On May 15, 2019, or shortly thereafter, CloudPull will lose its access to back up Google accounts. Existing backups will remain intact, but CloudPull will no longer be able to update those backups.
CloudPull uses IMAP to back up Gmail. I wrote CloudPull before the Gmail API existed, when IMAP was the best way to programmatically retrieve messages from Gmail accounts. Although CloudPull never writes data to a Google account, it uses a permission level that grants it access to read and write data to Gmail. There is no permission level available that would allow CloudPull to read but not write to Gmail via IMAP.
In an effort to tighten security, Google is no longer allowing apps to get permission to write to a user’s account if it cannot provide justification for having write access. Since there is no read-only permission level for OAuth access via IMAP, this means that CloudPull will be unable to access Gmail via IMAP. I appealed Google’s decision, but my appeal was rejected. I carefully considered options for updating CloudPull to keep it working, but every available option will require more time and effort than I can justify. Therefore I have removed CloudPull from sale.
CloudPull was my company’s first product. I launched it on January 4, 2011, the day the Mac App Store launched. I want to thank everyone who has purchased CloudPull over the years.
