Hikvision Gmail emails not working?

[Kieran]

Hikvision Gmail emails not working?

EDIT 28/06/16
Gmail is working again.
Please see this thread for the solution and links to appropriate firmware​

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A large amount of our Hikvision customers like to pair their camera with a Gmail account to send emails when motion is detected, lines are crossed and so on.

However, many of you may have noticed that about two weeks ago your camera may have stopped sending you emails from a Gmail account. Furthermore, when you click the Test email button, you're likely being met with the error "Failed to connect the test server".

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This is currently only happening with Gmail accounts, and is only a recent development. As nothing has changed on the Hikvision firmware, we can only presume it has been a security change made by Google that has thrown the Hikvision-Gmail pairing into disarray. For example, Synology and QNAP NAS drives are still capable of sending emails via Gmail using the same settings when events are triggered on the camera.

There is a workaround however that will allow your camera to send emails from a Gmail account again.

It's likely that your current email settings for use with a Gmail account look similar to the below.

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These are Google's Gmail SMTP settings many of us have been using as defined by this Google Support page on the topic.

You will need to change the SMTP Server to 74.125.68.108.

Gmail being broken with Hikvision cameras is currently being caused by the SMTP Server setting. Most of us will be using the standard SMTP Server of smtp.gmail.com which currently will not work in this domain name format. The IP address mentioned above is the IP address of the very same SMTP server that smtp.gmail.com points towards - there seems to be some kind of issue now when using the more user-friendly domain name as opposed to the IP address format.

Your new settings should look similar to the below.

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Please also ensure that you've enabled Less Secure Apps to access your Gmail account.

From Google's perspective, a Hikvision camera is considered a device that doesn't meet their security standards. As such, you will also need to enable this feature on the Gmail account used by the camera, as covered by this Support article from Google.

Once you've done both of these, your camera should be sending emails again.

 

[Kieran]

We've been made aware that as of yesterday, the above workaround is no longer functioning.

This is likely as a result of Google discontinuing SSL support in their app services, which is used in Hikvision cameras and NVRs, but as of right now this is only speculation.

Until Hikvision confirm a fix or alternative workaround, in the time being I'd recommend you use an alternative email service.

 

[Kieran]

Hikvision have produced a firmware update to resolve the Gmail failure issue for their cameras.

There is also another workaround specified by Hikvision to resolve the issue for their NVRs.

Please see this thread on our forums for a guide on the process and links to the appropriate firmware.

 

[Ashok Thapar]

Dear sir,
IP 74.125.68.108 on port 465 did work till date but has stopped. Can you suggest any other smtp ip for configuring gmail on Hikvision cameras