Carbonite Support > Troubleshooting Email Notifica...

Troubleshooting Email Notification Setup Issues

  • This article is for Windows only

Summary:

Carbonite Safe Server Backup is capable of sending emails after any operation completes with a success, warning, or failure status. CSSB does not have a central email server which sends these notifications. To receive notifications, each user must fill in their own SMTP server information. This can be done on the Backup page for any backup set, or by clicking Preferences; Email.

CSSB email notifications can work with any properly-configured email host, including online email hosts such as Office 365. The SMTP server information provided within CSSB must be correct, and attempts to connect to the server must not be blocked by security settings, firewalls, or other means.

Solution:

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How to Find Setup Information for Common Online Email Hosts

Online email hosts almost always publish their SMTP server information online. Please refer to your email host for more information.

Below are direct links to relevant help pages for Gmail, Office 365, and Yahoo Mail. Other email hosts will have similar pages.

Gmail

https://support.google.com/a/answer/176600?hl=en

Note: As of May 30th Gmail has discontinued support for "less secure apps". To use Gmail for notifications 2-Step Verification must be enabled and an App Password must be generated.

GSuite (Gmail)

https://support.google.com/a/thread/7960511?hl=en
Note: If a customer is using GSuite, they may run into issue using smtp.gmail.com as the Outgoing Server and a personal domain email address in tandem if the GSuite Administrator has not given the individual user permission to use "outbound gateways."

Office 365

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/pop-imap-and-smtp-settings-8361e398-8af4-4e97-b147-6c6c4ac95353

Yahoo Mail

https://help.yahoo.com/kb/SLN4075.html

The Test Email Fails with an Error That The username or Password is Incorrect

This error occurs if you have entered the wrong username or password. You must enter the correct username and password.

Username and password requirements are specific to your email host. They are outside of the control of Carbonite Safe Server Backup and Carbonite Support.

In certain rare cases, this error can appear if you have selected the wrong Security method within CSSB. For example, if you choose No Security when TLS security is required, it can result in an error that your username or password is incorrect.

If you are using Gmail, note that as of May 30th Gmail has discontinued support for "less secure apps". To use Gmail for notifications 2-Step Verification must be enabled and an App Password must be generated.

The Test Email Fails with an Error That The Port is Incorrect

This error indicates you have entered the wrong port number. Most SMTP email servers require you connect on a specific port.

Port settings and requirements are specific to your email host. They are outside of the control of Carbonite Safe Server Backup and Carbonite Support.

As with the "username or password" error above, this error can also appear if you have selected the wrong Security method within CSSB. For example, if you choose No Security when TLS security is required, it can result in an error that the port is incorrect.

Attempts to Send a Test Email Fail When using The Default "From" Address

In some environments, the email server will block all attempts to send emails with a "From" address that is not part of the correct domain. In most environments, settings of this sort are anti-spam security measures to ensure that infected or compromised systems cannot send spam email. For example, if you use @company.com email addresses, your server may require the "From" address to be an @company.com address. The default @carbonite.com address may be rejected.

Office 365 email servers, by default, require the "From" address to be from your domain. If you are using Office 365 as your email host, please ensure that the "From" address is an address in your domain.

Some environments may require that the "From" address exist as a real email address in the system. Attempts to send email "From" an address that does not exist may fail.

If you suspect security measures such as these are enabled, please change the "From" address to be something on your own domain. If that doesn't work, try using the same address for both "From" and "To" addresses.

Security settings such as these are specific to your email host. They are outside of the control of Carbonite Safe Server Backup and Carbonite Support.

The Test Email Sends Correctly, but Some or All Notification Emails Do Not Arrive

In most cases, this occurs because of spam filtering. The contents of the test email are different from a real notification email. In some environments, the notification emails may be blocked by spam or other filtering, where the test email is not. Please whitelist the "From" address if you have any sort of spam filtering enabled on your system, then try again.

Spam filters and whitelists are specific to your email host. They are outside of the control of Carbonite Safe Server Backup and Carbonite Support.

Lastly, you will not receive an email notification if an operation fails because the system was rebooted. This also occurs in the rare case that an operation crashed unexpectedly. Reboots and unexpected crashes end the operation abruptly without calling email notification processes.

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