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Convert Gmail emails to PDF and save to Google Drive

  • 4 May 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 446 views

Userlevel 1

This is what I want to do:

 

Trigger: when an email in Gmail is labelled with a specific label

 

Action: Create a PDF (or screenshot) of the body of that email 

 

Action: The PDF/screenshot is saved in a folder in Google Drive

 

The emails in question often have graphics or information displayed in tables, so the PDF needs look exactly like the email. There isn’t a huge volume of emails per month (maybe about 10 emails/month) so I don’t wish to use an expensive paid subscription service or to switch to a paid version of Gmail.  I’ve tried using services like Docamatic and HTML/CSS to Image API - in test mode they worked *perfectly* but when I tried to publish the zap, I get this frustrating error message:

 

Gmail has some additional requirements

Your Gmail data can only be sent to approved apps.

Unfortunately, the app you are using is no longer supported.

You'll need to edit your Zap to turn it back on.

 

Is there any workaround or some other way to accomplish what I’m trying to do?

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Best answer by freyatse 4 May 2023, 18:25

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Userlevel 7
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Hi @freyatse,

Welcome to the Community! 🎉

As of May 26, 2019, Google limited the services provided to its consumer users (anyone with an @gmail.com or @googlemail.com address) to be in line with their new security protocols. This means that some of the functionality that was previously possible with Gmail’s integration with Zapier is no longer possible. This error about not being able to connect a consumer Gmail consumer account is a result of those changes.

Essentially, we're limited on which apps we can send data TO if the data is coming from a Gmail step (using personal Gmail accounts - @gmail.com or @googlemail.com) in your Zap.

You can find a list of approved apps here:
https://zapier.com/help/doc/common-problems-with-gmail#my-gmail-zap-has-an-error-about-connecting-to-google-approved-or-not-approved-apps

Here’s a link to some information about the changes Google is making:
https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/g-suite/elevating-user-trust-in-our-api-ecosystems

Our team is working on getting more apps approved with Google once again, and I’ve added your vote for that request so that you’ll get notified as soon as there’s an update.

In the meantime, you’d need to switch to using a G Suite business account for the Gmail step in order to send Gmail information to any app, or you can consider using an approved alternative app.

Hopefully, this helps! 😊

Userlevel 1

Thanks for that explanation Ken, it helped me figure out a workaround with Gmail’s “approved” apps! Basically I just needed to pass the HTML data to an approved app and then send it from the approved app to an html converter app. Posting the solution here in case anyone else is trying to do something like this. 

 

Trigger: New labeled email in Gmail

 

Action: Send Outbound Email in Email by Zapier 

In this step under the field called “Body (HTML or Plain)” I’ve added “Body HTML” from Gmail 

 

Action: Create Image in HTML/CSS to Image

Under the field called HTML, I’ve added “Body” from Email by Zapier

 

Action: Upload File in Google Drive

Under the field called File, I’ve added “URL” from  HTML/CSS to Image

 

Boom! It works! :) The end result is a perfect visual replica of the email, posted in a Google Drive folder.