Thunderbird suddenly doesn't work for gmail ... any ideas?

Hi All,
Yesterday TBird quit being able to receive or send emails; connection to
news.eternal-september.org works for NGs (I'm using it now!). I've
googled many places and it seems that gmail wants a more secure way to
connect. I've disabled that and still no joy. TBird, when launched,
just keeps saying that it can connect to the server. I may be in a
minority, however, I really like TBird as an email client. Any idea how
to proceed here? Thanks.

Art Todesco wrote:

Yesterday TBird quit being able to receive or send emails; connection
to news.eternal-september.org works for NGs (I'm using it now!).
I've googled many places and it seems that gmail wants a more secure
way to connect. I've disabled that and still no joy. TBird, when
launched, just keeps saying that it can connect to the server.

Does "I've disabled" mean you use a web browser to go into your Gmail
account settings to set "Allow less secure app access" to enabled? You
don't want to disable that setting. You want to enable it.

https://myaccount.google.com/lesssecureapps
(after logging into your Google account)

While Thunbderbird can use OAUTH2 (so Google is happy with their bogus
claim about being a more secure client), the token can expire, so you
might check the Gmail account in Thunbderbird. If you are using IMAP
(so your Google account needs to allow IMAP access), you won't lose any
e-mails since IMAP has the client stay in sync with the server.

https://www.supertechcrew.com/thunderbird-oauth2-gmail/

On 3/17/2020 9:44 AM, VanguardLH wrote:
Art Todesco wrote:

Yesterday TBird quit being able to receive or send emails; connection
to news.eternal-september.org works for NGs (I'm using it now!).
I've googled many places and it seems that gmail wants a more secure
way to connect. I've disabled that and still no joy. TBird, when
launched, just keeps saying that it can connect to the server.

Does "I've disabled" mean you use a web browser to go into your Gmail
account settings to set "Allow less secure app access" to enabled? You
don't want to disable that setting. You want to enable it.

https://myaccount.google.com/lesssecureapps
(after logging into your Google account)

Actually, as you pointed out, I've enabled the "less secure" thing.

While Thunbderbird can use OAUTH2 (so Google is happy with their bogus
claim about being a more secure client), the token can expire, so you
might check the Gmail account in Thunbderbird. If you are using IMAP
(so your Google account needs to allow IMAP access), you won't lose any
e-mails since IMAP has the client stay in sync with the server.

https://www.supertechcrew.com/thunderbird-oauth2-gmail/

Thanks, I'll check it out.

On 17/03/2020 12:24, Art Cestode wrote:
Any idea how to proceed here? Thanks.

Is there anything you can do on your machine without resorting to these
newsgroups and crying about silly things?

Did you install Windows 7 on your machine? If not why not? You are
really a silly little boy that needs to be whipped very hard.

Have you thought of hiring a Windows Consultant (this is Windows
operating system consultant) who can fix all your problems and also give
you a warranty for 3 months.

Think about it and then come back for further advice.



--
With over 1.2 billion devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

"Art Todesco" wrote

| Yesterday TBird quit being able to receive or send emails; connection to
| news.eternal-september.org works for NGs (I'm using it now!). I've
| googled many places and it seems that gmail wants a more secure way to
| connect. I've disabled that and still no joy. TBird, when launched,
| just keeps saying that it can connect to the server. I may be in a
| minority, however, I really like TBird as an email client. Any idea how
| to proceed here? Thanks.

Someone else may have a better idea, but in helping
friends with gmail I seem to remember that POP3 had to
be enabled in their online settings. Maybe 2-factor
ID also has to be disabled? (They *really* want your
phone #)

That would be my first thought. Check your account
settings. It's possible that they decided to "default"
them in order to get people to, lose patience, throw up
their hands, say "This damn email program!" and switch
to using the gmail website.

The only other thing I can think of would be to try
switching the TLS connection protocol. But if it worked
before it's very unlikely they'd break that.

Then there's also the possibility that it has nothing to
do with such issues. Maybe their server is acting up.
Maybe it's on your end.

Your account settings, at least, are easy to check.

Art Todesco wrote:
Hi All,
Yesterday TBird quit being able to receive or send emails; connection to
news.eternal-september.org works for NGs (I'm using it now!). I've
googled many places and it seems that gmail wants a more secure way to
connect. I've disabled that and still no joy. TBird, when launched,
just keeps saying that it can connect to the server. I may be in a
minority, however, I really like TBird as an email client. Any idea how
to proceed here? Thanks.

Thunderbird pops up an error message. Post that full and exact error
message.

Google probably also tries to send you an e-mail message about
security and disabling your connection, but if you haven't set an
alternate - i.e. non-gmail - address in your Google account, that
message is obviously stuck in your Gmail inbox, so go to the Gmail
web-mailer, read the message, do what it says (*and* add an alternate
email address in your Google account).

Finally, when you get things working with 'Allow less secure apps' set
to ON, come back and let us know whether you use POP3 or IMAP with your
Gmail account and we can show you how to set up things so that you can
set 'Allow less secure apps' back to OFF.

On 3/17/20 8:15 AM, Mayayana wrote:
"Art Todesco" wrote

| Yesterday TBird quit being able to receive or send emails; connection to
| news.eternal-september.org works for NGs (I'm using it now!). I've
| googled many places and it seems that gmail wants a more secure way to
| connect. I've disabled that and still no joy. TBird, when launched,
| just keeps saying that it can connect to the server. I may be in a
| minority, however, I really like TBird as an email client. Any idea how
| to proceed here? Thanks.

Someone else may have a better idea, but in helping
friends with gmail I seem to remember that POP3 had to
be enabled in their online settings. Maybe 2-factor
ID also has to be disabled? (They *really* want your
phone #)

Correct on the choice of using POP3 or IMAP. Click on the Gear icon,
select Settings, click on the Forwarding and POPIMAP heading, and make
your choice.

These are my Gmail settings in TB 69.0.1 and they work fine.

Server Name imap.gmail.com
Connection security SSL/TLS
Authentication method OAuth2

I'm not having any issues. It used to be a POP3 account, but that was a
few months ago. I don't remember the specific settings, but I didn't
have any problems.

I don't remember anyone asking this, but is it possible TB has mangled
your Gmail password?

That would be my first thought. Check your account
settings. It's possible that they decided to "default"
them in order to get people to, lose patience, throw up
their hands, say "This damn email program!" and switch
to using the gmail website.

The only other thing I can think of would be to try
switching the TLS connection protocol. But if it worked
before it's very unlikely they'd break that.

Then there's also the possibility that it has nothing to
do with such issues. Maybe their server is acting up.
Maybe it's on your end.

Your account settings, at least, are easy to check.




--
Ken
MacOS 10.14.6
Firefox 70.0.1
Thunderbird 60.9
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

"Frank Slootweg" wrote

| Thunderbird pops up an error message. Post that full and exact error
| message.
|
Usually not helpful. I was trying to help someone
set up work email in TBird on Friday. First we were
trying the wrong server. (It's a college that uses
both gmail and office365 for their email.) Later there
was a passowrd problem. In all cases TBird's only
message was "Failed to log in."

On 17/03/2020 15:28, Ken Springer wrote:

I don't remember anyone asking this, but is it possible TB has mangled
your Gmail password?



Why it has always to be TB or Windows or Office or some other
software? Why not blame the user being an idiot? There is always
PEBKAC. Software packages and operating systems only follows what it is
instructed by the person sitting and punching the keys on the keyboard.

The user has got endless problems. First he/she needs to to understand
how Windows 10 works. They all think Windows 10 is something alien
when, in fact, it is exactly the same operating system as it was in XP
onwards. The only difference is that it is more secure and the UI has
slightly changed but most people like the new UI because it is more
intuitive.

There are always people who won't like anything coming out from: 15010
NE 36th Street, Microsoft Campus, Building 92, Redmond, WA 98052.


--
With over 1.2 billion devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

On 3/17/2020 11:40 AM, Mayayana wrote:
"Frank Slootweg" wrote

| Thunderbird pops up an error message. Post that full and exact error
| message.
|
Usually not helpful. I was trying to help someone
set up work email in TBird on Friday. First we were
trying the wrong server. (It's a college that uses
both gmail and office365 for their email.) Later there
was a passowrd problem. In all cases TBird's only
message was "Failed to log in."

Additional OP info. I tried it on a W10 laptop and everything behaves
the same as my desktop. Immediately when it tries to get emails, TBird
says, in the lower left corner, "mylogin Connecting to imap.gmail.com"
and sits there until a timeout occurs. TBird then pops a window saying
"Connection to server imap.gmail.com timed out". TBird seems to try a
few times and then gives up until I click on something which makes a
request from the server like "get messages" or I select a different
gmail account. I haven't tried OAuth2 yet. But again,
eternal-september is still working so I think the problem is clearly
Google.

On 3/17/2020 12:24 PM, Art Todesco wrote:
On 3/17/2020 11:40 AM, Mayayana wrote:
"Frank Slootweg" wrote

|Â* Thunderbird pops up an error message. Post that full and exact error
| message.
|
Â*Â*Â* Usually not helpful. I was trying to help someone
set up work email in TBird on Friday. First we were
trying the wrong server. (It's a college that uses
both gmail and office365 for their email.) Later there
was a passowrd problem. In all cases TBird's only
message was "Failed to log in."

Additional OP info.Â* I tried it on a W10 laptop and everything behaves
the same as my desktop.Â* Immediately when it tries to get emails, TBird
says, in the lower left corner, "mylogin Connecting to imap.gmail.com"
and sits there until a timeout occurs.Â* TBird then pops a window saying
"Connection to server imap.gmail.com timed out".Â* TBird seems to try a
few times and then gives up until I click on something which makes a
request fromÂ* the server like "get messages" or I select a different
gmail account.Â* I haven't tried OAuth2 yet.Â* But again,
eternal-september is still working so I think the problem is clearly
Google.

Oh, and one more thing. I just sent an email to an account from my ISP
which is also registered in TBird. It when through perfectly, which
further firms up my beliefs that the problen is Google.

Art Todesco wrote:
I just sent an email to an account from my ISP which is also registered
in TBird.Â* It when through perfectly, which further firms up my beliefs
that the problen is Google.

Here's gmail's help page for the Tb settings

https://support.google.com/mail/answ...385&hl=en&rd=1
Configure your email client (e.g. Outlook, Thunderbird, iPhone) -
Configuration instructions

There is also a Tb support group on the moz/giga server news.mozilla.org
at mozilla.support.thunderbird

The Moz server requires no authentication, but if you misbehave in the
support groups your messages will be moderated/expired.


--
Mike Easter

Mayayana wrote:
"Frank Slootweg" wrote

| Thunderbird pops up an error message. Post that full and exact error
| message.
|
Usually not helpful. I was trying to help someone
set up work email in TBird on Friday. First we were
trying the wrong server. (It's a college that uses
both gmail and office365 for their email.) Later there
was a passowrd problem. In all cases TBird's only
message was "Failed to log in."

But this (the OP) is a case where it used to work, not a setup issue.

With the (Gmail/Google) security issue, one gets a clear popup and a
clear e-mail message, but one will have to read that popup and login on
Gmail's *web*-interface, because if the issue is indeed security, the
e-mail message will be stuck in Gmail's inbox. Catch-22.

BUT, in the meantime the OP has indicated that he gets a time-out (and
(implicitly) that he is using IMAP, so should use OAuth2 in
Thunderbird), so a different scenario.

Mike Easter wrote:
Here's gmail's help page for the Tb settings

And here are some interesting comments for fixing Tb authentication
problems:

https://support.google.com/mail/thread/4528103?hl=en Getting
authentication failure when using Mozilla Thunderbird.


There are some cute tricks in there about tweaking in the config ed and
using Tb troubleshooting function.

There are also 250 replies to peruse.


--
Mike Easter

On 3/17/20 9:40 AM, 😉 Good Guy 😉 wrote:
On 17/03/2020 15:28, Ken Springer wrote:

I don't remember anyone asking this, but is it possible TB has mangled
your Gmail password?



Why it has always to be TB or Windows or Office or some other
software?Â*Â* Why not blame the user being an idiot?Â*Â* There is always
PEBKAC.Â* Software packages and operating systems only follows what it is
instructed by the person sitting and punching the keys on the keyboard.

PEBKAC is the problem everyone realizes you have.

The user has got endless problems.Â* First he/she needs to to understand
how Windows 10 works.Â*Â* They all think Windows 10 is something alien
when, in fact, it is exactly the same operating system as it was in XP
onwards.Â* The only difference is that it is more secure and the UI has
slightly changed but most people like the new UI because it is more
intuitive.

There are always people who won't like anything coming out from: 15010
NE 36th Street, Microsoft Campus, Building 92, Redmond, WA 98052.


--
With over 1.2 billion devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.


--
Ken
MacOS 10.14.6
Firefox 70.0.1
Thunderbird 60.9
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"