: What is the maximum frequency for checking email in Gmail, and are there alternatives? I am trying to build a Python program for small business. My customers will send their orders in plain

@Voss4911412

If you poll the email account too often you will get this error:

ERR [AUTH] Web login required: support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?answer=78754

Which leads to
support.google.com/mail/answer/78754
Which says


Make sure your mail client isn't set to check for new mail too often. If your mail client checks for new messages more than once every 10 minutes, your client might repeatedly request your username and password.

Vote Up Vote Down

@Nimeshi995

Have you considered using IMAP protocol's idle command?

It will allow you to get real time notifications about new messages using/keeping single IMAP session open. Quick searches suggest IMAP idle is not supported by standard python imap library but there are available python libraries supporting it.

OR

Keep single imap session open and check INBOX folder frequently.

Vote Up Vote Down

@Ann8826881

There are reports of login limits and accounts becoming temporarily frozen, sometimes requiring a Captcha login. If that occurs, then you'll be delayed in receiving orders...

This seems like a very inefficient business solution - emails from different servers can get blocked, rejected, etc... Have you thought about using Python (or PHP) for a server-side application, like a simple form mailer? Using that, you can save the orders to a text file on the same server so you'll have a backup, as well as email them to you.

Vote Up Vote Down