Zoho CRM and Outlook or Gmail email problems: what to check

The ways to connect a mailbox

Zoho documents IMAP, which it recommends for real-time email status, and POP3, and says Office 365, Outlook and Gmail users can sign in with OAuth. Users with two-factor authentication must use an app-specific password. Separately, an Outlook add-in lets you associate an individual Outlook email with a CRM record; associated emails then appear in the record's Emails related list.

Source: Zoho Help: Configure an IMAP account, Zoho Help: Outlook add-in for Zoho CRM

What the integration does

Once IMAP or POP3 is set up, emails sync and appear in SalesInbox and under the Emails related list for leads and contacts. At setup you choose how far back to sync. Users do not need their own mailbox configured to see conversations from other users' configured inboxes.

Source: Zoho Help: Configure an IMAP account

Emails missing from the Emails related list

Sync is with webmail folders, so check the message exists in the webmail Inbox or Sent folder (for IMAP the folder must be enabled with your provider). Desktop clients such as Outlook are not what is synced. If it is in webmail but not in CRM, Zoho says to contact support. If a more recent sync-from date was set, older emails are removed from display.

Source: Zoho Help: Configure an IMAP account, Zoho Help: Troubleshooting IMAP, Zoho Help: Troubleshooting IMAP and POP3 configuration

"Account already configured" or settings locked

The address may be linked to another CRM user, in which case an admin removes the old configuration. Another administrator may have locked the configuration (unlock it under Security Control), or the profile may lack the Email and Templates setup permission.

Source: Zoho Help: Configure an IMAP account, Zoho Help: Troubleshooting IMAP, Zoho Help: Troubleshooting IMAP and POP3 configuration

Connection and login errors

Zoho's troubleshooting pages attribute "invalid credentials" to a wrong password or two-factor authentication needing an app-specific password, and wrong server details to a long authentication followed by "Server Disconnected". Zoho's pages disagree on one incoming port number, so confirm server details with your mail provider.

Source: Zoho Help: Troubleshooting IMAP, Zoho Help: Troubleshooting IMAP and POP3 configuration

Microsoft 365 and Gmail specifics

• Microsoft 365: for "unable to get SMTP email", check Authenticated SMTP is enabled for the user and that the UPN matches the email address. "User is authenticated but not connected" means the IMAP connection limit was exceeded.
• Gmail: emails stop syncing after a password change because the OAuth token is invalidated and a new one is needed. Zoho notes Gmail limits IMAP and POP3 transfer per day.

Source: Zoho Help: Troubleshooting IMAP and POP3 configuration

Duplicates, thresholds and visibility

• Emails shown twice: "store sent messages on the server" is enabled while the provider already saves sent mail; disable it.
• POP3 stops syncing: Zoho documents a threshold on the number of emails on the POP server.
• Visibility: emails sent from CRM servers are visible to everyone with record access regardless of sharing settings; sharing settings apply only to IMAP and POP mailbox emails.

Source: Zoho Help: Troubleshooting IMAP, Zoho Help: Troubleshooting IMAP and POP3 configuration