Gmail IMAP Mess Since Update to 52.6.0

[Ellsinore]

I updated Thunderbird to 52.6.0 and GMail is reporting unknown logins from ALL of my accounts. After spending tons of time trying to figure out who was hacking me, I found it was ME hacking me -- Thunderbird logins aren't recognized, logins are failing and re-entering passwords is being requested.

I got this to stop until I rebooted the computer tonight and the problems have returned. Re-entering the passwords isn't being accepted. And the failure notice windows are so numerous and quick, I can't close them fast enough to do anything.

There are a few that I can change the passwords for, but one of them I can't -- it's a shared email address.

"Less secure" apps are authorized, two-factor identification isn't turned on. I tried setting account settings to not check email but even that isn't accepted and it's still trying to check email. At this point, my email program is worthless.

I know this is a Gmail problem, but I don't know how to fix it.

[PennsyNut]

I too, had this problem. However, I'm lucky enough to have control over them all. So, I simply deleted all passwords and as the browser went to "get email", I entered the correct passwords again and all it well.
"Tools", "Options", "Security", "passwords", "saved passwords". Open and "show passwords". I deleted them all except the primary account. Then, when "writing an email", it would ask for my password. I then re-entered the correct one and did that for each account. Besides Gmail, I have Yahoo and ATT on Thunderbird. So I did what I say above for the 4 sub-accounts and then, when returning to "show saved passwords", all is well. And I sent "test" emails from and to each account and all worked. No more "insert password".

[Ellsinore]

I actually went through and did all of that last night after posting. Now -- again -- Google is blocking the accounts because "someone has my password" -- Yeah! Me! -- and is asking for them to be entered *again.* Dreading this if it is to be a daily occurrence.

[PennsyNut]

Now I think I know what has happened. That happened to a friend of mine and it was a hacker. Someone had hacked into his PC. He had to take it to a guru to get into the "guts" of the PC to fix it. I hope this is not your case. So can you get in every day by re-entering the password. Or is this permanent? If permanent, then you have been hacked. (Whatever that means? I only know what they call it. What hacked apparently means is that someone has taken control of your PC and is using it without your permission.)

[tanstaafl]

Do you have the same problem with any non-Gmail accounts?

Can you login to gmail webmail using a browser? That would clear a captcha if one existed, verify your password is good, and help determine if your problem is Thunderbird specific or not. I know you said use less secure password was enabled, but have you double checked its still set after this problem first occurred?

Are you using a vpn? Outlook and Gmail will detect that your login is from a remote location and claim that somebody else is using your password. Yahoo, comcast, fastmail and zoho don't do that. I ran into this when using purevpn and had to stop using it because I couldn't get split tunneling to work. Split tunneling would have let me configure Thunderbird not to use the vpn, while using it for everything else.

If you think you've been hacked (unlikely, but worth checking) I suggest rebooting and then running the free version of malwarebytes from https://www.malwarebytes.com/ . If that doesn't help you could create a rescue disk (CD/DVD that you boot from and runs a anti-virus scanner) per https://support.avast.com/en-ww/article/114/ . The advantage of it is your hacked operating system isn't running yet. But I wouldn't go to that trouble unless you have good reason to believe you've been hacked.