Troubleshooting: Access blocked when using SSO (Google users)

If you or your students get the above message, or something similar, when trying to log into Unifrog via SSO, a colleague with admin permissions for the Google account (usually on the IT team) will need to grant access for you and your students. 

You can find Google's page explaining what a Google administrator needs to do here. We've also laid out the instructions below. 

Note: your IT team might think that some configuration is necessary on our side (for example they might say that we need to enable the API) - but this is not the case! 

Step 1: You send the request to the technical team (by clicking ‘Request access’, as circled in the image above).

Step 2: The technical team logs into their Google Admin Console and goes to 'App access control' from their homepage.

Step 3: They find Unifrog on the list of ‘apps pending review’, and hover/hold over it until the 'Configure access' button appears.

Step 4: They select which OU / group of users can have SSO enabled for them.

Step 5: Once they’ve selected the groups of users and confirmed permissions, SSO is enabled for Unifrog.

What if there's no option to send a request to your IT team?

It might be that there is no option for students or teachers to send a request to the administrator. The text on the error message might be:

“Access blocked: Your institution’s admin needs to review Unifrog. Error 400: access_not_configured.”

This message appears when Google Workspace for Education is set to block any unconfigured third-party apps (like Unifrog) – especially for users marked as under 18. Until an admin explicitly allows the app, students and staff can’t use Google SSO.

 The way to fix this is very similar to the steps laid out above:

• A user who is a “super admin” will need to log into App Access Control on admin.google.com
   

• In the left-hand menu, navigate to: Security  >  Access and data control  >  API controls  >  App access control.
   
• On the App access control card, click Apps pending review or Review apps.
   
• Use the search box to find “Unifrog”.
   
• Click Configure access, then for Access to Google data, select Trusted (recommended). This lets the Unifrog SSO integration request the scopes it needs to sign users in and sync data.
   
• Click Next, review, and then Configure access / Save.