I was working with Google Apps Script and tried running one of the basic email examples. The script kept throwing a server error that said to wait and try again later. After some testing, I figured out the issue was that my Google account doesn’t have Gmail enabled.
When I switched to a different account that had Gmail, everything worked perfectly. This makes me think the error message could be more helpful since waiting won’t actually solve the problem.
Has anyone else run into this? I’m wondering if there’s a way to send emails through Apps Script even when your account doesn’t have Gmail access. I found that MailApp might work as an alternative, but I want to make sure I understand the limitations correctly.
The error handling in the sample code could definitely be improved to explain what’s actually going wrong instead of giving a generic server error message.
Had this exact problem six months ago with a nonprofit client. Their Google Workspace had Gmail turned off to save money, and I spent hours thinking it was just a temporary API glitch because of that useless error message. Here’s the thing - both MailApp and GmailApp need Gmail enabled to work, but you can get around this with third-party services. I switched to SendGrid’s API using UrlFetchApp and it’s been rock solid. Takes a bit more setup than the built-in email stuff, but you get way more control and don’t need Gmail running. Just make sure you store your API keys properly with PropertiesService. Google really needs to fix their error messages - they’re terrible at explaining these dependencies.
Had this exact problem last year with a client using Google Workspace without Gmail. You’re right - MailApp won’t work either since it’s just a wrapper for the same Gmail API that needs Gmail enabled. I ended up using external SMTP providers instead. You can set up Apps Script to send through your company’s SMTP server or free services like Outlook. Just store your credentials in PropertiesService and use UrlFetchApp for the SMTP requests. If you’ve got admin access to the domain though, just enabling Gmail is way easier. The error messages are terrible - Google should detect this and give you a real explanation instead of that useless timeout message.
totally feel ya on this! ran into the same thing a while back. that error msg is just the worst, right? MailApp is just gonna hit the same wall. ended up sorting it out with Mailgun API via UrlFetchApp. a bit of a hassle, but ya know, it works!