How to use Avast Email Guard

This article is about the Email Guard feature in the new version of Avast One. For information about Email Guardian in the old version of Avast One, refer to the following article: Avast One Email Guard - Getting Started.

Protect emails online

To use Email Guard, you need a paid subscription for Avast One.

Email Guard scans incoming emails in up to 5 online email accounts, enhancing your safety when checking emails from any device or browser.

To monitor your email accounts with Email Guard:

Open Avast One and go to Scam Guardian.
Select Email Guard.
If you are not already signed in, click Sign in to Avast One Account and follow the on-screen instructions.
Click Add email account.
Enter your email address, then click Continue.
If you see the error message Sorry, we can't connect to that account yet, your email account is currently not compatible with Email Guard. However, we are working on adding supported email providers.

Select the relevant option below for instructions to connect your email account:

Click Sign in to open Gmail, then sign in to your Gmail account.
To configure your mailbox to work with Email Guard, tick the boxes next to See and edit your email labels and Read, compose, and send emails from your Gmail account, then click Continue.
The Read, compose, and send emails from your Gmail account permission is a requirement in Google API rules for third-party apps. This permission needs to be granted to check emails for suspicious content and assign a corresponding label.
Click Got it.

Google has changed its policies for applications listed under the email reporting and monitoring categories. To protect your account, you need to renew Gmail access every six months.

When your Gmail access expires, you receive an email to the email address that was protected, as well as an alert in the Email Guard section of your Avast Antivirus application. Follow the provided instructions to renew your Gmail access.

Click Sign in to open Outlook, then sign in to your Outlook account.
Click Accept to give Avast permission to Let this app access your info?.
Click Got it.

Configure your email account

For some email providers, you need to set up your email account to work with Email Guard. If your email provider is listed in the table below, click the relevant link to follow the instructions on your email provider's support website. If you have already set up your email account to work with Email Guard, follow the steps below to complete the process in Avast One.

Email provider	Setup	Instructions
AOL	App-specific password (only needed if two-factor authentication is on)	AOL ▸ Create and manage third-party app passwords
Comcast	Allow access to third-party programs	Comcast ▸ Turn your access to third-party email programs on or off in Xfinity Email
Cox.net	App-specific password (after transitioning to Yahoo.com)	Yahoo ▸ Update your cox.net email settings in Outlook, Mail on Mac and other third-party email clients
GMX	Enable IMAP	GMX ▸ Activate or deactivate POP3 and IMAP
Mail.ru	App-specific password	Mail.ru ▸ IMAP, SMTP и POP3 Mail.ru
Seznam	App-specific password	Seznam ▸ IMAP, POP3, SMTP
Web.de	Enable IMAP	Web.de ▸ Serverdaten für IMAP und SMTP
Yahoo	App-specific password	Yahoo ▸ Generate and manage third-party app passwords
Yandex	Enable IMAP App-specific password	Yandex ▸ Configuring desktop email clients

If you have already set up your email account to work with Email Guard, then continue with the relevant screen below according to your email provider's requirements:
If you see an error message, click Try again. If the setup continues to fail, click Close, and try again from the beginning using the exact steps in this article. If the set up continues to fail, ensure the email address you are trying to add is compatible with Email Guard, then contact Avast Support for further assistance.
- App password: Enter your app-specific password, then click Continue.
- Email password: Enter your email password, then click Continue.
Click Got it.

Email Guard is monitoring the email account.

To add additional email accounts, click Add email account on the Email Guard screen and follow the relevant steps in this article. You can add a maximum of 5 email accounts to Email Guard.

Enable AI-powered scam detection

Switch the slider beside Use AI-powered scam detection to allow Email Guard to use AI when checking your emails for threats. Suspicious emails detected by this feature are marked with an Avast: Scam label in your inbox.

Remove an email account

To stop Email Guard from monitoring an email account:

Open Avast One and go to Scam Guardian.
Select Email Guard.
Navigate to the relevant email account panel, hover your cursor over it, and click the X icon.
Click Yes, remove.

Your email account is removed from Email Guard and is no longer monitored for malicious or phishing emails.

Protect emails on your device

Mail Shield scans for malware in emails sent or received through any email client application installed on your Windows device, including Microsoft Outlook and Mozilla Thunderbird. This feature is enabled by default.

To ensure Mail Shield is monitoring your email client applications: