Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

my GmaIl account stopped working-requires password-imap settings changed

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by mdbonn21

more options

Yesterday afternoon, my Gmail account just stopped working. I did two things: 1. Removed Zone Alarm - So I could download MSFS2020 update 2. Tried to DL MSFS2020 update. Did not complete download-to much server traffic

Then my Gmail account stopped working. I change password with google and can access e-mail on website of Gmail just fine. Thunderbird is not allowing mail in/out and says: "Alert from account xxxx@gmail.com; Application specific Password is required. I enter that in, and get same message over and over. Please advise.

Yesterday afternoon, my Gmail account just stopped working. I did two things: 1. Removed Zone Alarm - So I could download MSFS2020 update 2. Tried to DL MSFS2020 update. Did not complete download-to much server traffic Then my Gmail account stopped working. I change password with google and can access e-mail on website of Gmail just fine. Thunderbird is not allowing mail in/out and says: "Alert from account xxxx@gmail.com; Application specific Password is required. I enter that in, and get same message over and over. Please advise.

Chosen solution

You should be using OAuth2 authentication instead of Normal Password authentication for Gmail. Open Account Settings and change the authentication method accordingly, for both incoming and SMTP server. Next, open Preferences > Saved Logins and delete the old (current) entries for that Gmail account. When Tbird connects to Gmail, a window will pop up asking you to sign in to your Google Account. Enter your normal Gmail password and proceed to allow Thunderbird to connect to Gmail.

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (2)

more options

Chosen Solution

You should be using OAuth2 authentication instead of Normal Password authentication for Gmail. Open Account Settings and change the authentication method accordingly, for both incoming and SMTP server. Next, open Preferences > Saved Logins and delete the old (current) entries for that Gmail account. When Tbird connects to Gmail, a window will pop up asking you to sign in to your Google Account. Enter your normal Gmail password and proceed to allow Thunderbird to connect to Gmail.

more options

Hmmm, what I ended up doing was to delete gmail.com account and then recreate it. Low and behold, the IMAP settings in GM had been changed somehow, I did not do it, once that was fixed, to IMAP, it worked perfectly again. Again, thank you for the swift response. mdbonn21