Outlook to Actually Two-Way Sync in Conversations like Gmail does
planned
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Brian Lemmerman
I just lost an affiliate client to this feature.
There are two parts to this request.
- Make it clear upfront in the marketing and in the dashboard that Outlook users with custom domains must set up MX records for conversations to work properly. Simply using the default Leadconnector domain only allows outgoing emails. It took us 4 weeks to learn we had to do this just to get replies to come into the conversations tab.
- The conversations tab needs to be able to accept inbound emails from leads. This works fine with the Gmail integration, but does not work with the Outlook integration. For my client, whose company uses Outlook, this was a dealbreaker, since for him, the CRM was the thing he needed most. We didn't discover this until yesterday (6 weeks after signing up), and that's when he asked for a refund.
There was also another issue where every time he sent an outgoing email, it would be "unsuccessful". Reconnecting the Outlook account didn't resolve this. But clicking the little red arrow every time did. However, because of his laptop screen size, the sent messages were above the fold of the email composer, so he couldn't see that his emails weren't going out until he checked back later, wondering why his customers weren't receiving his emails (see screenshot).
This unsyncing issue may also have impacted the ability for conversations to function appropriately.
I also notice there's a 3MB limit on attachments and larger attachments would prevent syncing. We didn't get far enough for him to send attachments, but this would have been another obstacle to his success since he sends image-heavy product PDFs to his clients that are larger than that size as part of his sales process.
I know everyone here is doing their best. I'd love to see this worked out since a lot of folks in my audience use Outlook, and I wouldn't feel comfortable selling this to them until it's sorted out.
I hope this is helpful!
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E
Eric Langley
"Other" CRMs manage email synchronization to prevent private internal emails from appearing in the CRM using "Never Log" lists and custom email logging rules.
- The "Never Log" List
The primary tool to block internal emails or personal communications is the Never Log feature.
• Account-Wide Never Log: Super Admins can add entire company domains (e.g., *at yourcompany _ com) or specific internal email addresses to the account-wide list so that internal communications are blocked for every user in the organization.
• Personal Never Log: Individual users can add specific email addresses or domains to their own personal never-log settings (which get tagged with an "Only me" label).
• How it works: When an email address or domain is on a Never Log list, any future emails sent to or received from those addresses are excluded from logging into CRM contact records.
- Account-Wide & User Logging Rules
How your inbox syncs also dictates whether internal or unselected emails get pushed into the CRM:
• Reply-Only Logging: You can configure contact email logging rules to "Log replies only", meaning incoming messages only log if they are part of an existing thread already logged in the CRM. Cold or unassociated internal emails won't auto-create records.
• Extension Controls: If you use a custom extension for Gmail or Outlook, emails can be set to log automatically or require manual selection. Turning off auto-logging or unchecking the "Log to CRM" checkbox before sending keeps private messages out.
• Connecting Individual vs. Team Inboxes: Connecting a personal inbox typically requires an action or reply rule to log, whereas connecting a shared team channel as a conversations inbox explicitly centralizes customer-facing communication rather than private employee chatter.
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Sales & Marketing
Merged in a post:
Outlook Inbound and Outbound Email Sync
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Jeremy Booze
Outlook currently doesn't sync with the conversations feed when a "contact" sends a "user" an email directly. It also doesn't sync when a "user" sends a "contact" communication directly from within their Outlook inbox interface.
This is not the case for GMail. Gmail provides both inbound email and outbound sync when received directly or composed in the Gmail interface.
Outlook needs to be able to sync in these two instances otherwise the utility is worthless. Clients are required to monitor two interfaces and possibly mix up or miss communication threads due to the disconnect.
Note: If a "contact" sends an email directly to the "users" email@sub.domain.com (verified domain) this communication goes through but its not a realistic option.
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Sahand Jahani
2-way sync out outlook does not automatically add the Auto BCC Sync Key
So this only works if you manually add it each time - for mac desktop users, outlook does not allow a rule either for auto BCC.
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Eddy CEO WhatSnap.ai - Connect YOUR phone to GHL
Lost a client to this same issue recently. The lack of proper two-way sync with Outlook is brutal when you're trying to sell GHL to clients who are deep in the Microsoft ecosystem. We've started qualifying email providers upfront now but it limits our market.
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Philip Fairley
add in the functionality of a Native Outlook Email Tracking Extension - like hubspot, so our clients can send emails from Outlook at it be tracked and determined if recipient received it. Need some type of cookie/tracker embedded
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Kevin Arthur
Any update on this?
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Aarun Josiah
Whenever I have a client using outlook, i force them to leave the MS eco-system or I refuse their business. Integrating two way sync with outlook will likely be more trouble than it's worth. I advice all my clients regardless of what email system they are on run their GHL instance and their main inbox (outlook, google workspace etc) on different sub-sending-domains. Keeps things tidy, and keeps non-client emails out of the CRM
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Steve Jones
yep - could really do with a proper sync like Hubspot does with Outlook... Its not really a 2 way sync at all currently
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Scott Brennan
This is a very important update, and we have been waiting a long time. Hoping for an update soon!
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Gonçalo Oliveira
We need this asap!!!
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