This document describes how to use the Gmail Scheduler tool to compose emails in Gmail and schedule them to be sent at later dates and times from Google Sheets. The tool allows writing emails now and sending them automatically later without installing browser extensions. It fetches draft emails from Gmail and lists them in a Google Sheet where the send date can be scheduled. Scheduled emails are sent within 5 minutes of the scheduled time.

1. Schedule your Gmail messages in a Google Spreadsheet and send them at a later
date automatically.
Introduction
With Gmail Scheduler, you an write your email messages now and send them at a later date
and time. You don't have to install any browser extensions, you don't have to share your
Gmail inbox with any external service and you can schedule email messages from your
desktop and mobile phones.
You can get the Gmail Scheduler from Digital Inspiration. The premium edition lets you
schedule any number of Gmail messages, you can send email via any email address that is
set as your Gmail alias and it maintains a detailed log of all your scheduling activity.
For support, send an email to Amit Agarwal at amit@labnol.org or tweet @labnol.
Gmail Scheduler
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2. Step 1: Create Gmail Drafts
Open your Gmail mailbox and compose one or more emails that you would like to send at a
later date. You can put the email recipients in the TO, CC and BCC fields, the message can
have inline images, attachments and everything else that you would normally include in a
regular Gmail message.
The only difference is that you don't have to hit the SEND button, just let the message stay in
your Gmail Drafts folder and the scheduler will send it for you at a later date.
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3. Send as Alias
If you have multiple email accounts linked as aliases to your main Gmail account, the
scheduler can send emails on behalf of any of these email addresses. For instance, if you
have a business Google Apps email account and a personal email account, you can write
the meail in your personal Gmail account but send it on behalf of your Google Apps account.
To choose a different sender for a scheduled email, open the draft and select your email
address from the drop down. You need to set the Sender in every Gmail draft else it will sent
from your Gmail account.
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4. Save the draft(s)
The Gmail Scheduler lets you add any number of email messages to the queue for sending
later. All you have to do is save them as drafts in your Gmail mailbox.
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5. Step 2: Copy Scheduler
Now that our Gmail drafts are ready (you can add more later), click the Make a Copy button
to copy the Gmail Scheduler program into your Google Drive. You'll find a link in the email
from labnol.org
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6. Step 3: Authorize the Program
Inside the spreadsheet, choose the Gmail Scheduler menu and select Authorize.
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7. Continue
Click continue to open the authorization wizard.
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8. Accept
Authorize the program to access your Google account. It needs these permissions to read
the draft emails saved in your Gmail account and send emails on your behalf. The scheduler
also needs permissions to write the activity log in a Google Spreadsheet.
The script runs in your own Google Drive and not a single byte of your data is shared or
uploaded anywhere. You can also view the entire source code inside the Script editor of the
spreadsheet.
Click the Accept button to continue
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9. Step 4: Configure Scheduler
Once the script is authorized, go to the Gmail Scheduler menu in the spreadsheet and
choose Configure.
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10. Timezone
This is an important step. You need to choose your correct timezone and also whether you
wish to save or discard the drafts after the scheduled emails are sent. For instance, you may
want to preserve a draft if you want to reschedule it later or you want to send to another
recipient at a later date and time.
Save your changes and close the Configure window.
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11. Step 5: Fetch Drafts
Go to the Gmail Scheduler menu and choose Fetch Drafts to bring the saved drafts from
Gmail into the Google Spreadsheet.
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12. Process
Your Google Spreadsheet will have a list of every single draft message that was found in
your Gmail account. You'll see the message subject, who that message is addressed to and
the message ID assigned by Gmail.
Remember that Gmail changes the message ID of a draft message each time you edit it.
Thus, after you fetched the drafts list in the spreadsheet, do not edit the drafts back in Gmail.
if you need to edit a draft, run the Fetch Drafts menu again to fetch the edited draft into the
sheet.
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13. Schedule
Next we need to schedule the drafts. In column D, enter the exact date and time - in mm-dd-
yyyy hh:mm format - when you wish to send your scheduled messages. For instance, if you
wish to schedule a Gmail message for sending on 14th Feb 2015 at 9:30 PM, you need to
enter the date as 02-14-2015 21:30. The messages will be sent in your selected timezone.
You should only change the column D in the sheet, all the other columns are populated
automatically. When you enter the schedule, the Status (column E) will automatically update
visually suggesting you how long before the corresponding message is sent. If you enter a
date that has already passed, the Status will be red else it will be yellow indicating that the
message is in the queue. The messages will be sent within +/- 5 minutes of the scheduled
time.
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14. Status
When the message is sent, the status turn green. You can also switch to the Logs sheet to
know the exact time when your message was sent.
If you would like to send more messages, compose the drafts in Gmail and fetch them inside
the spreadsheet. If a draft is already listed in the sheet, it won't be fetched again.
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15. Troubleshooting
The Logs sheet contains a detailed log of every single activity of the Gmail Scheduler. If you
get any errors, you can check the Logs sheet to troubleshoot and find the source of the
errors.
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16. Limitations
The Gmail scheduler lets you schedule any number of email messages for sending at a later
date. However, Google has set a limit on the number of recipients that you send emails to in
the 24 hour period.
For free Gmail accounts, Google allows to send emails to a total of 100 recipients in a single
day. In the case of Google Apps for business accounts, the email quota is 1500 email
recipients per day.
If you try sending emails to more recipients in a day, the script would log an error message
and the email won't go until the quota is reset (this usually happens at 0:00 hours CST).
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17. Get Going
You can get the Gmail Scheduler (premium) from Digital Inspiration. For support, contact
Amit Agarwal at amit@labnol.org or tweet @labnol.
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