Google Blocking Thunderbird use

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gypsycomp
Posts: 67
Joined: March 18th, 2009, 9:59 am

Google Blocking Thunderbird use

Post by gypsycomp »

I woke this morning to respond to some emails and discovered that gmail is blocking my accounts, and I am therefore unable to send any emails from my gmail accounts (12) using TB. The error msg states there is an error with smtp.gmail.com, which I have not changed, but states the reason (error) is unknown

Gmail is requiring that I login through gmail.com, which i do, but am still not allowed to send email.

I have not changed any security settings, still allowing TB to be accessed through gmail.com.

AVG does not indicate I have a problem.

Has this happened to anyone else?
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tanstaafl
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Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: Google Blocking Thunderbird use

Post by tanstaafl »

You might need to update to a newer version of Thunderbird if you had been using OAuth2 for authentication and the token was due to be replaced. The Gmail OAuth2 support broke due to unannounced changes on the Gmail web site. Newer versions of both 60.* and 68.* were released with fixes. Yahoo is unaffected.

I haven't noticed similar threads in the forum, but a friend of mine had the same problem yesterday logging in to their IMAP account. They had been using "normal password" as the authentication method, with "less secure apps" enabled for Thunderbird using a browser in their Google account. They had to delete the saved password, restart Thunderbird, and switch to using OAuth2 as the authentication method in the gmail accounts server settings. That requires cookies to be enabled for google.com.

In your case it sounds like you might need to do the same thing with the Gmail SMTP server settings. They're in tools -> account settings -> "outgoing server (smtp)". First though, if you had been using "less secure app" and a "normal password" I'd check that Google didn't quietly disable the "less secure app" setting behind your back.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Gmail
gypsycomp
Posts: 67
Joined: March 18th, 2009, 9:59 am

Re: Google Blocking Thunderbird use

Post by gypsycomp »

Thank you for your suggestions.

I am on the latest version of TB, 68.2.2 (32-bit)
I am using 0Auth2.
Gmail is set up for POP.
I have less secure apps enabled in gmail.
When i attempt tpo send an email I am forced to log into my online gmail account. I do, but am still not able to send an email.

Connection to SSL/TLS is on port 465.
In Google help I am told I need to use port 587 for SSL/TLS, but there is no way to set this port in TB. Could this be the problem?
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tanstaafl
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Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: Google Blocking Thunderbird use

Post by tanstaafl »

"In Google help I am told I need to use port 587 for SSL/TLS, but there is no way to set this port in TB. Could this be the problem?"

You can modify the port used by the Gmail SMTP server in tools -> account settings -> outgoing server (smtp). I was using port 465 which worked fine. I switched to 587 and it times out. Switched back to 465 and it worked okay. I assume this is a temporary glitch.

I'm using OAuth2 for authentication. The first time you use that it brings up a browser popup window in order to set permissions and create the token. "Normal password" shouldn't have a browser popup window. More details on how it fails such as what error message do you get would help.

Try deleting the saved password and/or token for gmail, exiting (since the deleted password is still in memory), and restarting. That avoids a bug that can occur if you had a hard connection error. You will get prompted for the password when needed.

Port 465 is a legacy port, 587 is what the standards support. But many email providers support both even if they only document one of them. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/157 ... 65-and-587
gypsycomp
Posts: 67
Joined: March 18th, 2009, 9:59 am

Re: Google Blocking Thunderbird use

Post by gypsycomp »

When I attempt to send an email I am offered the page to login to my google account.
So, I cannot send an email without first logging into my google account.

Behind the google account login page is this error msg:
"Sending of the message failed.
The message could not be sent because the connection to Outgoing server (SMTP) smtp.gmail.com was lost in the middle of the transaction. Try again."
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tanstaafl
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Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: Google Blocking Thunderbird use

Post by tanstaafl »

That sounds like a different problem (poor tcp-ip connection to the mail server).

"I am offered the page to login to my google account." sounds like you had a invalid or expired token and got the normal popup windows to let it create a new one. Why did you stop?
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