Connect Gmail
Connect a Gmail or Google Workspace account through Google. What Sydbar reads, what it changes in Gmail, and how often.
Connect
- Open Settings → Connections for the business.
- Choose Connect Gmail and pick the Google account.
- Google asks you to allow Sydbar to read, send and organise mail, and to see and add calendar events and Meet transcripts. Allow it.
Before you connect, pick how many of your latest conversations to bring in: 25, 50, 100 or 250. Sydbar opens the inbox and fills it in as they arrive.
One mailbox, one business. A Google account can be connected to one business only. If you pick an account that's already another business's mailbox, Sydbar says so and nothing changes: connect again and pick this business's own account. This keeps one business's mail out of another's inbox and its replies from going out from the wrong address.
What Sydbar reads
- The mail that matters: mail from people (any tab except Promotions and Social), anything involving a client, and new messages in conversations Sydbar already has, including your own replies sent from Gmail. Newsletters, marketing, notifications and alerts stay in Gmail. See What comes in.
- Mail you archived before Sydbar's next check, when it matters. It arrives archived.
- New mail about every five minutes, and right away when you press Refresh in the inbox. Bring in in Settings → Connections brings in more of your history. Before a thread is read, its listed snippet is checked: plainly automated mail (newsletters, receipts, alerts, verifications) is set aside unread, so a long history goes quickly and Gmail's read allowance goes on the mail that matters. What was set aside is listed under Settings → Set aside (linked from the import line on Connections), each with a Bring in that reads the thread and files it.
- Messages over 50,000 characters are shortened.
What Sydbar changes in Gmail
Sydbar is the source of truth, and Gmail follows:
| In Sydbar | In Gmail |
|---|---|
| Archive | Removed from the inbox (archived) |
| Restore to inbox | Back in the inbox |
| Move to Trash | Gmail's Trash, emptied by Gmail after 30 days |
| Restore from Trash | Out of Trash |
| Tag | A label named Sydbar/{Tag} |
| Send | Sent from your Gmail account, in the same thread |
Sydbar says when an action also applies in Gmail. Nothing is permanently deleted.
"Sydbar only"
If Google didn't grant permission to change mail, archive and Trash stay in Sydbar and the row says Sydbar only: "Not applied in Gmail: reconnect Gmail to allow archive and trash." Reconnect and allow everything Google asks for.
Reconnect
If the connection stops working, the Connections page shows Reconnect. Your conversations stay. Google's account chooser starts on the business's own mailbox, and an import that's running carries on.
Your Gmail signature
Gmail doesn't add its own signature to mail sent from Sydbar. Use Import from Gmail in Settings → Signature.