Thunderbird sending the wrong POP username
Greetings...
On Oct 27 2017 my primary Gmail account ceased to be recognized via login from Thunderbird. I have used this system of downloading Gmail from Thunderbird quite successfully for about 15 years.
I have a simultaneous help blog going at Gmail pertaining to things which may have changed on their end... https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/gmail/NiuP2uzzy6k/trzq9Ix4CwAJ
so let's focus on Thunderbird here, OK?
I have noticed that although I changed my username in incoming server settings from MYNAME to MYNAME@gmail.com - that when I check the saved passwords option it continues to list my username as MYNAME without the @gmail.com - but updates the password. Gmail now requires the full email address as the username and I am concerned that Thunderbird is retrieving the older shorter username from some system file and will not update to the new username.
This may be the cause of the continuing login failure at Gmail, who continue to tighten security.
To save us all time, yes, the outgoing SMTP server still works and I can send mail from Thunderbird through the Gmail server.
Any ideas how I can go into a system file and force the change to be permanent? - Or something?
Thank you greg
Chosen solution
This I hope you all find this interesting.....
Earlier today (apx. 3pm CST) Mozilla Thunderbird tech support interrupted my use of Thunderbird with an email announcement of an important security update to upgrade to version 52.5.0.
I closed Thunderbird and allowed the update to proceed.
Upon conclusion of the update, it rebooted Thunderbird but everything was missing.
I closed Thunderbird and restarted it - and everything was in its proper place.
Within Thunderbird, I hit the Get All New Messages link under the Get Messages tab - was prompted to enter a password for my primary Gmail account (the one in question in this thread) - and received the same Gmail 78754 error message that has persisted since 2017-10-27.
I decided that this upgrade fixed nothing.
I continued my normal use of Thunderbird throughout the afternoon with all my other email accounts which were not affected.
Now, at apx. 7:30pm CST, I clicked on the Get All New Messages link under the Get Messages tab again and AMAZINGLY, Thunderbird downloaded some 154 emails from my primary Gmail account - including all the emails collected over the past month that I DELETED from the Gmail server using the web interface - even the spam!
Interestingly, Thunderbird also announced to me, as these emails were being downloaded, that it could not find the sub-folders that I previously created for the destination of several of my email filters (within Thunderbird) - but in fact I can see them right before my eyes.
So I have no idea what just happened.
I then had my son send me a test email which went right into my Thunderbird client - so it is live and active.
I CANNOT CALL THIS A SOLUTION for my problem. It is as if some magic wand was waved by some background operator taking no credit - nor offering any apology.
So we will see how this works in the days ahead.
Thank you to Keith, Toad-Hall, Zenos, Christ1 and all for your efforts...
I wish I could be more definitive and helpful.
Best always greg
Read this answer in context 👍 0All Replies (20)
continuing login failure at Gmail
What is the error message?
Gmail now requires the full email address as the username
It works fine here without the @gmail.com in the (IMAP) server settings.
"Sending of password for user GGxxxxxx@gmail.com did not succeed. Mail server pop.gmail.com responded: Web login required: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/78754"
I've use POP not IMAP for 15 years - no plans to change
my other gmail accounts work fine through Thunderbird...
And did you follow the instructions given in the error message?
YES
If you just go look at a weeks worth of Q&A at this Google help site it will save us a lot of unnecessary interrogatories...
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/gmail/NiuP2uzzy6k/trzq9Ix4CwAJ
I just set up an old gmail account using POP. I got the same "web login required" message, changed it to "allow less secure apps" as instructed and it just works.
Go to Tools|Options|Security|Passwords→Saved Passwords and you can freely edit or remove usernames and passwords. Double-click the item you want to change.
Go to Tools|Options|Security|Passwords→Saved Passwords and you can freely edit or remove usernames and passwords.
in Thunderbird, I have done that and it will not keep the change - it reverts back...
Also I've exhausted all the suggestions at Google - the TC admits they are stumped...
Let me be more clear, I can change the user name but it still fails, then when it asks me to either retry or enter a new password, it adds another entry to the password table with the old username sans @gmail.com
I've exhausted all the suggestions at Google
Really? I'd suggest you re-read Zenos' post. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1183589#answer-1026759
YES really Christ1 -
if you read the various steps attempted in the associated Google Help Forum blog you will see that Zenos' suggestion has already been tried... along with may other things.... ALL TO NO AVAIL
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/gmail/NiuP2uzzy6k/trzq9Ix4CwAJ
Modified by wavggg
Check some settings in config editor.
'Menu icon' > 'Options' > 'Options' > Advanced' > 'General' tab click on 'Config Editor' button
Accept the risk. In top search type: username All the various usernames should be displayed in the 'Value' column. Double check for typos or full stops/periods at the end etc.
If you need to modify any of these: right click on highlighted line and select 'Modify' to get a pop up window.
Note: I am assuming you are not changing the actual email address, just adding the '@gmail.com' bit.
Toad-Hall
I tried your suggestion - got the same result even after closing and restarting Thunderbird.
You are correct in presuming I am not changing the email address or account - only adding the @gmail bit...
Went back to Gmail and made certain the POP3 settings were still correct as well as the less secure apps thing is on and did a new Captcha...
Verified all the Thunderbird server settings were correct for pop.gmail.com...
Google's security settings even show that Thunderbird is approved for access to Gmail.
It still won't work and gives that darn 78754 error message... "Sending of password for user GGxxxxxx@gmail.com did not succeed. Mail server pop.gmail.com responded: Web login required: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/78754"
if you read the various steps attempted in the associated Google Help Forum blog you will see that Zenos' suggestion has already been tried...
The question was whether you tried them.
Jesus Christ crist1!
are you here to help or just play word games?
asked and answered!
please either bring something useful for me to the table or just back away and let someone else who reads, understands and "gets it" pitch in...
thanks greg
At the other link offering info, you mention: My Thunderbird email client can send emails using the outgoing Gmail server! I just verified 2 test email from my Gmail account to another, In fact Thunderbird IS using smtp.gmail.com and the test emails appear in the webmail sent folder.
Did you send the email using the 'POP' mail account? If yes, Pop mail accounts do not save 'Sent' emails on the server 'Sent' folder, you should only see the received incoming email in the server Inbox. Only imap mail accounts can synchronise with server Sent folder.
In an earlier statement you mention : I did change the 2 accounts to IMAP from pop3 & then changed both back because of problems.
How did you do this? Did you create another existing mail account for that gmail email address but set it up as imap instead of pop? OR did you access the POP mail account Account Settings and alter the server settings?
Then, please post the following info: In Thunderbird Help > Troubleshooting information Do not select the checkbox for 'Include account names' click on 'Copy text to clipboard' In this forum question, right click in a 'Post a REply' text box and select 'Paste' you can edit/remove all info on fonts and printers, but nothing else.
Dear Toad-Hall:
You said... Did you send the email using the 'POP' mail account? If yes, Pop mail accounts do not save 'Sent' emails on the server 'Sent' folder, you should only see the received incoming email in the server Inbox. Only imap mail accounts can synchronise with server Sent folder.
In fact, I just did another outbound test email from this gmail account using Thunderbird to compose and send via SMTP and YES it did immediately appear in my gmail webmail sent folder - So apparently your presumption about POP vs IMAP is incorrect.
You quoted from my gmail help blog... I did change the 2 accounts to IMAP from pop3 & then changed both back because of problems.
I think that was from what another fellow said that was quoted in the blog, not me. I could not change my POP to IMAP although I did try but it is not allowed.
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"it is not allowed…"? Who forbade you? Anyway, you don't change an account; you set up another one using the alternative protocol. Which is exactly how I set up my old Gmail account anew to use POP.
With a traditional POP-based account, you would get incoming messages via the POP server and send via the SMTP server. Sent messages would be written to a local "Sent" folder managed by your email client.
With IMAP, you would again send via SMTP, but in placing a copy in the Sent folder (which by default would be within the account and therefore echoed on the IMAP server) you wold be initiating an upload to the IMAP server too. So the same message gets uploaded twice, and stored twice.
Gmail doesn't quite play by the rules. They emulate POP, IMAP and SMTP, but at the heart of it they have a single store for all your messages (both incoming and outgoing) and those messages are labelled to indicate their status. GMail run both incoming and outgoing servers, and your incoming and outgoing accounts are linked by using the same username on both servers. (I suspect that in practice Gmail have their own hybrid server software, combining IMAP, POP, SMTP, and possibly HTTP for the webmail too.)
An advantage of Gmail's labelling system is that a single message can appear in multiple places, being displayed according to its labelling. So if it has labels for Inbox and Important, then it will appear to be in both of those folders (but in truth there is just one copy in the store.) Traditional IMAP would have multiple copies, so labelling is more efficient. Google extend this efficiency; if you attach a Sent label to a message, that message will appear in the Sent folder. So if you link the SMTP and IMAP servers together, one upload (say, to the SMTP server) will allow that message to be both sent away to the recipient, and filed as Sent in your account.
While this isn't immediately relevant to a client using POP and SMTP, it means that any message sent via Gmail SMTP can appear in the webmail "Sent" folder simply because Gmail stuck a "Sent" label on it. But a client connected via POP will not and cannot see this server-side copy. Toad-Hall was both accurate and correct.
Modified by Zenos
The burning question here is why does gmail accept my username and password to allow my login through the SMTP half of the deal but refuses to accept my username and password on the POP half of the deal to allow me to download and read my emails?
Please remember this has been a functioning Mozilla-Gmail relationship for 15 years using only POP3 and never IMAP.
Toad-Hall Did you see that I posted the troubleshooting info you requested? Any suggestions? g
I tried creating an new account in Thunderbird using the account, email and password from the troublesome gmail account I let Thunderbird select the settings for POP and SMTP - which are the same as what Google says to use As soon as I tried to activate it, Google came back with a message that username and password were not accepted... and it would not allow for me to finish creating the new account.
I then went and changed my gmail password again over in Google (and Thunderbird), then tried the process again in Thunderbird with the same failure.
For whatever reason, Google is denying me access to my Gmail FOR THIS ACCOUNT ONLY via Thunderbird even when all the information is correct, all the settings have been verified, and I have knelt before the Baal god of Data!!! Will this require a human sacrifice? Any volunteers? (ARGH)