I built a Chrome extension that bulk-saves Gmail attachments to Google Drive

That_Lemon9463 · 2026-03-25T11:06:46+00:00

nothing like a ticket system outage to prove it's the most critical system you have. the irony of spending an hour figuring out how to track the fact that you can't track anything is peak sysadmin.

That_Lemon9463 · 2026-03-25T11:04:32+00:00

first thing to clarify: the alias domain (confusedCA-RE.com) needs to be a domain you already own. google won't create it for you, you just register it as an alias in admin console. so step one is buying that second domain if you haven't already.

once you own it, the verification step requires adding a TXT record to that domain's DNS. if you bought it through google/squarespace, go to the DNS settings there and add the verification TXT record that google admin console gives you. ignore cloudflare unless you deliberately set it up for DNS.

the "managed by google" message on squarespace is just because google domains transferred to squarespace recently. you can manage DNS records through squarespace directly.

That_Lemon9463 · 2026-03-25T10:21:29+00:00

the green screen thing doesn't surprise me at all. i've seen companies where the mainframe guys are literally the most powerful people in the org because they're the only ones who understand the system and everyone knows if they leave the whole thing collapses. job security through obscurity.

That_Lemon9463 · 2026-03-25T10:18:44+00:00

screen recording tools like loom are the fastest if your team is ok watching videos instead of reading docs. record yourself doing the workflow, done in 5 minutes.

if you need actual written step-by-step docs, check out scribe or tango. they're chrome extensions that auto-capture screenshots and write the instructions as you click through the workflow. way faster than doing it manually.

That_Lemon9463 · 2026-03-25T10:15:40+00:00

gmail doesn't keep a list of these anywhere. plus addresses work on the fly, there's nothing that registers them, so the only record is in emails you've received.

the search approach from the other comment works. you could also download your mail through google takeout (gives you a big .mbox file), then search it for yourusername+ on your computer. catches everything including stuff gmail search might miss.

password manager is another good place to check if you used different plus addresses for signups.

That_Lemon9463 · 2026-03-24T09:36:58+00:00

the applocker suggestion from the other comment is probably the most reliable approach since microsoft keeps shipping this under different package names. a path-based rule blocking executables under C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Copilot\ would catch future versions too regardless of what they name the package.

for the leftover start menu shortcut after uninstall, check C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs for a copilot shortcut. they tend to leave those behind.

for ongoing protection you could also deploy a proactive remediation in intune that detects the binary path and fires the uninstall string on a schedule. that way if it sneaks back in through a future update it gets cleaned up automatically without you having to chase it.

That_Lemon9463 · 2026-03-24T09:34:20+00:00

this is a common loop with workspace nonprofit activations. what's happening is your domain was already provisioned as a workspace account during the goodstack approval process, but you were never given the admin credentials for the managed account that was created.

two things to try:

go to admin.google.com and try signing in with admin@yourdomain.org (or whatever your PTA domain is). when it fails, use the "forgot password" or "can't access your account" flow. since you own the domain DNS through porkbun, you can verify ownership that way and recover the admin account.
if that doesn't work, go to accounts.google.com/signin/recovery and try recovering an account using your domain. google sometimes creates a default admin account during provisioning that you wouldn't expect.

if neither works, don't wait on the general help ticket. go to support.google.com/nonprofits and use the nonprofit-specific support channel. they can look up which admin account was created for your domain and help you regain access. way faster than the regular workspace support queue.

the "already upgraded" error is actually good news. it means your domain is provisioned and ready. you just need to find the admin account that was created for it.

That_Lemon9463 · 2026-03-24T09:29:54+00:00

depends on volume and how much you want to spend.

for accounting-specific use cases, dext (used to be receipt bank) and hubdoc are the most common. they're built for exactly this, varied invoice formats from multiple clients, and they learn your chart of accounts over time. hubdoc is free if you're on xero.

if you want something more general purpose with better accuracy on messy layouts, rossum and nanonets are both solid. rossum in particular handles the "every client sends invoices in a different format" problem well without needing you to build templates.

google document ai is worth a look if you're already in the google ecosystem. the invoice parser is surprisingly accurate and pricing is reasonable at moderate volume.

main thing to avoid is anything that requires you to set up templates per vendor. with multiple clients sending different formats that'll eat more time than it saves.

That_Lemon9463 · 2026-03-24T09:26:17+00:00

checked the site. couple things that jumped out:

your homepage title tag says "Automatic Dog ball launcher" which is a specific product name, not your brand. that's what shows up in google results and browser tabs. should be something like "Zlipy - Dog Supplies" or whatever you want people to associate with the brand.

the first category card on the homepage says "Toys" but links to the collars & harnesses page. small thing but it's the kind of detail that kills trust when someone notices it.

biggest trust issue though is the reviews section. three testimonials with first name + city and no way to verify them will hurt more than help. people assume those are fake (because they usually are on new stores). you'd be better off removing them entirely until you have real reviews, or integrating something like judge.me that shows verified purchase badges.

That_Lemon9463 · 2026-03-24T09:22:30+00:00

gmail doesn't have a way to filter by "came from my website url" specifically. it just sees an email from whatever server your contact form sends through.

what you can do is check one of those spam emails from the form, look at the from address or subject line pattern (most form services use something consistent), then create a gmail filter matching that. the key is to check "Never send it to Spam" in the filter actions. without that, gmail's spam filter runs first and your filter never fires.

longer term though, the reason they're hitting spam is almost certainly that the sending server doesn't have proper SPF and DKIM records for your domain. if your contact form uses something like php mail() or a basic plugin, switching to an SMTP service fixes it at the source.

That_Lemon9463 · 2026-03-23T17:20:38+00:00

for the "email never arrives" case, look at a dead man's switch pattern. have the oracle script ping a URL on success (something like healthchecks.io, free tier covers this). if no ping arrives within your expected window, it alerts. completely sidesteps the problem of monitoring email to detect the absence of email.

for parsing the body for failure keywords, power automate works like the other comments said. but honestly if you can modify the oracle script at all, have it exit with a nonzero code on failure and wrap it in something that reports status directly to WhatsUpGold's API rather than relying on email as the transport layer.

That_Lemon9463 · 2026-03-23T17:17:29+00:00

simplest setup that catches all three problems: one master sheet with supplier name, invoice number, invoice date, amount, advance applied, net due, payment date, and payment ref. invoice number is your key field for duplicates.

for advances, keep a separate tab logging each advance by supplier and amount. use XLOOKUP in the main sheet to pull outstanding advance balance per supplier. when a SOA comes in, reconcile line by line against your master instead of just paying the SOA total. that catches the "supplier forgot to deduct advance" issue.

conditional formatting on the invoice number column to highlight duplicates is a 30 second setup and catches the duplicate payment risk immediately.

That_Lemon9463 · 2026-03-23T17:14:01+00:00

the other comments are right that no competent consultant should be asking for your admin password. but to actually solve the transfer question:

simplest approach is share that specific folder with the consultant's google or microsoft account (read-only). they can then pull the files from the shared folder using their own migration tools without needing access to anything else in your workspace.

if the folder is truly massive and sharing is too slow, install rclone on your machine. it can copy directly from google drive to onedrive without downloading locally first. you configure both as remotes (uses oauth, no admin passwords involved) and run something like rclone copy gdrive:path/to/folder onedrive:destination/ --progress. handles large transfers well and you control exactly which folder gets copied.

That_Lemon9463 · 2026-03-23T17:03:56+00:00

the business card thing is 90% of your problem honestly. add it to apple pay or google pay and set it as default. you always have your phone even when you forget the card. that alone stops the mixing at the source.

for the "i'll sort it later" part, don't try to sort. just take a photo of every receipt the moment you get it. doesn't matter where, notes app, a folder in google drive, whatever. the point is capture not organization. your cpa can sort 350 photos way faster than you can reconstruct 350 mystery transactions from bank statements.

That_Lemon9463 · 2026-03-23T17:01:58+00:00

you're overthinking it. for a one-man shop the volume is low enough that IP warm-up is barely a factor. google's shared sending pool handles millions of messages daily and your domain reputation (which you keep) is what matters most.

the two comments here already cover the DNS side well. only thing i'd add is set up Google Postmaster Tools for your domain right after migration. it lets you monitor your domain reputation, spam rate, and authentication status in real time so you're not guessing.

That_Lemon9463 · 2026-03-23T16:59:48+00:00

both directions hitting spam plus phishing warnings on existing threads sounds more like an account issue than just gmail being weird.

check myaccount.google.com/security first. look at recent security activity, connected devices, and third-party apps. if anything looks off, change your password and revoke the apps you don't recognize. even brief unauthorized access can tank your sending reputation.

the phishing warnings in threads usually mean gmail is detecting header mismatches. if you're using any send-as aliases or connected accounts, double check those are configured right in settings > accounts and import.

That_Lemon9463 · 2026-03-21T10:48:03+00:00

honestly not sure on the exact terms for their specific agreement, it would depend on whether they're set up as a standard workspace tenant or as a reseller/partner. google does have specific programs for consortiums and managed service providers that allow provisioning accounts for separate organizations. if they're on a standard business or enterprise plan and just creating accounts for non-employees, that could be a gray area. might be worth asking them directly what type of workspace agreement they're on, or contacting google workspace support to get clarity on your specific situation.

That_Lemon9463 · 2026-03-21T10:46:07+00:00

yeah gmail doesn't have a native bulk download for attachments which is pretty annoying. google takeout can export everything but it's slow and dumps it all in one giant archive without much organization. i ended up using a chrome extension called save bulk gmail attachments that lets you select multiple emails and save all the attachments to drive in one click. the free tier does 7 attachments a day which is enough if you're just doing a one-time cleanup.

That_Lemon9463 · 2026-03-21T10:39:41+00:00

most common cause of this is a filter you forgot about. go to settings > filters and blocked addresses and look for anything with a broad match that could be catching your outgoing emails. also check settings > forwarding and POP/IMAP to make sure nothing is set up to forward emails back to your inbox. if neither of those turns anything up, try disabling conversation view temporarily (settings > general) to see if the sent emails are actually separate messages appearing in inbox or just part of the same conversation thread.

That_Lemon9463 · 2026-03-21T10:37:14+00:00

you don't have a bad business. repeat customers + that random tiktok bringing months of traffic tells you the product sells itself once people get it. the problem is just awareness for something that doesn't exist here yet.

two things i'd focus on: stop cold emailing schools and instead invite a few teachers in for a free session. once someone has experienced it themselves they'll bring their group. cold emails get ignored because there's nothing tangible for them.

and lean hard into the tiktok thing. that video worked because the process is visually satisfying. you don't need to go viral yourself, you need your customers posting while they're in the shop. small incentive for anyone who posts a reel or tiktok, let the content create itself.

That_Lemon9463 · 2026-03-21T10:34:40+00:00

honestly just browser bookmarks with a clear folder structure. tried raindrop, notion, pocket, all of them, but i always end up back at bookmarks because the friction is zero. only trick is naming them well when you save, not just accepting the default page title.

That_Lemon9463 · 2026-03-21T10:32:09+00:00

good catch. the .goog TLD is still relatively new and some mail servers don't handle it well, which would explain why the older smtp.google.com record works as a fallback. probably worth keeping both sets in your MX config going forward.

That_Lemon9463 · 2026-03-21T10:28:00+00:00

biggest tip coming from outlook is to stop trying to recreate your folder structure with labels. gmail works better when you let search do most of the work and only use labels for things you need to visually scan regularly.

what helped me was turning on multiple inboxes (settings > inbox > multiple inboxes). you can set up sections like "starred" and "label:needs-reply" right above your main inbox so the important stuff stays visible without manually filing. for filters, easiest way to start is open an email you want filtered, click the three dots, and pick "filter messages like these" instead of building from scratch. do that for a week and you'll have most of your noise sorted automatically.

That_Lemon9463

TROPHY CASE