Thunderbird and Two-Step Verification with Google/Gmail

[tom-wgfit]

Hey all.

So I've been trying to get Thunderbird to work with my Gmail account, and I am having no success whatsoever. At first I thought it was a problem relating to Thunderbird and Google's two-step verification, but using Google's "App Passwords" feature (which is supposedly the fix for applications that are unaware of Google's two-step verification) DOESN'T get it to work. My initial troubleshooting on the Google side is detailed in this thread over at Google's product forums. Finally, I thought it was possibly related to my organization's settings for our Google accounts, but they assure me that Thunderbird is permitted, and tested it to work on their end.

I'm beginning to think that it might not be on Google's end, but on the way Thunderbird is handling it. I've had Thunderbird give me an OAuth prompt in the past, but it doesn't appear to be doing this now when I attempt to connect.

I'm not sure what's going on here!

[WaltS48]

I'm not sure what version of Thunderbird you are having this problem with.

You might want to update to the 52.1.0 version for the

Google Oauth setup can sometimes not progress to the next step

fix.

Thunderbird 52.1.0 Release Notes

[tom-wgfit]

I am using Thunderbird 52.1.0.

[WaltS48]

I am using Thunderbird 52.1.0.

I had no problem.

[wsmwk]

If you are not seeing an oauth prompt then you don't have the account set to use oauth in thunderbird

[tanstaafl]

It might help if you copied and pasted JUST the "mail and news accounts" section from help -> troubleshooting information.

[tom-wgfit]

If you are not seeing an oauth prompt then you don't have the account set to use oauth in thunderbird

I do not have an OAuth option to set the account to. As I mention in the thread over at Google Product Forums, my options for account authentication are:

1. Autodetect
2. No authentication
3. Normal password
4. Encrypted password
5. Kerberos/GSSAPI
6. NTLM

None of them give me an OAuth prompt. If you mean it's not set to from the Google Account, I'm not sure what you mean, or where I'd set this up.

EDIT: Until this morning, when an OAuth2 option magically presented itself. T_T

It might help if you copied and pasted JUST the "mail and news accounts" section from help -> troubleshooting information.

There's nothing there to speak of - I'm not able to get the account to work. It never connects, so it never gets added to my list of accounts, and it's the only one I intend to use this particular build of Thunderbird for.

Mail and News Accounts
account2:
INCOMING: account2, , (imap) imap.gmail.com:993, SSL, OAuth2
OUTGOING: , smtp.gmail.com:465, SSL, OAuth2, true

account3:
INCOMING: account3, , (none) Local Folders, plain, passwordCleartext

[tanstaafl]

That looks like what I'd expect for a Gmail IMAP account using OAuth2 plus a Local Folders special account. Did the problem go away (after the OAuth2 support re-appeared)? If not, I suggest you delete the token/password for it in tools -> options -> security -> passwords, exit and restart Thunderbird, and enter your credentials in the OAuth2 prompt.