If you're seeing a "Need admin approval" or "Approval required" message when trying to connect your Outlook or Office365 email, or if you're being prompted with IMAP/SMTP options instead of the expected OAuth dialog, it means your Office365 Admin has enabled advanced security settings in Azure Active Directory to restrict access to third-party applications like Event Temple.
Reference Documentation from Microsoft
Before proceeding, you may find the following Microsoft articles helpful:
Understanding admin consent in Azure Active Directory – Explains how admin consent works and how IT admins can manage it.
Grant tenant-wide admin consent to an application – Step-by-step instructions for granting consent at the tenant level.
About IMAP/SMTP Prompts
The IMAP/SMTP prompt appears as a fallback mechanism in Event Temple when the OAuth (Microsoft Graph) connection fails. This failure typically occurs because admin consent in Microsoft Azure has either expired or been revoked. Microsoft requires IT admin approval to authorize third-party applications like Event Temple to access email accounts securely.
How to Resolve OAuth Connection Issues
When you see the Microsoft approval request dialog in the integration setup, click Request approval to notify your IT administrator.
Wait for your IT admin to approve the request for Event Temple to access your email account. The permissions requested are standard and necessary for proper email functionality.
Once approval is granted, reauthorize your email account in Event Temple by going to Settings > Personal Settings > Email and clicking Authorize again with your full email address.
Note: If your organization granted Admin Consent in a prior year, it may need to be refreshed. Microsoft tokens can expire or be invalidated by updated security settings. In that case, your admin will need to repeat the consent process.
How Your Email Administrator Can Change Permissions
Your email administrator will need to create a new session and sign into the application as an admin user to grant permission.
Adjusting “Need Admin Approval” Settings
Go to the Azure Active Directory admin center.
Go to Enterprise applications > User settings.
Review the two settings that control authentication:
Users can consent to apps accessing company data on their behalf
Users can consent to apps accessing company data for groups they own
Toggle both to Yes if users should authenticate themselves, or toggle both to No to require administrative permission.
Request Admin Consent
Sign in to the Azure portal as a Global Administrator.
Go to Enterprise Applications > User settings.
Enable “Users can request admin consent to apps they are unable to consent to”.
Add at least one trusted user with an inbox as a reviewer.
Save the changes.
Additional Troubleshooting in Azure Directory
If users continue to encounter errors when connecting their email, administrators should also verify the following setting within the Event Temple application entry in Azure:
Go to Azure Active Directory.
Navigate to Enterprise Applications and select the Event Temple application.
Go to Security > Permissions.
Click Grant admin consent for "+ your organization name +".
This step ensures all required permissions are fully approved at the tenant level and often resolves lingering OAuth or approval-related errors.
Approval Required
Depending on the authorization granted by the email administrator, the following notification may appear.
When you reach the “Need admin approval” page, the user will need to request approval.
Microsoft will send an approval email to the email administrator—once they click Approve, the user will be allowed to connect Event Temple.
After approval:
In Event Temple, go to Settings > Personal Settings > Email.
Click Authorize again using your full email address.
Additional Information
See the Microsoft documentation for further details. If IMAP/SMTP prompts persist after completing the approval steps, additional security restrictions or Azure configurations may be in place. The permissions requested by Event Temple are standard and required for proper operation.
If issues continue, contact your IT department or Microsoft to ensure no other security settings require updates.