Gmail POP unable to connect
Hi,
Hoping someone can help, I'm setting up my Gmail account and have copied all the settings over exactly from my old laptop and have generated a new 'app password' in Gmail. Thunderbird pops up a Google login page then it is saying it can't connect to the server. Everything is working fine on my old laptop with configuration exactly the same (except for the use of older but still active app password).
I don't think Google allows me to see my old app password, only generate a new one, but as the new one won't work I'm thinking that maybe Google somehow knows I'm using POP email on two machines and won't allow this until I delete the old app password. Does anyone have experience of this? Just don't want to delete the password in case it stops working on both laptops! Also note that I don't want to disable 2 step authentication as this makes my account less secure and it has been working fine for years with this enabled.
Thanks!
Alla svar (4)
Use OAuth2 authentication in your account settings for both, the incoming, and outgoing server. With OAuth2 you don't need an app password, just use your main Google account password. Also make sure to allow cookies in Thunderbird.
Thanks, oddly I've now got it working for POP but not SMTP. Doesn't seem to matter which security/authentication settings I choose (also there's no box to input a password in the SMTP settings).
Maybe if you share whatever message you are receiving, someone here will have suggestions. Thank you.
Gordon, listen to what you are being told by Christ1, please. Google are phasing out anything but oauth authentication, so even if you get it to work in the sort term, at some point your account will be included in the changes and it will suddenly stop working and you will not know why. Quite probably to return to support to try and work out why. So please lets fix it permanently first up using oauth.
gordon750 said
Thanks, oddly I've now got it working for POP but not SMTP. Doesn't seem to matter which security/authentication settings I choose (also there's no box to input a password in the SMTP settings).
Oddly you will note there is no box to input your password for your incoming account either. That is because passwords are stored separately to account setting in an encrypted file. When there is no password and one is required, or Thunderbird can not connect using the password it has, it will ask you for a password and save it if you click the appropriate box in the request.
Just as a complete aside, Thunderbird knows what are the correct setting for a Gmail mail account. It get them from here https://autoconfig.thunderbird.net/v1.1/gmail.com If they do not work out of the box, the issue is almost assuredly not Thunderbird. Things like antivirus programs that think they are helpful and others like VPN's account for more setup failures than just about anything else. The choice of POP account type when that has not been enabled in the google account settings (it is disabled by default by Google) is another common stumbling block for gmail. Then there are those optimizers like ccleaner that disable cookies and delete Thunderbird settings "to protect your privacy" oauth does require cookies.