I have a google account I can't log into.

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crenelle
Posts: 27
Joined: May 9th, 2012, 12:39 pm
Location: Vashon Island, WA

I have a google account I can't log into.

Post by crenelle »

Now that I can get to all the old account settings, I'm trying to access the Google Mail account. I "get messages", and TBird displays the google mail login, showing my email address in the box, and a button. I press the button and it erases the email address and presents me with an empty email address field. So I type the email address, press the button...and it erases the email address and presents me with an empty email address field. It doesn't ask for a password.

I get the impression that gmail is telling thunderbird "I need the legit no fooling email address" and thinks it isn't getting one.
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DanRaisch
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Joined: September 23rd, 2004, 8:57 pm
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Re: I have a google account I can't log into.

Post by DanRaisch »

Moving to Thunderbird Support as no specific bug has yet been identified here.

You refer to "a button" but don't say what text is associated with that button so we can understand what you are seeing.
crenelle
Posts: 27
Joined: May 9th, 2012, 12:39 pm
Location: Vashon Island, WA

Re: I have a google account I can't log into.

Post by crenelle »

When the google login dialog comes up in Thunderbird, it pre-fills the text field with my email address. Below the email address field is the large blue button labeled "Next". I press next, and the text field with my email address is replaced by the light-gray label "Email or Phone". (I was expecting to see the light gray label text say "Password".)

So I then type my email address in and press the Next button again, and the text field is once again erased, replaced with the light gray text, "Email or Phone".

-Mike
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WaltS48
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Joined: May 7th, 2010, 9:38 am
Location: Pennsylvania, USA

Re: I have a google account I can't log into.

Post by WaltS48 »

So, you have a POP3 account with two-factor authorization?

You probably need to enter the email address of the account you configured as the security notification account, so they can send a token for you to enter somewhere, or your cell phone number, so they can text it.
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crenelle
Posts: 27
Joined: May 9th, 2012, 12:39 pm
Location: Vashon Island, WA

Re: I have a google account I can't log into.

Post by crenelle »

I thought that might be a valid idea, so I logged into my google account to wrassle with all the security settings. I did not find anything not in order. While I was there, I also checked the mail by using the stock gmail browser interface. That behaved normally.

When I attempt to just read the gmail using TBird, TBird brings up the gmail login dialog, displays my account email address, and lets me press next. Then the dialog displays an empty field with "Email or Phone" and a Next button. It doesn't matter what I type in there, the input is replaced with overwriteable label text "Email or Phone" when I press the Next button. I did even try the security notification account address. As a result of pressing Next, at no time do I eventually see a Google email with a token appear on my notification account inbox.

I think I know what it might be related to. The google login dialog is showing up while inside Thunderbird, as if it is a browser. At one time in the past I entered the Mordor-like demesne of the config editor to set network.protocol-handler.external-default to true in order to disable clickable links in emails. That change may somehow be spilling over into this dialog. I have reset the parameter, and the google login still fails the way it did, but I think this clarifies the problem quite a bit in my mind.

Right now Thunderbird is just getting mail from the google account directly, but it will be faster for me to migrate that responsibility to the house server than trying to diagnose the problem in Thunderbird. There's a nice checkbox that lets me see all the preferences in the config editor that have been modified; there's still hundreds of them to inspect, since entries are created for each account and apparently printer configuration.

When I first migrated to Thunderbird, it was something like version 3, I was moving off of Eudora, which handled mail triage for 100s of emails a day. I couldn't get Thunderbird to triage my firehose of inbound email without crashing multiple times, so I created a house mail server and had it deal with inbound mail triage. That worked.

Thanks!

Regards,

-Mike
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tanstaafl
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Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: I have a google account I can't log into.

Post by tanstaafl »

If you have two step verification enabled you need to create a application password for Thunderbird and use that instead of the normal password. See https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833?hl=en

Google is forcing all 3rd party Gmail users to switch to Oauth2 as the authentication method by the end of May. You used to be able to use "normal password". OAuth2 has a browser like popup window that asks some questions in order to create the OAuth2 token which will be sent instead of the password from then on.

OAuth2 requires cookies to be enabled in order to create or to later on refresh the token. They should be enabled by default.
tomdkat
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Joined: October 14th, 2003, 7:53 am

Re: I have a google account I can't log into.

Post by tomdkat »

tanstaafl wrote:If you have two step verification enabled you need to create a application password for Thunderbird and use that instead of the normal password. See https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833?hl=en
Thanks for posting this! This is good information to have!

Peace...
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