Gmail history import and sync

Edited

Overview

When you connect a Gmail individual inbox or shared inbox to Front, you will have the option to import your history and Front will maintain a two-way sync of statuses with Gmail whenever possible. The cases where status syncing will stop are explained here, which is to be expected since Front and Gmail have different features, and thus why you are using Front. Continue reading to understand the details of how history import and syncing work between Front and Gmail.

For the same information on Office 365 channels, see here. Note that SMTP forwarding channels will not have history import and syncing.


Gmail history import

History import

Shared inbox

Individual inbox

 

Optionally import 50K most recent messages upon adding inbox

Optionally import 50K most recent messages upon adding inbox

 

Conversations archived by default and found in the Archived tab of shared inbox.

Conversation read/unread and open/archived status mirrored in Front.

Individual inboxes

Status in Gmail

Status in Front

 

Read in Inbox

Read in Inbox

 

Unread in Inbox

Unread in Inbox

 

Open in Inbox

Open in Inbox

 

Archived in All Mail

Archived in Inbox

 

Snoozed in Inbox

Archived in Inbox

Folders

Location in Gmail

Location in Front

 

Inbox

Inbox

 

Drafts

Does not import or sync

 

Trash folder

Trash tab in Inbox

 

Spam folder

Spam tab in Inbox

 

Sent folder

Does not import to Front Sent folder, but does import with inbox history (Open and Archived tabs)

 

Starred folder

Starred folder

 

Label (alongside Inbox label)

Inbox

 

Label (without Inbox label)

Skips individual Inbox; shared tag for shared inboxes


Gmail sync

Action in Front

Sync

Effect in Gmail

Email is read or unread

Email is read or unread*

New message received in Inbox

New message received in Inbox

Email is sent

Email appears in Sent

New draft is started

Does not sync

Email is trashed

Email moves to Trash

Email is permanently deleted

Does not sync

Email is archived

Email moves to All Mail

Email is unarchived

Email moves to Inbox

Email is marked as spam

Email moves to Spam

Email is unmarked as spam

Email moves to Inbox

Email is snoozed

Email moves to All Mail

Snooze expires

Email moves to Inbox

Star or Tag is added or removed

Label is added or removed

Tag is created

Tag is created after first use in Front

Tag is deleted

Does not sync

Move conversation

Move will break status sync

Assign and comment

Does not sync

Delete inbox

Does not sync

Mass archive inbox

Emails move to All Mail

*See the FAQ Why isn't the read status syncing? for exceptions.


FAQ

How do Gmail labels sync to Front exactly?

See this article for details about how Gmail labels become Front tags.

Why isn't the read status syncing?

Read status will only sync for individual (personal) Gmail channels, and for shared conversations when marked as read by the assignee. We use this behavior for shared inbox conversations since many teammates may read a conversation before the assignee, and we wait to sync read status until the teammate handling the conversation reads it.

Anything else I should know?

See this FAQ section for common questions that apply to both the Gmail and Office 365 import and sync.