Linux Mint: How to Login To Your Online Accounts
While using your online accounts separately is the standard method and provides access to the full functionality of a website or service, there are sometimes alternatives that may be more convenient for a particular use. For example, integrating cloud storage directly into your file browser allows you to easily switch from browsing local files to browsing cloud files. Similarly, calendar integration with online calendar services allows multiple calendars to be synchronized into a single instance. It’s much easier to keep track of one calendar than four different ones!
Linux Mint includes several applications with online service integration that can be configured. To log in to them and use the integrated features, you need to open the “Online accounts” settings. To do so, press the Super key, type “Online Accounts” and press Enter.
Tip : The “Super” key is the name many Linux distributions use to refer to the Windows key or the Apple “Command” key, avoiding any risk of trademark issues.
Press the Super key, type “Online Accounts” and press Enter.
In the list of online accounts, you can see a list of services that you can sign up for. These are the services of Google, Nextcloud, Facebook, Microsoft, Flickr, Foursquare and Microsoft Exchange. If you click the three-dot icon at the bottom of the list, you’ll see two more options, “IMAP and SMTP” and “Enterprise Login (Kerberos).
To find out which applications have integration with which services, click the “About GNOME Online Accounts” button at the top of the window.
See the services you can sign up for and click the button at the top to see which apps they integrate with.
What integrations are available?
In a new window you can see that Google and “Owncloud” may have their cloud storage solutions integrated into the default file browser “Nemo”.
Note: Nextcloud is incorrectly referred to as “Owncloud” in this window and incorrectly uses the Owncloud logo throughout. For clarity, this article will correct this to refer to Nextcloud.
The only other application in the list installed by default in Linux Mint is “Calendar”, which can be integrated with Google, Microsoft Exchange and Nextcloud accounts.
Other applications that you can install to integrate with some online services are the email client “Evolution”, “Contacts”, “Documents”, “Maps” and “Photos”.
You can check out the list of apps that use this account integration.
To sign in to any of the services, click on them in the list in the main window and follow the instructions for verification. After the process is complete, all affected applications may need to be restarted for the integrations to work properly.
To sign in to one of the Services, click on it and then enter your account credentials in accordance with the applicable verification instructions.