6

Being the Studio Assistant, if people forget to set their "out of office" I have to set it for them. Obviously we don't want to keep a copy of everyone's login details.

Is there a way I can do this through our Google Apps account or something?

2
  • Are you a domain Administrator for you Google Apps domain? Jul 30, 2013 at 4:33
  • Hi there, yes I am.
    – Cesc
    Jul 30, 2013 at 5:06

4 Answers 4

3

Unfortunately it's not possible to set another app-domain user's email to out of office via the admin interface.

There is an API for managing vacation responders, however. But in the Google Apps Marketplace I could only find 1 app that could possibly do what you need it to do and it's a paid app. This is the link to that app

1
  • There is a open source app.
    – oligofren
    Dec 25, 2015 at 1:03
3

If you have Google Apps for Businesses you can do it. If you are not too familiar with REST interfaces you can use this open source project that has a command line tool for setting the away message of any user in the organization. It is very simple to use:

gam.exe user <user-email> vacation on subject "Away Message Subject" message "Away message body"

Unfortunately the setup of the tool was quite a pain, but well documented. Took me about 20 minutes of creating oauth keys and like.

You have to be an admin of the domain. Of course ...

1
  • I approved this anonymous edit because it seems to jibe with the current GAM documentation. If anyone knows otherwise, please take a look.
    – jonsca
    Dec 21, 2017 at 22:54
0

Use your Apps account to reset their password to "OnlyIdiotsForgetToSetTheirOOOMessage". (or maybe something less inflamatory!)

Log in to their email, using this password, and set the message.

When they come back to the office and cannot log in, sigh plaintively while going into Apps to reset their password again.

4
  • Of course when they try to check their email on the road, they will not be able to. Aug 1, 2013 at 12:53
  • It will only happen once. After that, they WILL remember to set their out-of-office before they go! Aug 2, 2013 at 8:50
  • Then there's the potential of you being accused of checking their email. Aug 2, 2013 at 11:52
  • Well yeah - but if you're being asked to set their OOO message for them, then I would have thought it's pretty obvious that you could be doing that! Aug 3, 2013 at 13:20
-2

Email was never created to have multiple users, it defeats the purpose. The best and only solution is to share login credentials with one another. Although it isn't the best choice security-wise, it is indeed the simplest to implement (assuming the people of this group have a decent memory).

The alternative would be to have all accounts forwarded to one central account that everyone has access to (while still keeping copies on everyone's separate accounts. Redundancy they call it!

If, however, you just so happen to be sysadmin with root access to the email server, .. well, then I'd say you're in the wrong SE site.

1
  • 3
    Sharing login credentials is a major security hazard and is against Google's TOS. Jul 30, 2013 at 4:30

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.