Can't set app password for GMail account

[damole]

Recently my gmail accounts started producing the, "You've reached this page because we have detected that Javascript is disabled in your browser. The page you attempted to load cannot display properly if scripts are disabled." error.

I have 2 factor authentication turned on with a Google prompt. I tried deleting the password from Thunderbird and creating an app password on the Google site but I never get prompted to enter a password.

The last email I received were from the 6th July so something must have changed recently. I have two other gmail accounts, one is a Google Suite account. Neither of these has 2 factor authentication but they still don't work.

[tanstaafl]

Are cookies enabled for google.com both in Thunderbird and Firefox?
I suggest you delete the stored password in Thunderbird, exit (since the deleted password is still in memory) and restart.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/131 ... t-properly claims that error can occur when OAuth does not redirect correctly. You have the option of enabling "normal password" in Thunderbird after configuring your google.com account to enable less secure passwords (using a browser). I don't believe two factor authentication requires OAuth.

I have two free Gmail IMAP accounts (with no two factor authentication) and they still work. I haven't noticed a flurry of gmail login attempt failure posts (like we recently had for yahoo). One of the many reasons why I refuse to use Gmail two factor authentication is because there is no support for people who for some unknown reason keep having their app specific password invalidated.

[damole]

Changing authentication type to normal password prompted me for a password and the app specific password I created earlier worked. It still doesn't make sense to me that as I changed nothing in my setup something else must have changed for it to have stopped working.

As the password is sent over an encrypted connection and the password is not my actual GMail password is this still 100% secure?

Is there actually something missing from Thunderbird that GMail needs as the Google help pages suggest?

[tanstaafl]

"As the password is sent over an encrypted connection and the password is not my actual GMail password is this still 100% secure?"

No, though I wouldn't worry about it.

Both "normal password" (whether you use a app specific password or not) and OAuth sent a credential over a secure connection. Nothing is 100% secure. TLS based secure connections are potentially vulnerable to man in the middle attacks for example.

Your app specific password is not your actual Gmail password. But it is not really application specific. It "is actually a new password that provides access to your entire account, bypassing two-factor authentication entirely." "Each application-specific password is more like a skeleton key that provides unrestricted access to your account." See https://www.howtogeek.com/199804/warnin ... -specific/

Since you are using two step verification I suggest you read https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/g ... procedure/ , and consider signing up for their alternative to SMS codes.

[tanstaafl]

"Is there actually something missing from Thunderbird that GMail needs as the Google help pages suggest?"

I don't use two step verification so I'm not a good person to help you debug problems with it. But lots of people seem to use it with Thunderbird without problems, and I'm not aware of anything in recent versions of Thunderbird that would cause problems with it.

[damole]

I'm having the same problem with another GMail account:

"You've reached this page because we have detected that Javascript is disabled in your browser. The page you attempted to load cannot display properly if scripts are disabled.

Please enable scripts and retry the operation or go back in your browser."

I deleted the account from Thunderbird and tried to re-add ii but it does not work.

[tanstaafl]

Check whether javascript.enabled is true using the config editor in Thunderbird.

[damole]

OK. I'd forgotten about the config in Thunderbird. I've set that and now I get the usual GMail webpage for entering the password and confirming sending a message to my phone for to confirm.

Thanks!