83 thoughts on “Gift Exchange Mobile for iOS”

  1. I can’t get emails to send to AOL or gmail accounts. They send to exchange accounts although end up in spam. I am not getting “undeliverable” messages, nor are these in spam folders. Have tried 3 different tests.

    1. It looks like AOL has added some filtering that may be keeping the e-mails sent with the web service from getting through. I did test using the SMTP configuration and that worked. I tested sending to AOL and other accounts. Go to “Options” and set it up as follows to send from AOL:

      E-mail from: (your email address such as myusername@aol.com)
      Send method: SMTP
      Host Name: smtp.aol.com
      User Name: (your email address such as myusername@aol.com)
      Password: (your AOL password)
      Use SSL: Start TLS
      Authentication: Plain
      Server Port: 587

    1. Thank you for your inquiry. Comcast must be a rather new cellular provider. It is not currently in the app list. I will add it. It will take a week or so for the update to make it to the app store. If you don’t mind installing TestFlight I can probably get it to you tomorrow.

  2. After I hit Send Notification, a window pops up labeled Send Settings. Under this title it asks for – “email from address” and “email password”. What do I enter here? Do I put in my email address and make up a password?

    1. Linda, If you provide your e-mail from address and password the app will send notifications using your e-mail provider. This is the SMTP send method. The app is acting like a very simple mail client to send the notifications. It knows the settings to connect to common providers such as AOL, gmail, and yahoo. If you leave the password blank the app will give you the option to send using a web service. This usually works but may not be as reliable if you are not in USA, and will be more likely to be filtered out by some providers or end up in the recipients spam folder. Select “Options” and “Send Settings” for detailed send options. The Native iOS send method will not require an e-mail “from address” or “password”, however the iOS send screen will show for each participant so the organizer will see the name drawn for each person.

    1. Thank you for your inquiry. Are you using a yahoo address as the from address for Gift Exchange? I did a test just now with a yahoo account I have and it worked fine. You may want to make sure you entered your correct e-mail address and password for your yahoo account.

      You may tap options send settings and set the send method to not yet defined, then go back and tap send. The app will prompt for your email address and password again.

      You may also try changing the send method to web service. However, notifications sometimes get filtered or sent to spam using this method.

      Please let me know if this helps.

  3. I can pull up my 2015 set up on my iPhone but on my iPad I see 2014 ( which I never completed) I hit send notifications ( email) No one got their notification, but it says on mine names have been drawn . As the administrator I’d like to see who picked whom. Help losing valuable shopping time!!

    1. You can send your file from one device to another by going to options and tapping the action button then “mail” to e-mail the file to yourself. Open the attachment on the other device. It has been suggested to allow saving the files to iCloud drive. I am looking into that for a future version.

      When you performed the send operation did you get an error? You may want to check your send settings: user name and password for your e-mail provider. You may go to send settings, change the send method the “Not yet defined” then go back to send notifications and it will prompt for your login information again. Alternatively, you may change the send method to “Web service”. However, there have been cases of providers filtering the messages from the web service or they may be more likely to go into the recipients spam folders.

  4. Ok thanks I can now open both adult and kids on both iPad and iPhone… But I’d like to change the name from a file number to one I can easily recognize. 2) I can see that names have been drawn but the participants can’t AND under their names I see*******. I chose secret so they wouldn’t see others draw- but as administrator -I’d prefer to. Thanks were getting there. I think

  5. Joanne, If you tap the action button and “Set Exchange Complete” you will then be able to see who each person had in the summary view. However, if you want to send e-mails again, first go to options and change the status back to “Names Drawn” so that the history in the e-mails will not show who each person had.

    1. To group people go to tap each person and tap “Group”. Select an existing group or tap “+” to add a new group.

    1. Joanne, To redraw from the people list screen (showing smiley faces) tap the action button and then “Draw Names”. If you have already set the exchange as complete and you really won’t to redraw you can first go to options and change the status back to “Not yet drawn”.

    1. Karla, Are you using a yahoo address to send from? It seems that yahoo servers may be having some problems today. http://downdetector.com/status/yahoo-mail This site shows problems 12/12. You may try “Options” “Send Options” and changing the send method to “Web Service”. If you have another mail account you may also try that.

  6. After I sent the members of our exchange their gift exchange names, I have had them send me their gift suggestion. I entered these into the suggestion space under their info. I was prompted to send these and I clicked send. The message indicated it was sending but it didn’t finish sending. After several minutes I just hit cancel. Do you have any suggestions for sending the gift suggestions? Thanks!

    1. Linda, please go to options – send settings and try sending a test email. You may also try changing the send method back to “not yet defined” and then go back and select anyone in the exchange and send notification. It will prompt for your email address and password again.

  7. How do participants update their suggestions? There is no link on their text notification. And do I need to resend once suggestions are updated.

    1. Text notifications do not have reply links. However the participants may contact the organizer. Whenever the organizer adds or updates a suggestion in the app and taps “done” the app will prompt whether to notifify the person who has that name.

  8. I did the draw but not all the text went out. I noticed that the ones that didn’t go out didn’t have mobile in front of their phone numbers. Can you help! Thanks

    1. Jeana, if you select participants from contacts it will show “mobile” or whatever the selected number is tagged as in the address book. That will not effect sending. However please make sure the numbers are mobile numbers that can receive texts. Also make sure you have the correct mobile phone carrier such as “AT&T” or “Verizon” selected for each participant.

  9. If I select we service messages do not go out as text. If I select text option I see who each person got and I will be participating 🙁 help!

    1. Reyna, It is recommended to use the SMTP send method to send notifications. Using SMTP you will not see the notifications so you can be part of the exchange When you provide you from email address and password the app automatically configures the SMTP settings for common providers such as AOL and Yahoo.

  10. Activity log shows WS sucess however no one received notification and only 7/10 were sent out. How do I resend the other three. Thank you

    1. Reyna, select each person to resend and tap the activity button. A popup will appear to send notification for that person.

    1. The phone number entries for text notifications should be just numbers and dashes such as 123-456-7890 or (123)456-7890. Are the ones not getting through using the same carrier? You may look at the activity log. It should show something like: sending to 1234567890@vtext.com (Verizon) or 1234567890@txt.att.net (A. T. & T.). You may verify that this is the correct information by sending an email to that address and asking the person to verify that they received the text.

    1. So the log shows something like “123567890@notfound”? Please make sure the participant “Carrier” is selected as “A.T.&T. Wireless”. Then go back to the participant and send the notification again. The log should show something like “1234567890@txt.att.net”.

  11. I can’t get a notification sent to a phone number. Also I added and email to a contact and it doesn’t show as an option to send a notification

    1. Rene, did you get an error message when sending? Please make sure the carrier is set to match the mobile phone carrier the person you notifying uses.

  12. Just got the app. Not sure how the gift suggestions work. Do I need to get them from participants and place in info box?

    1. Thank you for your question. You type or paste the suggestions in. If you have notifications set to have suggestions links. When you receive emails from your participants you can copy and paste any suggestions received.

  13. Pastor Philip Hobbs

    The app keeps closing when I am in the middle of putting names in. Then when I pull it back up I have to start all over creating a new exchange name and adding contacts names.

    1. Please let me know what device, such as iPhone 6, you are using and what version of iOS. Are you selecting names from your contacts or entering the names manually?

    1. Please check “summary” and “log” to see if it shows an error. You select each person and tap the action button to send the notifications one at a time. It may be a problem with one of the participant’s settings. Please let me know if this helps.

    1. Please check “Summary” and “Log” to see if it shows any errors when sending. It should show the texts sent to email such as 1234567890@txt.att.net for A T & T.
      You may also check “Options” and “Send Settings”. Let me know what you have set for Send Method.

  14. Trying to assign children’s names to adults…have adults set to “Gives to rcv only” and children set to “Receive only”. But when I try to draw names it says at least 3 participants must be set to Give and Receive. Please help!

  15. Do you set up mobile number with spaces? The draw didn’t send notifications to the other ones but it did show me who got who with the others

    1. The number should not have spaces. You can have dashes. They will be filtered out when it sends. You can check the “summary” and “log” to verify the sending address. For example AT&T will be @txt.att.net

    1. Thank you for your comment. The app does have a lot of features that were requested by various people. However I have tried to keep it simple. For a simple exchange with no groups you can just add the people and their email addresses then do the drawing. Please let me know of any suggestions for improving it.

    1. Please check “options” and “send settings”. What send method is set? Verify that your correct from email is entered. Also if you are using cellular wireless make sure the Gift Exchange app is allowed to use cellular in settings.

    1. Yes, you can tap the action button and select draw names. After the names are drawn it will prompt whether to send notifications. Tap “no” to see the names set the Exchange as complete and then you can see all the names.

  16. I have previously sent notifications Iona successfully but now I need to resend one and it keeps coming up with the following error message. “Connection Error. Unable to authenticate with the current sessions credentials.” What do I need to do? Thanks.

    1. Thank you for your question. What email provider are you using? Sometimes the providers make changes and changes are needed to the settings. I will try to duplicate your problem. If you could give me your “send settings” except I don’t include password that will help.

  17. I have previously sent notifications successfully but now I need to resend one and it keeps coming up with the following error message. “Connection Error. Unable to authenticate with the current sessions credentials.” What do I need to do? Thanks.

  18. It will not let me send out the drawings from my gmail. I ended up seeing the exchange to send out my self. Also suggestion is to make it send the whole group in one email to one email address. I use this for a kid Christmas exchange and send it to their parents so they would be recieving five emails for one family. It would be great to only receive one with all the kids of who they got.

    1. Heather, Thank you for the question. Did you get the extra google login screen pop up when you selected to send? Also you can set your drawing as non secret or completed and then from the summary view tap the action button to email the list of all the names.

  19. Hello- I’m currently unable to send from SMTP hotmail/outlook. I keep getting ‘Connection Error’. A stable connection to the server could not be established. All of the other options work but that one. Thanks.

    1. Jeffery, Thank you for the comment. I’m not sure if hotmail/outlook changed something. I will check on this.

  20. I just tried the app for our gift exchange this year and for the people on my list with AT&T it says it’s sent through their phone number@nottfound. I’ve tried resending the AT&T texts multiple times. The message through Verizon are working fine. It would be a great app if this would work.

    1. Please try selecting each person. Change the carrier to something else such as Verizon. Back out then select the person again and change the carrier back to AT&T.

    1. Are you sending text or email notifications? Please check the send settings. If sending texts please make sure each person has the correct carrier setting.

  21. It won’t let me send notification … Google error 403 says will not allow authorization from a web service and only browsers will be allowed authorization

    1. Thank for the comment. You may try send setting and change the send method. You may use native mode and when you send each message will pop up. You may be careful to not see who each person has when you do this. I will check on gmail to see if any settings have changed.

  22. Trying to send notifications via email. All accounts that lm sending to are Gmail and my account is Gmail also. I’m getting error number 403. Not clear on what I need to do to ‘Authorize’ Gmail.

    1. Google has changed their app authentication feature. I am working on an update to fix this. It should completed in a couple of days.

      1. An update is in process. It may be several days before it is on the App Store. If you want a TestFlight let me know and I will send an invitation. Thanks

    1. Are you getting an error message when sending? For text messages make sure the mobile phone carrier is set for each person. You may check “summary” and “log”. It may have some helpful information. If the Carr is AT&T there have been some cases of problems you may select each person select a different carrier then select the carrier back to AT&T.

  23. I don’t see my previous comment so I am reposting.
    I’m trying to send lists to people for the person they received in the exchange. I add the list and update. The app asks if I want to send to the “giver” for that person. I try to but it just keeps saying sending but never does

    1. Yes you have to select the phone carrier for each person to text unless you select native mode sending. However if you use native mode the send screen will show for each person.

  24. Hi, I appreciate that you actually answer these questions!!
    I’m having trouble at the moment with the gift suggestions…after entering new ones, I click the send email button, but it just sits on sending and never goes through. Any ideas?

  25. Bought App today and trying to use for last minute party. I tried sending notification on both email and text but it sya there is a connection error. Please help

    1. Please confirm your send settings. For yahoo you may have to connect to your web mail portal and go to settings and allow smtp clients. Alternatively you may select send method native. The phone will show the send screen for each person but you may cover the screen partially so you can’t see who each person got.

  26. I’m having trouble at the moment with the gift suggestion after entering new ones, I click the send notification button, but it just infinitely loads

    1. Please let me know your send method setting. Also what version of iOS and device are you using such as iOS 11.2 and iPad Air 2.

      Thanks,

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