How do I sync my Gmail?
Andy Fowler avatar
Written by Andy Fowler
Updated over a week ago

Connect your Gmail account with Nutshell to sync emails from Gmail to Nutshell and vice versa.

Use the Google email sync to send and receive emails from Gmail and see them attached to the same contact in Nutshell, or send email from Nutshell! Your contacts won't know the difference. Read on to learn how to set up this email integration.

Connect with Google

Nutshell needs to access your Google account in order to save copies of your emails.

To establish a link with your Gmail account and Nutshell:

  • Click your user icon on the lower-left of your screen in Nutshell

  • On the settings menu, look for Email then select Settings

  • Once on your Email Settings page, click Set up email with Nutshell

  • Click Start and then select Connect with Google

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Enable mail sync

Navigate to your Sync settings to begin syncing your email with Nutshell. You have two options for which messages are synced into Nutshell.

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All of them

Selecting this option will sync any message you send or receive into Nutshell. You will see these emails in your personal Nutshell inbox (the Inbox tab on your Email page), as well as on your main timeline and the timeline for each person that you communicate with via email.

Only emails I label 'Nutshell'

Emails including the "Nutshell" label in Gmail will automatically sync to your Nutshell account. In Gmail, a "Nutshell" label will automatically be created. You can apply this label to any email that you want to add to Nutshell.

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We recommend this option if you are trying to sync in older email threads or plan to be very selective about which email threads are synced into Nutshell.

If the contact(s) you are emailing with doesn't exist yet in Nutshell, a Person will be created based on your sharing settings explained below.

When you apply a label to an email in Gmail, the label is applied to the current email and any previous emails in that thread. Subsequent replies to that email will not be included on the label. To add later emails on the thread to Nutshell, forward or bcc them to bcc@nutshell.com.

Share (or hide) your emails

Nutshell will never share emails that aren't associated with an existing Nutshell contact. All of your synced emails will be visible to you in your private Nutshell inbox, and Nutshell offers different options for keeping your emails private or making them visible to your team. After an email has been synced with Nutshell, you can configure two options for sharing:

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If you choose the first option, any message that includes the email address of a current person or company in Nutshell will be visible to your team. If you are emailing with a new person, sharing the email using the options below will create a Person page for them in Nutshell. This option is ideal for salespeople with an email quota or who work on a team that relies on collaboration and shared communication.

If you choose the second option, all messages will be hidden. You can decide to share certain emails using the options outlined below. This option is ideal for managers, leadership team members, or other employees who don't communicate as frequently with customers or leads.

Sharing from your inbox

You have a personal inbox—a place to share and unshare email.

Emails from mail sync have an option to share with your team or hide from your team. You will find the link to share with everyone or hide this email on the lower right corner of an individual email.

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When you share an email, Nutshell will automatically create people for the sender or recipients.

How to tell whether an email is hidden or visible to your team

Messages that aren't shared with your team have a black dashed line around them on the timeline, so it's always clear when a message is hidden from other users.

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You can share a message from a company, person, or lead's timeline by clicking "Share with everyone" on the email:

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Messages that are shared have a blue and red border, like this:

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Email blacklist

There are certain emails you never want in Nutshell—those from HR or payroll tools, for example. Add addresses to your personal blacklist, and those messages will never touch our servers, much less appear in Nutshell.

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FAQ

I just received an email, but I don't see it in Nutshell—what gives?

Nutshell checks every few minutes for email to sync, so sometimes it might be a couple emails behind. On the Settings tab, you can see your Sync Status, including the last check and the last email that was synced.

Only some emails have the option to "hide," why is that?

You have the option to share or hide email that has been imported using email sync. Email added with our existing BCC feature or the Google Chrome extension is there to stay. (You can still delete them, though!)

I'm seeing emails labeled with Nutshell, but I haven't applied this label. Help!

If you've enabled syncing all your emails from Gmail to Nutshell, A "Nutshell" label is automatically created in Gmail and applied to those email. Nutshell does this so you can quickly identify which emails have synced to Nutshell from Gmail. You can hide this label by following the steps below.

  1. In the upper right corner of Gmail, click on the gear icon to go to your Settings

  2. Select the "Labels" tab

  3. Click "Hide" next to the "Nutshell"

Are internal emails shared?

Messages amongst your team (other Nutshell users) will never be automatically shared, whether it's an email about the cupcakes in the office kitchen or an email from your boss.

If I delete an email in Gmail, will it also delete the synced email from Nutshell?

No. Once an email is synced to Nutshell, it is saved in your account and will not be deleted unless you manually do so from inside Nutshell.

I just synced my Gmail, but not all of my past emails came in. Why not?

The initial Gmail sync will bring in your sent messages from the last 45 days, or the most recent 80 messages (whichever comes first). It will bring in your most recent 100 received messages, or received messages from the last 45 days (again, whichever comes first). The sync does not bring in all of your historic emails but will sync all email sent or received in Gmail going forward.

If you want to sync all or part of your Gmail history to Nutshell, you can use the Chrome extension for Gmail. Once installed, you can select any emails (or all emails) and click the Nutshell icon to send those email threads into Nutshell. This will also create Nutshell people for any contacts included on those emails.

I don't want to see all my emails in Nutshell. How can I define which emails I want to automatically sync to Nutshell?

Use the option to sync "Only messages with the Nutshell label" in your email sync configuration. Then, set up filters in your Gmail account to automatically apply the Nutshell label to certain emails.

Steps:

  1. In the upper right corner of Gmail, click on the gear icon to go to your Settings

  2. Select the "Filters and Blocked Addresses" tab

  3. Click "Create a new filter"

  4. Enter criteria about the emails you want to automatically label: For example, an email sender or recipient, a subject containing specific text (for example "request for a meeting", "urgent", etc)

  5. Click on "Create filter" in the lower right side of that form

  6. Check the box "Apply the label: Nutshell"

  7. Click "Create filter"

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Now your filtered emails will automatically sync into your Nutshell account!

I'm concerned about the privacy of my emails. What options do I have?

  • You can set up a one-way email sync. Un-check the box that says Enable email sync on the Settings tab. You'll still be able to send email from Nutshell, and you can add any replies to Nutshell manually by syncing a thread using our Gmail extension for Chrome or forwarding them to bcc@nutshell.com

  • Choose to share no messages with your team. You can decide which messages to share by clicking the Share with everyone button on hidden messages from the Inbox tab.

I'm using an alias in Gmail. Can I connect my alias to send email with Nutshell?

Yes! To set up an alias, follow these steps:

  1. Add both your alias and non-alias Gmail addresses to your Nutshell profile

  2. Connect your regular, non-alias Gmail account to Nutshell following the steps at the top of this article

  3. Click "Configure" next to your alias email on your email settings page

  4. In the SMTP settings area, enter smtp.gmail.com as the hostname, leave the default port number (465)

  5. In the Username field, enter your regular, non-alias Gmail address and your Gmail password

  6. Click Save & test

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