OAuth2 for gmail Not Working
TB 91.7.0 (64-bit I used to send/rcv gmail no problm, started having issues ~ Oct 2021 I then setup a 3rd party app password in gmail account for thunderbird. That allowed me to Send Gmails, but, not receive it kept asking for password. Then I read to use OAuth2 and saw that Google will no longer allow 3rd party app passwords, so i deleted it in google, and set both Imap.gmail.com and smpt.gmail.com to use OAuth2 (both set for SSL/TSL). I did this just for smpt first when the 3rd party app password was still enabled, i could recv but, when i went to send, it would ask for password, i enter it, then it would sent msg to my cell phone to Allow thunderbird, i would press Allow on my phone, and Thunderbird would come up with Sending message.. with the progress marked all way to end BUT, it will never complete sending.... I have to hit cancel it then shows Failed message unable to authenticate. After I deleted the 3rd party app password in gmail settings, now when i start thunderbird or try to receive emails, it goes through the same authorization process with my phone, but, then never downloads any new emails. I have spend HOURS on this.. extremely frustrated (I have been forced to us ms mail which i really don't like, i am too used to thunderbird (although I wished thunderbird had check boxes on emails to select via checkboxes for delete, or moving, etc)
Chosen solution
Toad-Hall, Christ1, Matt thank all of you, I FINALLY solved the mystery. After uninstalling reinstalling TB, and deleting all the profile, (which i had backed up) it still failed. I deleted TB from the firewall, and put back in, nothing was working. When i finally found the problem, i gave myself a swift hard kick in A__ for not figuring it sooner. I have been developing a website that included php, so i have XAMPP but only have Apache running (not mercury or tomcat which run mail servers). It was Apache - the localhost server.... And, it only gives problem when setting up the Gmail account, no problem AFTER the gmail account is verified. But, to verify the account, the localhost server must interfere with TB trying to connect to Google's servers for the purpose of account authentication. Since I am developing the site, i automatically start XAMPP and Apache on bootup, and like it said once the google account is set up, no problem reading or sending email. So, I stopped Apache (Xampp window still open) and Wallah, TB authenticated the gmail accounts Turned Apache back on, and no problem reading/sending emails. I never thought about it, because I've had it on and running for months and it gives no problem to read or send emails, and i am not running a local email server. Plus i have it come up and run Apache automatically, so i just never even thought about it. But, after literally trying EVERYTHING else, i kept wondering what is on my laptop that TB can't connect to google...? Anyway, you should add this to your list of things to check for when someone can't authenticate a new gmail account. XAMPP with Apache running - has to be stopped while authenticating. Again, thanks to all of you
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I forgot to mention, yes I have cookies enabled in TB
With OAuth2 authentication you cannot use app passwords, you'll have to use your main Google account password. You should delete any app passwords Thunderbird has remembered.
i ... set both Imap.gmail.com and smpt.gmail.com to use OAuth2 (both set for SSL/TSL).
The server names are imap.gmail.com and smtp.gmail.com.
I have to hit cancel it then shows Failed message unable to authenticate.
Please post your Troubleshooting Information. At the top right of the Thunderbird window, click the menu button , then select Help > Troubleshooting Information. Press the "Copy text to clipboard button" and paste the information into your reply.
I wished thunderbird had check boxes on emails to select via checkboxes for delete, or moving, etc)
Thunderbird does have those check boxes. Just enable the Select Messages column in the thread pane.
Christ1 thanks for the reply, smpt.gmail.com was a typo only in the msg i sent to the board here, it was correct in the program I deleted passwords (for the gmail accounts, as you see, i have other accounts and they are all working correctly), i tried imap.gmail.com but got an error (after getting authorization from my cellphone) that it cannot connect to server. so i went back to imap.google.com and it doesn't see that error but, it doesn't download new msgs and when i go through authorizing on the phone the smtp.gmail.com it just says 'sending message...' but never sends anything, i have to hit cancel and it give authorization error. sending trouble shooting info in nxt email
Application Basics
Name: Thunderbird Version: 91.7.0 Build ID: 20220305171341 Distribution ID:
Update Channel: release User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:91.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/91.7.0 OS: Windows_NT 10.0 22000
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Mail and News Accounts account1: INCOMING: account1, , (imap) imap.googlemail.com:993, 3, 10 OUTGOING: , smtp.gmail.com:465, 3, 10, true
account2: INCOMING: account2, , (none) Local Folders, 0, 3
account3: INCOMING: account3, , (imap) outlook.office365.com:993, 3, 3 OUTGOING: , smtp.office365.com:587, 2, 3, true
account4: INCOMING: account4, , (imap) mail.supremecluster.com:143, 0, 3 OUTGOING: , smtp.gmail.com:465, 3, 10, true
account5: INCOMING: account5, , (imap) imap.gmail.com:993, 3, 10 OUTGOING: , smtp.gmail.com:465, 3, 10, true
account7: INCOMING: account7, , (imap) mail.supremecluster.com:993, 3, 3 OUTGOING: , mail.supremecluster.com:465, 3, 3, true
account8: INCOMING: account8, , (imap) outlook.office365.com:993, 3, 3 OUTGOING: , smtp.office365.com:587, 2, 3, true
account9: INCOMING: account9, , (imap) mail.supremecluster.com:993, 3, 3 OUTGOING: , mail.supremecluster.com:465, 3, 3, true
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Why do people think email settings is some sort of guess work or lottery. Google publish the settings. https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7126229?hl=en#zippy=%2Cstep-change-smtp-other-settings-in-your-email-client
I would however suggest you work through the entire list here https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7126229?hl=en#zippy= Using anything but the publishes settings is not going to be a long term solution. So use the settings google publishes. Anything else is just asking someone to help you chase your tail because what you are doing is not supported by google.
The Gmail authorization process is a series of web pages server by Google via the Thunderbird inbuilt browser. Once it is completed successfully then you should not be asked for a password and you should not get a message on your phone. Continuing to receive those messages indicates your setup is not complete.
You might want to go to this address https://accounts.google.com/b/0/DisplayUnlockCaptcha just to make sure Google has not locked your account from Thunderbird because of to many wrong passwords or something.
However I strongly suggest you post the troubleshooting information. because it looks from here like you have it all messed up really.
Matt, sorry, but you are being a bit too presumptuous and condensating in my view . I have been to https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7126229?hl=en#zippy=%2Cstep-change-smtp-other-settings-in-your-email-client and as far as i can tell, i have used the proper settings.
You said: "Once it is completed successfully then you should not be asked for a password and you should not get a message on your phone. Continuing to receive those messages indicates your setup is not complete."
Well, that last statement is obvious, something is not setup right, that's why i came here seeking help. I have been a computer programmer and web programmer for decades. I just completed a virtual 3D site using babylon.js with a lot of my own code thrown in. I have sat at help desks at IT departments. Normally i can help others with their issues, and normally i am able to get things to work myself. But, this issue has stumped me. My Gmail accounts all work perfectly using MS mail, just plug in the settings and go. Everything 'used' to work fine using TB, which i have used for many years, when i was able to use 'normal password' security, but, now Google is needing oauth, which i have programmed for custom calendar program using google maps and calendar API, and got web apps working fine with oauth2 as a web developer. I am not new to all this. But, like any other programmer, sometimes you miss one little thing and your whole program goes wacky. It is usually the tiny little mistakes that can take days to resolve ( like type if( x=1) which doesn't check if x is == to 1 rather it sets x = to 1. it should be if(x==1) I admit, i just made that dumb mistake last week and it took me nearly a week to find it) Here, something is obviously not set up right, but, i just can't figure it out on my own yet, Be nice if TB would report why it can get authorization, or what is not right, or Google would be more kind in explaining why it is refusing to authorize, but, i am not seeing any such helpful screens pop up to help me out. BTW, i did send the troubleshooting info,
account5: INCOMING: account5, , (imap) imap.gmail.com:993, 3, 10 OUTGOING: , smtp.gmail.com:465, 3, 10, true
Is account5 the troubled one? What's odd is that for all your accounts the settings for 'Connection security' and 'Authentication method' are coded. I'd expect something like 'SSL/TLS' and 'Oauth2' instead of '3, 10'.
Security Software Type: Name Antivirus: Microsoft Defender Antivirus
It is recommended to create an exception for the Thunderbird profile folder in your anti-virus software. To locate the profile folder see https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-thunderbird-stores-user-data#w_how-to-find-your-profile
I'd suggest the following: Create a full backup of your profile folder.
Delete any passwords and/or OAuth2 authentication tokens Thunderbird has remembered for the troubled account. Delete any Google related cookies in Thunderbird.
Delete the troubled account.
Restart Thunderbird.
Re-create the troubled account using automatic account setup. That should pick the correct server settings.
Enter your credentials when prompted, and give permission for Thunderbird to access your Gmail account.
Christ1 Again thanks for your reply. I get busy now and then and may not get back right away. But, I did what you suggested, backed up the profile, deleted gmail passwords, there were no google cookies, i deleted both my gmail accounts (neither are working) and tried to setup one, then the other, both failed. It automatically sets up the accounts, I get a green check on checking password, but, when i hit done and it tries to connect to google, it gives a yellow box with unable to log in at server the email address is correct, the password is correct, copy and pasted from my roboform account, and I logged out of both gmail account and logged back in with same password, so i know the password is correct. It really doesn't seem like a thunderbird problem, but, i don't see or know what to change in my gmail account(s). Right now I am just focusing on getting one account working. I'm wondering if i should just uninstall TB and start all over. But, if the problem is on google's side, that won't solve anything. Before I do that, I got a new (used, new to me) i7 Windows Tablet, so first I am going to install TB on that and see if the gmail accounts work, if they do, then i'll uninstall TB on this pc and try with new install. I'll let you know how the tablet works out.
I'm wondering if i should just uninstall TB and start all over.
I don't see how this would help. Profile files are stored separately from the Thunderbird program files. The program files are static and do not change (except when you upgrade the Thunderbird application version). Because we store profile and program files separately, you can uninstall Thunderbird without losing your messages and settings, and if something goes wrong with a Thunderbird update your information will still be available. It also means that you don't have to reinstall Thunderbird in order to delete your information or troubleshoot a problem.
I just installed TB and setup the gmail accounts on my (new to me) Windows 10 tablet, and they're working. There was one glitch - when i went to set up the first account and got to the authentication part, i used the same way i had been, which was to have Google send msg to my cell phone where i have to click on Yes to allow the new device/app google access. When i did that, this time Google (on the tablet) popped up a 400 error saying there was an error, and it didn't know why (can recall exact text, but, something like that). So, I then selected to verify by google sending a code to my phone's text msgs, and i entered that code in, and Wallah. Google and Thunderbird all worked fine (on my Tablet). I set up the second gmail account, no problem. So, i went back to my PC (laptop) and still no go. Even when i try to use the txt msg code to verify, TB still comes up with msg that it can't connect to server. This is really frustrating, i dont' have all the time in the world for this, for now, i either have to use MS mail, or TB on my tablet. I will keep trying, but something is sure not right. And, whatever it is, is on my Laptop. In Google it shows the devices google is associated with, so i deleted the laptop - then went through the process of adding it back, verified it, etc., and got google drive and the device working with google again, and still TB gives me the same error.
I send screen shot of the Yellow msg that TB shows after i try to verify account. The email and password are correct. I tried this N number of times, and for the password i use Roboform password manager - synced on all my devices, i pull the pswd from there, and it is same i use to log in to google, same as i used on my tablet to set up gmail in TB so i know the gmail address and pswd are correct. But, TB says in can't connect to server. What else can i try?
PC (laptop) check: The 'Firewall' must have 'Thunderbird' as an allowed program. You have probably already this, but worth checking.
re: there were no google cookies, if no google cookie then it will not work - gmail needs cookie. Do you have any program on computer that is cleaning up cookies or session files etc - if yes then Thunderbird needs to be an exception. Do not let program clean up files in Thunderbird. I have cookies:
See image below
check: Thunderbird must have cookies enabled. Menu app icon > Preferences Select 'Privacy & Security' Under 'Web content' Select 'Accept cookies from sites'
Check: 2-step authentication method using app password. If this is switched on in gmail/google account then switch it off. I'm presuming you have now completely removed/switched off this method of authentication.
re: and for the password i use Roboform password manager synced on all my devices, i pull the pswd from there, and it is same i use to log in to google, same as i used on my tablet to set up gmail in TB so i know the gmail address and pswd are correct.
If setting cookies does not get the problem sorted then: Suggest you do not use Roboform - allow Thunderbird to remember the passwords so password manager will store the Oauth password. Once verified, Thunderbird would be using the Oauth2 password to access server not the ordinary password which you use to access gmail webmail account.
I'm also wondering is it possible Roboform is the cause of the weird data display in Thunderbird. Whatever you have set up to get messages on phone - please switch it off - is that something you have set up in Roboform ?
re : info you displayed as copied from More Troubleshooting Information account5:
INCOMING: account5, , (imap) imap.gmail.com:993, 3, 10 OUTGOING: , smtp.gmail.com:465, 3, 10, true
That is somehow very weird - that display should say this: account5: INCOMING: account5, ,(imap) imap.gmail.com:993 SSL/TLS OAuth2 OUTGOING: , smtp.gmail.com:465 SSL/TLS OAuth2 true
Modified
Account Settings: What do you see ? I've posted images which show settings. It is an earlier version of TB but the display of settings for gmail imap and smtp are the same.
Toad-Hall, Thanks for the lengthy reply. Unfortunately, things still are not working. Thunderbird is allowed in the Firewall, and besides, all my other emails work fine, and so DID gmail - its just stopped back in Oct or so for one account, and the other just stopped more recently (I think after i did something to get the other working). As far as cookies, they are enabled, and they are on my Windows Tablet as well, and yet, it also shows no google cookies, yet the 2 gmails are working fine on the tablet. And, I don't have any program that cleans up passwords, I do use Ccleaner to clean up my registry now and then, but, disable all the cookies, and temp file, those i clean up manually very seldom.
I 'had' the "use app password" enabled in gmail, only because that is what i saw online as a solution when TB doesn't work with gmail anymore (not this forum, don't know where i saw that), but, i have disabled it in google. Roboform is only a password manager, and the password is needed to set up the account. Its just that TB says it cannot connect to serve and says that the email or password is likely wrong. I was just pointing out that they are not wrong, and i used the same gmail passwords to set up the accounts on the Tablet. Roboform doesn't override thunderbird - it doesn't interject the password, you have to tell it to enter it into a form. Roboform doesn't work with email or interject on it's own, it will when you use it inside the broswer to go to a page and login, but, there is no way to enable it to overside on an email program. Anyway, I also entered the passwords n manually many times trying to get this to work.
I don't know why my info shows code numbers rather then the words for SSL/TLS Oauth2 But, it does show them properly, like yours, in the account settings for both the imap and smtp.
I mentioned before that I will probably uninstall TB and start all over from scratch. Christ1 told me that would not probably work, but, if it is supposed to be showing labels for authorization and security in the troubleshooting info data, maybe the program is corrupt somewhere - so first I will try a fresh install, of just the program, if that doesn't work, then i will delete the AppData/ for Thunderbird, the profiles, etc, and reinstall from scratch, I mean, used to work and it is working fine on my Tablet,
Chosen Solution
Toad-Hall, Christ1, Matt thank all of you, I FINALLY solved the mystery. After uninstalling reinstalling TB, and deleting all the profile, (which i had backed up) it still failed. I deleted TB from the firewall, and put back in, nothing was working. When i finally found the problem, i gave myself a swift hard kick in A__ for not figuring it sooner. I have been developing a website that included php, so i have XAMPP but only have Apache running (not mercury or tomcat which run mail servers). It was Apache - the localhost server.... And, it only gives problem when setting up the Gmail account, no problem AFTER the gmail account is verified. But, to verify the account, the localhost server must interfere with TB trying to connect to Google's servers for the purpose of account authentication. Since I am developing the site, i automatically start XAMPP and Apache on bootup, and like it said once the google account is set up, no problem reading or sending email. So, I stopped Apache (Xampp window still open) and Wallah, TB authenticated the gmail accounts Turned Apache back on, and no problem reading/sending emails. I never thought about it, because I've had it on and running for months and it gives no problem to read or send emails, and i am not running a local email server. Plus i have it come up and run Apache automatically, so i just never even thought about it. But, after literally trying EVERYTHING else, i kept wondering what is on my laptop that TB can't connect to google...? Anyway, you should add this to your list of things to check for when someone can't authenticate a new gmail account. XAMPP with Apache running - has to be stopped while authenticating. Again, thanks to all of you
The flow ends with the connection being passed to localhost with the necessary token for oauth. if something else is monitoring and consuming on that port then Thunderbird does not get the token. I do not know what happens when the tokens are renewed, I do not understand the oauth flow at all really.
jbeals108 said
Toad-Hall, Christ1, Matt thank all of you, I FINALLY solved the mystery. After uninstalling reinstalling TB, and deleting all the profile, (which i had backed up) it still failed. I deleted TB from the firewall, and put back in, nothing was working. When i finally found the problem, i gave myself a swift hard kick in A__ for not figuring it sooner. I have been developing a website that included php, so i have XAMPP but only have Apache running (not mercury or tomcat which run mail servers). It was Apache - the localhost server.... And, it only gives problem when setting up the Gmail account, no problem AFTER the gmail account is verified. But, to verify the account, the localhost server must interfere with TB trying to connect to Google's servers for the purpose of account authentication. Since I am developing the site, i automatically start XAMPP and Apache on bootup, and like it said once the google account is set up, no problem reading or sending email. So, I stopped Apache (Xampp window still open) and Wallah, TB authenticated the gmail accounts Turned Apache back on, and no problem reading/sending emails. I never thought about it, because I've had it on and running for months and it gives no problem to read or send emails, and i am not running a local email server. Plus i have it come up and run Apache automatically, so i just never even thought about it. But, after literally trying EVERYTHING else, i kept wondering what is on my laptop that TB can't connect to google...? Anyway, you should add this to your list of things to check for when someone can't authenticate a new gmail account. XAMPP with Apache running - has to be stopped while authenticating. Again, thanks to all of you
I've stopped IIS on Windows and, after two months, I got TB running again. I don't think I would ever have thought of that possibility. Thank you very much!
just wanted to post my experience trying to get gmail oauth2 to work ...
i've been running TB 45 forever and gmail oauth2 definitely didn't work for me with that version on W7 x64 ... i updated to 91.9 and still no dice ... i ultimately discovered that NO passwords would save, which of course includes the oauth token ... deleting multiple suggested TB config files didn't solve the problem either ... it was also NOT practical to recreate accounts from scratch since i had to fix this problem for many clients and myself, and many of us had multiple accounts configured in TB, with many of the accounts containing 30 GB or more emails ...
so here's what i finally came up with to get this upgrade to work reliably:
1. backup copy local/thunderbird and roaming/thunderbird folders
2. run TB 45, remove all addons, and exit
3. uninstall TB 45
4. empty local/thunderbird
45 delete everything in roaming/thunderbird except: prefs.js, Mail, ImapMail, virtualFolders.dat, folderTree.json, directoryTree.json, *.mab files
6. install TB 91.9 x64
7. run TB 91 and when the profile section box pops up,. select the default profile, checking the box to remember it permanently
8. TB 91 will convert all gmail accounts to oauth, so popups for the oauth login procedure will occur for all gmail accounts, so go through the oauth process for each of those, providing the required password and any subsequently requested secondary security verification information via smartphone SMS or secondary security email security code, and also indicate to all other security verification emails that you are the one who initiated these activities ... enter and save conventional passwords as well for non-gmail accounts ...
9. you can verify that all conventional passwords and oauth tokens got saved via TB preferences/privacy & security/saved passwords
10. import contacts in all .mab files (which are otherwise obsolete and unrecognized by newer TBs ...
10. nice addons are Phoenity Buttons, Phoenity Icons, riseofthetools, search button, lookout (fix version)
11. some old x86 TBs leave behind broken user registry keys regarding TB mailto protocols, so these can be deleted for each logged in Windows user with:
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Thunderbird.Url.mailto]
&
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\ThunderbirdEML]
12. TB font sizes can be changed by changing the value of font.size.systemFontScale from 100 to something larger (or smaller) in general/config editor
Recently, it has been discovered that deleting a few files from the profile name folder gets it up and running. But that is not always the fix especially when the question is related to running eg: Apache as is this particular case.
For anyone with OAuth2 issue who reads this question. If you do not have identical problem eg: running localhost servers See this question:
I really would like to understand why running a web server on localhost gets in the way. Google can certainly not directly send requests to it, so TB may be using some kind of reverse proxying. If that is the case, then there *should* be a way to configure the port TB uses for this purpose.