Email Alerts - possible to use gmail?

[Piers]

Hello,

HDS has so far managed to detect errors on two WD Red drives that no other software found, which is great but shows that I need to have some sort of monitoring set-up that alerts me if any faults are detected on any of my 21 drives. I'm using the registered 5.50 Pro version and the email option seems interesting, but the documentation doesn't offer an example for gmail apart from mentioning ports.

How does one go about setting up an alert system using gmail?

Thank you for reading

[hdsentinel]

I'd suggest to search for gmail in this forum, as it will result several posts showing proper e-mail configuration, for example:

https://www.hdsentinel.com/forum/viewto ... 123#p17123

Here are the details:

Sender name: your name (or can be generally anything to identify your system to you)
Sender e-mail: your e-mail address @gmail.com
SMTP server: smtp.gmail.com
Recipient e-mail: your e-mail address @gmail.com
Username: your e-mail address
Password: your e-mail password
Enable Use SSL option and specify port 465 (or 587)

Also please note that gmail may BLOCK e-mail sending by default from third party applications by default - so you may need to enable in gmail configuration.

[Piers]

Thank you for the quick response. I did search but failed to find that thread. Will take a read and attempt to get it set up.

Although a different matter, I thought you'd find the attached image entertaining/interesting - it only showed its first error two days ago (13 pending sectors 'fixed' with the built in HDS tool). I don't think this drive is savable, but would like to send any logs if it's helpful?

[Piers]

I've now managed to set it up. One thing that seems to have changed is that Google insists an App Password is created for Hard Disk Sentinel (instructions available here: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833?hl=en). Adding that to the documentation would be helpful for other users.

And if possible, I would also suggest a feature for the next version where there is a "mobile" option for email alerts so basic information is sent by default instead of the full HTML or long-form text, but I suppose that's subjective.

Once again, thank you so much for your help and I'm now glad I have an email set for every day with certain events. It's a really awesome feature. Have you had any thoughts on the image I attached to my previous reply?

[hdsentinel]

This seems interesing, kind of underflow condition, caused by the negative offset you configured, when the offset caused a negative value.
Of course your drive has no such high number of weak sectors, this is why the health is 100%.

Not sure which version of Hard Disk Sentinel you use? If you use older than latest 5.61, I'd recommend to update to the latest one.
Anyway, if you use Report menu -> Send test report to developer option (both in the current and/or the latest one) it may help to check how this can appear.

[hdsentinel]

Thanks for the tip about the App Password!
I'll check and set up that, verify how this works as yes, this solution may be helpful for other users too.
Thanks!

Thanks for the tip, of course it is already available, exactly to allow us to adjust the report details - or can configure a real compact/brief alert message.
Please check Configuration -> Message Settings page, there you can select the Report type. Setting to "Brief text report" will result a compact message only.

Also if you select the complete text/HTML report, you can adjust which components of the report should be saved in the "Detailed report components" field. You can exclude not-too-important (not changing) parts to make it shorter and focus on the important information.

[Piers]

Thanks for the tip about the App Password!
I'll check and set up that, verify how this works as yes, this solution may be helpful for other users too.
Thanks!

Thanks for the tip, of course it is already available, exactly to allow us to adjust the report details - or can configure a real compact/brief alert message.
Please check Configuration -> Message Settings page, there you can select the Report type. Setting to "Brief text report" will result a compact message only.

Also if you select the complete text/HTML report, you can adjust which components of the report should be saved in the "Detailed report components" field. You can exclude not-too-important (not changing) parts to make it shorter and focus on the important information.

The App Password is very simple to use - it creates a unique password that is used INSTEAD of the account password. I created a new App Password called 'HD Sentinel' and let it generate a password. I then pasted that in the password field and it worked (with SSL) first attempt. I am using 5.50 Pro so will update to the latest version once the tests on current drives are complete (~40hrs). Thank you for the advice.

My suggestion about a dedicated 'mobile' option is due to the formatting of the HTML report - on a so-called FHD+ display, the Gmail app doesn't display the report correctly (Android 10). I have selected the text version and removed non-urgent information (such as CPU and other hardware information etc.), but for new users this can be confusing.

All I suggest is a button called 'Mobile View' that automatically removes all non-static information and provides a text report (for first time users). I would love to know if there is a way to suggest features? For example, it would be nice to have en_GB available as a language option and I would be happy to provide the strings (if possible).

[hdsentinel]

Thanks for the info about the App password, I'm sure this can be a good solution for many users.

Thanks for the tip about the "Mobile view" option, I'll think about it, as yes, it may be useful.
May need to plan properly how it should work, what information and how would be best to present.


There are several ways to suggest features: the easiest is to send in email to info @ hdsentinel . com
address, as then we can discuss details (plus you can send images to illustrate).

Also you can post on this forum: https://www.hdsentinel.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=9
"Feature Requests"

Thanks for your kindness about the en_GB translation! If you can send translated file to the address mentioned above, I can surely add to the Languages page:
https://www.hdsentinel.com/languages.php
so users can download and use it if preferred now - and also can extend the software to offer that too in addition to the current English file.