Re: [PLUG] Diagnosing Copier Scan-to-eMail Failure

On Sun, Mar 30, 2025 at 7:44 PM Casey Bralla via plug <plug@lists.phillylinux.org> wrote:

I recently bought a 10 year old Konica Minolta bizhub copier. Very nice, fast laser printer with a fast document scanner. Price was low because this thing is a 100 Kg beast!

Setting it up as a printer has been simple, and I can easily access the internal web server to make changes to the settings.

However, I am unable to get the scan-to-eMail function to work. The machine gives very cryptic error messages, but it seems to be failing on SMTP server authorization.

I've tried my regular email server, duplicating my Thunderbird settings, as well as following multiple youtube videos to use gmail as the email connection. Nothing has helped.

It’s not clear to me if Gmail is your regular server, but the gmail authentication changed a few years ago. They now require two step verification for accounts (at least on mine; it was rolled out slowly but probably is universal at this point). I used to use an app password for OfflineIMAP and an older device, but Google even removed that feature. In my experience, I was more focused on IMAP (receiving messages) but I believe SMTP (sending) is the same way. It’s likely that your scanner unit doesn’t properly handle this extra verification.

Probably your gmail username and password by themselves are no good for authenticating. You can test it with another email client, such as configuring another sender account from Thunderbird or your favorite email client but don’t set it up as a Gmail account, just as a generic SMTP server (because modern clients will know Gmail wants 2 step verifarion and take you through the process automatically).

The workaround, as JP mentioned, is to relay the email from the scanner to another device that then can properly authenticate to gmail. Or send through another service that is less stringent.

I know the machine used to work, so there's probably a problem with my network configuration or my smtp settings, but I can't figure it out.

I thought I'd listen in on the network using wireshark, but since the copier plugs into a separate port on my switch, the network traffic between the copier and gmail is hidden from me.

Here are things I've checked and believe I'm doing properly:

DNS server settings

Gateway setting

gmail smtp address (smtp.gmail.com)

Authorization matches my gmail account

StartTLS encryption on port 587

Also tried SSL on port 465

Various permutations of including/excluding "@gmail.com" in my login field

Searched for detailed logs on the copier, but they don't seem to exist.

Ideally, I'd like to get wireshark to be able to listen in to the login sequence. If I had a "hub" instead of a "switch" I could listen, but nobody seems to sell hubs anymore, and I got rid of my antiques long ago.

Amazon sells an inexpensive network tap (https://www.amazon.com/Throwing-Original-Monitoring-Ethernet-Communication/dp/B0CTCYX9GN/ref=sr_1_6?crid=QJ22ROAXHI9N&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.2kKEN9Y0xNMrRqRpCZisUX_cnS5VarmmitjrHCKhw1y0JSEGizguZuidOgHuG22kdLllLVkByM8nGgjOEO05AtzM-xzDBcddeYRORLrxAiU6FgugUufKLZRJeKiCBn2xq1_nN8PrxlJ5Rao1oh79TtMtpxONy8XK0OsDWZX3JKHrMdBT1mEilecBAFSPEHNHWwo0MDV7rOFx9gOIGzN26O3jt8Xe-xmohdi3MorhduM.j1AumKh0tCddto-WgjyvmBRFo7TUs3lLUSisY63PJok&dib_tag=se&keywords=network+tap&qid=1743377737&sprefix=network+tap%2Caps%2C118&sr=8-6, but the sole review says it doesn't work. I don't think I can justify a $200 network tap for this issue.

I welcome any suggestions and ideas.

TIA!

Casey

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