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How can i prevent Thunderbird from saving my gmail password?

  • 1 reply
  • 3 have this problem
  • 12 views
  • Last reply by christ1

sumsalabim
sumsalabim
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When adding my gmail account, i got a popup window to insert my password. Although i unchecked the "remember password" box, it gets stored in the "saved passwords". I deleted the password from the PW manager, just to get the same popup window when logging in and my password getting saved without my consent.

How can i prevent this behavior? How can i force Thunderbird to NEVER save passwords? How can i force Thunderbird to give me the default password entry box for my gmail account?

Best Regards and thank you in advance, Sumsalabim!

When adding my gmail account, i got a popup window to insert my password. Although i unchecked the "remember password" box, it gets stored in the "saved passwords". I deleted the password from the PW manager, just to get the same popup window when logging in and my password getting saved without my consent. How can i prevent this behavior? How can i force Thunderbird to NEVER save passwords? How can i force Thunderbird to give me the default password entry box for my gmail account? Best Regards and thank you in advance, Sumsalabim!
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christ1
christ1
  • Top 25 Contributor
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As of version 38 Thunderbird uses OAuth2 for authentication of Gmail accounts. This is the only way considered 'secure' by Google. http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/17/google-oauth-2-0-for-gmail-and-talk/

Basically you authenticate with your Gmail account once, and Google provides you with an authentication token. This is what Thunderbird saves as 'password'. It's not your actual Gmail password. The token will expire at some point, so you'll have to renew it in the future.

If you want to go back to the previous behavior Google lets you jump through some more hoops. You need to either allow 'less secure apps' in your Google settings, or turn on 2-step authentication in connection with an application specific password. https://support.google.com/mail/answer/78754

In Thunderbird account settings change 'authentication type' to 'normal password' for your Gmail account. Up to you.