This post has had some updates:
- The fix for the original problem has rolled out. You need to make sure you’re on 7.10.2 – just follow the instructions below. [13th November 2025]
- Some people are still affected, even on 7.10.2. For this, you have to temporarily turn off Gmail’s “Summarise this email” button – instructions below [13th November 2025]
- I’ve sent a new fix for distribution, which will be version 7.10.4. After you’ve got that, you can re-enable the Summarise button [13th November 2025]
Ok, back to the post…
We’ve just had a whopping Gmail change that broke ActiveInbox, so I want to share a quick post-mortem and give you instructions for the fix.
But it’s also been ages since I checked in as I’ve had my head deep in code (this is Andy, ActiveInbox’s founder), so I wanted to say hello and share what I’m working on.
The ‘clicks not working’ bug
You’ve probably already spotted something is wrong, but broadly these things have been a problem for the last few days:
- You’ve tried clicking a task – e.g. in your Today list – and nothing happened
- In some emails, you can’t set a new task (e.g. you can’t pick a due date)
- Most weirdly of all, you might find your due dates or notes ‘slipping’ and appearing on the wrong email (don’t worry, they’re not really on the wrong email… I’ll explain in a moment).
Basically, there’s been a Gmail change. In fact it looks like a temporary bug on their part.
Essentially, they’ve stopped sharing the ID of the emails with Gmail addons. (The reason I think it’s a bug is they still think they’re sharing the ID: it exists in the usual place, but it’s just a bit of garbled nonsense instead.)
Not having an accurate ID creates these issues:
- When you click a task in the task list, it doesn’t know which email to load
- When viewing an email, it can’t find the matching due date and notes
- When viewing an email, it can’t assign a due date / notes
I am sorry that it took us a few days to fix: it was a deep bug (as you can imagine, not having email IDs affects a LOT of things). In the end, we managed to find some solid workarounds – but I’m still hoping Google realises it’s a bug in Gmail and reverts it.
(I did some digging while trying to find a fix and discovered that other Gmail addons are affected too and haven’t found a ‘proper’ solution either… which is what makes me hopeful Google will respond).
Fix: make sure you’ve upgraded to 7.10.2
First, go to your extensions list:
- Open a new tab in Chrome
- Paste this text into the address bar and press enter: chrome://extensions
(Or manually use Chrome’s menu to go to your Extensions list)
It should look like this:
Finally:
- Temporarily enable ‘Developer Mode’ using the toggle button in the top right
- Click the ‘Update’ button in the top left
- Check ActiveInbox is showing as 7.10.2
- The refresh Gmail
Still affected, even on 7.10.2?
Some of you are still finding that you can’t add a due date while in an email. Or that the task bar in an email has the incorrect information.
The problem – utterly bizarrely – is Gmail’s own “Summarize this email” button. For the life of me I don’t know why they did this, but under the hood they’ve made that button look technically identical to any other email. So ActiveInbox is trying to read it like an email, and crashing.
This isn’t affecting everyone – and sadly it isn’t affecting any of my test accounts so I didn’t spot it. But I spoke to Greg in France this afternoon and we figured it out (merci Greg!).
I’ve got this fixed too, and I’m sending the next update out (7.10.4), but while you wait there’s actually a really quick workaround…
Fix for 7.10.2: temporarily disable the Summarise button
Yes, I’m aware I sound crazy for saying this – it’s crazy to me too! – but it will get you working.
- Open Gmail’s Settings
- Go to the General Tab
- Scroll down to “Google Workspace smart features“
- Click Manage Workspace smart feature settings
- Uncheck the option that includes ‘Ask Gemini to summarise content’
When you refresh Gmail, ActiveInbox should be working again.
And when 7.10.4 is available, you can re-enable the Summarise this Email button.
What’s the key thing if it happens again in the future?
Gmail does change from time to time, and we’re forced to react as fast as we can – but it can still lead to spell of downtime.
If it happens, the most important thing to remember is that ActiveInbox just uses Gmail’s own labels for data storage. Every due date and project in AIB is just a Gmail label.
The format for a date label is ZD/YYYYMMDD, so today (12th November) would be ZD/20251112.
That means you can always find emails you’ve given a due date.
And for any period that AIB isn’t working after a Gmail change, you can still add Gmail labels manually – and when it starts working again those emails will be tracked in ActiveInbox.
Roadmap (aka what I’ve been working on)
I’m working on a huge new power for ActiveInbox: the ability to collaborate more effectively with others (even if they don’t have ActiveInbox installed).
The original motivation was when I did a lot of research with you a few years ago, so many of you said the biggest pain was that other people don’t respond promptly (or sometimes at all).
The idea is that when you send an email, it’ll carry interactive widgets that help the recipient feel more in control with you (and be able to answer you more quickly).
The wonderful part is that if you feel like you’re the only organised person in a chaotic group, then you become the light bringer who increases the organisation of everyone around you – each interaction is tracked and controlled for both of you.
In addition to the new abilities, I’ve also developed an entirely new data system for ActiveInbox which will let it handle a lot more emails without slowing down (this is the main reason the new functionality has taken me a long time… it’s replacing code that originally took us over a decade to write. I’ve speed-run writing it in under a year, but I do wish I could have done it even faster!).
You can always talk to us!
Many kind customers have emailed in to find out what’s happening, but in truth it’s a lot of names that I recognise from previous conversations… i.e. people who already know us.
That makes me think there’s a lot more people out there who needed help but didn’t think to email in.
We’re a small company, with no AI or remote service people – when you email in, you reach Lisa or me. So please don’t hesitate to get in touch to support@activeinboxhq.com .
This was written by Andy Mitchell