admin has not enabled user-level email blocklisting.

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Disconnect

Open the account’s … menu and choose Disconnect, then confirm. Owners and admins can also click Disconnect on anyone’s account.
  • Workflows that use the account are paused. If the same account is connected again later, workflows paused only because of the disconnect start again on their own.
  • Attachments already saved stay in your workspace.
  • The Drive AI stops using the account, but the access you allowed is still listed in your Google or Microsoft account. To remove it there too, remove The Drive AI’s access in your Google or Microsoft account settings.

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Troubleshooting

  • Check that a workflow with an Email Attachment trigger is active and watches this account. See Approvals and activity for its runs.
  • Mail that arrived before you connected isn’t handled by workflows. Use Historical sync.
  • Check whether the sender is blocked for the account or the workspace.
The Drive AI lost its live connection to the mailbox and is reconnecting by itself. Depending on the message, new mail still comes through a few minutes late, or comes through once it reconnects.
Your workspace requires approval for new connections. Ask an owner or admin to approve it.
Your organization requires its Microsoft 365 administrator to approve The Drive AI. Ask them to approve it, then connect again. If the message mentions Conditional Access, ask them to allow The Drive AI under your organization’s sign-in policies.
  • Workspace storage limit reached: free up space or upgrade, then start it again.
  • Authentication expired. Please reconnect your account.: disconnect and connect the account again.
A personal workspace can connect one Gmail and one Outlook account. Disconnect the current one first, or connect in a team workspace.

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What’s next?

Workflow triggers

Start a workflow when an attachment arrives.

Slack

Let workflows act on files shared in Slack.