--- title: "Connecting Garba to Your Email" description: "What happens, what to consider, and how to get started" url: https://help.garba.ai/en/articles/10742507-connecting-garba-to-your-email collection: "Setting up Garba" updated: 2026-11-08 language: en --- # Connecting Garba to Your Email What happens, what to consider, and how to get started Connecting your email gives Garba richer context to work with across the platform. ## What your emails are used for - **Smarter pre-meeting briefs** — Garba uses your email conversations to surface more relevant context before meetings. Note: private emails are not included in pre-meeting briefs. - **Enhanced company insights** — Company pages are enriched with information from your email interactions. - **Better AskGarba responses** — AskGarba incorporates email context to deliver more accurate and grounded answers. - **Send emails directly from Garba** — Compose and send emails without leaving the platform. By default, a company that Garba only knows from email stays hidden in Garba until your team has or books a meeting with it. An admin can turn on **Create Companies from Emails** in [Account Settings](https://app.garba.ai/setup/account-settings) to show those companies too. This setting creates nothing in your CRM. An email or calendar invite with people from more than six other companies, such as an event invitation, isn't linked to any of them, so it doesn't appear on their company pages. Personal addresses such as gmail.com don't count towards the six. ## What happens when you connect When you connect your email, Garba syncs up to 6 months of email history and a maximum of 10,000 emails from your account. After that, new emails are synced automatically on an ongoing basis. Syncing is fully automatic — you cannot select individual emails to include or exclude. What gets synced is controlled by three types of filtering rules configured in Account settings: ### Internal email domains Specify which domains belong to your organisation. Emails where all participants are on these domains are treated as internal and filtered out automatically. Subdomains count too, and personal addresses such as Gmail or Outlook.com never make an email external. Adding a domain also re-checks every email already synced: any with no participant outside your organisation are permanently deleted. Emails that also include someone outside your organisation on a company address, such as a customer, are kept. This matters when you add a domain after a merger or acquisition. ### Blocked email domains Block specific domains entirely. Emails already synced that involve these domains are permanently deleted, and future ones are not synced. Upcoming meetings with an attendee on a blocked domain are removed from the calendar, so Garba does not join them. Meetings already recorded are not deleted. ### Blocked keywords Block specific words or phrases in email subjects and meeting titles. Synced emails whose subject matches are permanently deleted, and future ones are not synced. Upcoming meetings whose title matches are removed from the calendar. Meetings already recorded are not deleted. **These filters are powerful and cannot be undone. Configure them carefully in Account settings before enabling the integration or connecting your email.** Once synced, individual emails cannot be removed from Garba. The main way to remove emails in bulk is by using blocked domains or blocked keywords — but be aware this will permanently delete all matching emails. Adding an internal email domain also permanently deletes every synced email with no external participant. ## Before you connect — what to consider ### 1\. Default privacy depends on your role For most users (User role), the default privacy setting is **public** — meaning synced emails are visible to teammates based on your team's access policy. This is by design: it's what enables pre-meeting briefs, company insights, and shared context across your team. **Admins and Managers default to private.** This means their meetings and emails are only visible to themselves and direct participants from day one. Not sure what your setting is? Check [**User Settings**](https://app.garba.ai/setup/user-settings) → Default Meeting and Email Privacy before connecting. ### 2\. Privacy only applies going forward — and it's a one-way ratchet Changing your privacy setting only affects new meetings and emails from that point on. Emails and meetings that have already been synced are not affected — they keep whatever privacy status they had when they were synced. When you change your privacy setting, a calendar resync is triggered automatically. This re-evaluates privacy for future already-scheduled meetings, but does not change existing meetings or emails. Privacy is also a one-way ratchet: once a meeting or email is marked as private, it stays private even if you later switch your setting back to public. **How privacy is determined (highest to lowest priority):** 1. Calendar event marked as private → always private, regardless of settings 2. Already private meeting → stays private (ratchet rule) 3. Internal meeting + account-level Internal Meetings Default Privacy set to Private → private 4. User's Default Meeting and Email Privacy setting → applied as the final fallback ### 3\. Admins can see your public emails — but not private ones Admins have full access to all public emails across all teams. However, no one — including admins — can see emails marked as private. Private emails are only visible to you and the other participants on the email (from, to, cc, bcc). Private emails are also excluded from analytics, CRM syncs, and reports. AskGarba only surfaces private emails to the owner and participants. ### 4\. You cannot remove individual emails after syncing Once emails are synced, they stay in Garba. There is no way to remove individual emails. The only way to control what's synced is through your account's blocked domains and blocked keywords — and be aware that changes there permanently delete all matching emails. ### 5\. If you disconnect, your previously synced emails stay in Garba Disconnecting stops future syncing and removes Garba's access to your email account. However, emails that have already been synced remain in Garba and are still visible to your team according to your access policy. ## Who can see your emails Email visibility is determined by three things: ### Your privacy setting - **Public** — visible to teammates based on your team's access policy, and included in pre-meeting briefs and AskGarba - **Private** — visible only to you and the email participants, regardless of role or team. Not included in pre-meeting briefs or analytics. AskGarba will only surface private emails to you and the email participants — never to other users, and never in a Slack or Teams channel. Your agents can't see private emails either, not even your own, because what an agent writes can reach other people, and a private email never starts an agent run. Your setting also covers your colleagues' copies of an email. If anyone in the from, to or cc of an email uses Garba with their privacy set to Private when the email is synced, that email is private for everyone in your account, even in the mailbox of a colleague whose setting is Public, and even if the private person never connected their own email. So if you cc a colleague who keeps their emails private, the email becomes private for you too: it is not synced to your CRM, and it is left out of pre-meeting briefs, company summaries, deal scoring and agents. Bcc and shared addresses work differently, because they don't show on everyone's copy of the email. If a colleague who keeps their emails private gets an email as a bcc, or only through a shared address such as sales@, the email is private in their own mailbox (and, for a bcc, in the sender's), but your copy follows your own setting. A privacy setting applies to emails as they are synced. Changing it later does not change emails already in Garba: switching to Private covers only emails synced from then on, and switching back to Public does not make earlier private emails public again. ### Your team's access policy - **Own Only** — teammates can only see their own emails - **Own Team Only** — teammates can see emails within your team - **Own And Specified Teams** — teammates can see emails across selected teams - **All Teams** — teammates can see emails across the entire organisation ### User roles - **Admins** — see all public emails across all teams, but never private emails - **Managers** — can see emails from users within their own team - **Users** — see emails based on their team's access policy ## How to get started ### Step 1 — Admin enables the integration Garba turns on email for your account first. Until then, the **Email** card does not appear in Account integrations; contact Garba to get it turned on. Then an admin enables email syncing for your workspace: Go to [Account integrations](https://app.garba.ai/setup/account-integrations), find the **Email** card, and click **Enable**. **Microsoft 365 users:** If your organisation uses Microsoft 365, your Entra ID admin may need to approve Garba’s access to email permissions before users can connect. The enable wizard includes an option to request or copy the admin consent link. See **Microsoft 365: Admin approval for email permissions** below for details. ![](https://staticfiles.gleap.io/ghelpcenter/3JZMXYWUgwSQj180vDycnyA7r499R7Sm6mhfothmYLJ818eWKcKoHoT86NESVMmwrm5T8gmcS8l.png) ### Step 2 — Admin configures filters before anyone connects This is the most important step to get right. Three settings in **Account settings** control what gets synced — and changes to blocked domains and keywords permanently delete existing emails with no way to recover them. - **Internal email domains** — Add all domains that belong to your organisation so internal emails are correctly filtered out - **Blocked email domains** — Add any domains you never want synced (e.g. specific partners, vendors, or domains with sensitive content) - **Blocked keywords** — Add any subject line keywords that should trigger automatic filtering **Get these right before anyone connects. Retroactive changes will permanently delete all matching emails and meetings.** ![](https://staticfiles.gleap.io/ghelpcenter/SmTgtITZZP35WLfdSYzcmIGiCrcJH32CCltB14gp6kYbHMXYBoXFO4XnS0zHOpZyATvKk454noy.png) ### Step 3 — Each user: review your privacy setting before connecting The **Default Meeting and Email Privacy** setting controls visibility for both your meetings and your emails with a single toggle. Check your setting before connecting — it determines what becomes visible to your team the moment syncing starts. - **Users** default to Public — emails are visible to teammates based on your team's access policy - **Admins and Managers** default to Private — emails are only visible to you and direct participants To review or change your setting: Go to [User Settings](https://app.garba.ai/setup/user-settings) → Default Meeting and Email Privacy and set to Public or Private as appropriate. ![](https://staticfiles.gleap.io/ghelpcenter/24tFsKD22BSNCKITK0Dq0zTef4FRIkxYg6gFgAczRui8amQOapw7LAKkCWFlD17qPXrG2j3Oj8N.png) Remember: changing your setting only applies going forward. Already-synced emails keep their existing privacy status and cannot be changed retroactively. Admins can also configure an account-level setting (**Internal Meetings Default Privacy**) that controls whether all internal meetings — where every attendee is from your organisation — default to private regardless of individual user settings. ### Step 4 — Users connect their own accounts Once filters are configured, each user connects their own account individually: Go to [User integrations](https://app.garba.ai/setup/user-integrations) and connect your Google or Outlook account. ![](https://staticfiles.gleap.io/ghelpcenter/67VxVYJcTdGZuwLGUGP9GnbA4tARK3etldX6oKhAkFGmhCquaVpmF7mX7Gy36MTS2V3lJ9eDXCD.png) Each user connects their own account. Admins cannot connect email accounts on behalf of other users, and cannot access another user's email account. **Drafts:** Garba asks for permission to read your email, and to send and create drafts as you. If you connected before Garba could create drafts, your connection keeps reading and sending as before. To let Garba create drafts, click **Allow drafts** on the **Email** row in [User integrations](https://app.garba.ai/setup/user-integrations) and approve the new permission. With Microsoft 365, your organisation may require an admin to approve it first: your connection keeps working while you wait. Until you allow drafts, an agent that drafts in your mailbox runs without that step, can't be turned on, and Garba alerts you about it. ## Disconnecting your email You can disconnect at any time from [User integrations](https://app.garba.ai/setup/user-integrations). When you disconnect: - Garba stops syncing new emails - Your calendar integration is also removed - All authentication tokens are deleted — Garba no longer has access to your email account - **Previously synced emails remain** in Garba and are still visible to your team based on your access policy You can configure data retention policies under [**Data retention policies**](https://app.garba.ai/setup/retention-policies) in Account settings. ## Microsoft 365: Admin approval for email permissions If your organisation uses Microsoft 365 (Outlook), your IT department may have restricted which apps can access email. This means users might see an **"Admin approval required"** error when trying to connect their email to Garba. This is controlled by your organisation’s **Microsoft Entra ID** (formerly Azure Active Directory) settings — not by Garba. The person who manages these settings is your **Microsoft 365 admin** (also called the Entra admin). This is a separate role from the Garba account admin. ### What permissions does Garba need? When a user connects their email, Garba requests two Microsoft Graph permissions: - **Mail.ReadWrite** — allows Garba to read the user’s email to sync threads with external companies, and to save drafts for the user to review. Garba does not change or delete existing mail. - **Mail.Send** — allows the user to send emails directly from Garba using their own email address Users who connected before drafts were available keep **Mail.Read** instead: Garba reads and sends for them but can’t create drafts until they choose **Allow drafts**. These are **delegated permissions** — they only grant access on behalf of the individual user who consents, not the entire organisation. Each user connects their own account separately. ### When is admin approval needed? It depends on how your Microsoft 365 tenant is configured. There are three common scenarios: 1. **User consent is allowed** — Users can approve the permissions themselves during the connection flow. No admin action needed. 2. **User consent is restricted** — Users see an "Admin approval required" error. A Microsoft 365 admin must grant consent before users can connect. 3. **Admin has already granted consent** — If your admin has pre-approved Garba’s permissions, users can connect seamlessly without any extra steps. ### How to grant admin consent If users are blocked by an admin consent requirement, the Microsoft 365 admin can approve Garba’s permissions using one of these methods: ### Option A: Use the admin consent link from Garba (recommended) Garba provides a direct admin consent link in the **Enable Email Integration** wizard (visible to the Garba admin when enabling email integration). If the Garba admin is also the Microsoft 365 admin, they can click **"I am the Microsoft 365 admin"** to approve directly. If not, they can click **"Copy link for Microsoft 365 admin"** and share the link with the right person. The Microsoft 365 admin does not need a Garba account to use this link. Once the Microsoft 365 admin opens the link and approves the permissions, all users in the tenant can connect their email to Garba. ![](https://staticfiles.gleap.io/ghelpcenter/nghMAAY5P4IVAX86NTo4Msb3veLoOddR0sRym3vswHAnOSd5I7P9qWCTnEehtVSAeDoaek2Y3S5.png) ### Option B: Grant consent from the Microsoft Entra admin center The Microsoft 365 admin can also grant consent directly from the Entra admin center: 1. Go to the [Microsoft Entra admin center](https://entra.microsoft.com) 2. Navigate to Enterprise applications and find the Garba application 3. Go to Permissions (under Security) 4. If Mail.Read, Mail.ReadWrite and Mail.Send are not listed, click **Add a permission** → Microsoft Graph → Delegated permissions → add Mail.Read, Mail.ReadWrite and Mail.Send 5. Click **"Grant admin consent for \[your tenant name\]"** ### Option C: Allow user consent in your tenant Instead of granting consent for specific apps, the Microsoft 365 admin can allow users to consent to apps themselves: 1. In the [Microsoft Entra admin center](https://entra.microsoft.com), go to Enterprise applications → Consent and permissions → User consent settings 2. Set to **"Allow user consent for apps from verified publishers"** or **"Allow user consent for all apps"** With this setting, users will see the standard Microsoft consent prompt when connecting and can approve it themselves. ### Troubleshooting Microsoft email connection issues Here are the most common issues and how to resolve them: - **"Admin approval required" error** — Your organisation restricts which apps can access email. Share the admin consent link (shown in the error dialog) with your Microsoft 365 admin. - **"You declined the permissions" error** — You clicked Cancel or No on the Microsoft consent prompt. Try connecting again and make sure to click Accept. - **Admin consent was granted but users still can’t connect** — Check if "Assignment required" is enabled on the Garba enterprise app in Entra. If so, users need to be individually assigned to the app under Users and groups. - **"User not assigned to app" error** — Your Microsoft 365 admin has restricted who can use the Garba app. Ask them to assign you under Enterprise applications → Garba → Users and groups. - **Connection worked before but stopped** — Your refresh token may have expired, or an admin may have revoked consent. Try disconnecting and reconnecting your email in User integrations. If you continue to experience issues, contact your Microsoft 365 admin with the specific error message shown in Garba.