Handling Google's OAuth 2.0 SMTP Upcoming Changes

[Yaniv_Gershon]

Hello Open edX Community,

With Google’s upcoming changes requiring OAuth 2.0 for SMTP access starting September 30, 2024, I am concerned about how this will affect our Open edX instance, which is currently running on the Maple release (with Tutor).

Could anyone provide guidance on the following:

1. What is the recommended approach to configure OAuth 2.0 for SMTP in Open edX?
2. Are there any plans within the Open edX community or future releases to address this change directly?

Additionally, for those of us using older versions like Maple:

3. How can we ensure compatibility and avoid potential issues with OAuth 2.0 in the Maple version?

For more context on these changes, you can read Google’s announcement here.

Any detailed steps, configuration examples, or references to documentation would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

[joel.edwards]

as far as I understand Google are depreciating the Less Secure Apps feature (which allows you to use your original Google account password to login,) however they have not announced plans to discontinue App Specific Passwords (which generates a random password that gets used specifically for one purpose.)

If all you need is authentication for your SMTP so that you can still send emails then have a look into App Specific Passwords: Sign in with app passwords - Google Account Help

[Yaniv_Gershon]

Thank you for the information. We have now transitioned to using app-specific passwords for our SMTP authentication.