Cannot download Gmail

User Help for Mozilla Thunderbird
WV-Mike
Posts: 121
Joined: January 13th, 2008, 6:53 am

Cannot download Gmail

Post by WV-Mike »

I just noticed one of my gmail accounts is not downloading.
I deleted the account password from Tbirds saved files and it will not accept the password.
I get this error message:
"Sending of password for user xxxxxxxxxxxr did not succeed. Mail server pop.gmail.com responded: Username and password not accepted"

And there are problems with my other Gmail account: I get this error message:
"Sending of password for user xxxxxxxx did not succeed. Mail server pop.gmail.com responded: Application-specific password required: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833"

I am using 68.12.1 (32-bit). The upgrade to 78 deletes my address book and turn the color schemet to monochome.

WV-Mike
Last edited by DanRaisch on August 12th, 2022, 6:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Edited by moderator to remove email addresses
User avatar
DanRaisch
Moderator
Posts: 127185
Joined: September 23rd, 2004, 8:57 pm
Location: Somewhere on the right coast

Re: Cannot download Gmail

Post by DanRaisch »

Moving from Firefox Support to Thunderbird Support.

What settings do you have under menu path Tools->Account Settings Server Settings:
Server name:
Port # :
User name : (Is it your full name or just the bit before the @ symbol)
Connection Security:
Authentication Method:
User avatar
tanstaafl
Moderator
Posts: 49647
Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: Cannot download Gmail

Post by tanstaafl »

One possibility is that account is set to use "normal password" as the authentication method. With Gmail you now need to use either OAuth2 or a application specific password (which requires two step verification be enabled) as the authentication method. I suggest you use OAuth2.

The update to version 78 should migrate your address book data from *.mab files to *.sqlite files. However, it should have created a backup of the *.mab files too.

It looks like the project just enabled auto-update from 91.* to 102.*. Its going to get harder to get help for 68.* as time goes on as its tough to remember quirks and version specific bugs for something that old that only uses legacy add-ons. I'm not aware of any reason to use a 32-bit build of Thunderbird when using a 64-bit version of Windows nowadays.
WV-Mike
Posts: 121
Joined: January 13th, 2008, 6:53 am

Re: Cannot download Gmail

Post by WV-Mike »

DanRaisch wrote:Moving from Firefox Support to Thunderbird Support.

What settings do you have under menu path Tools->Account Settings Server Settings:
Server name: pop.gmail.com
Port # : 995
User name : (Is it your full name or just the bit before the @ symbol) username only before@
Connection Security: SSL/TLS
Authentication Method: Originally - Normal Password
I changed it to Oauth2

Now get this error on send attemp:
"Sending of the message failed.
Failed due to unexpected error 80004005. No description is available.
The message could not be sent using Outgoing server (SMTP) smtp.gmail.com for an unknown reason. Please verify that your Outgoing server (SMTP) settings are correct and try again."

I get this error when trying fetch email:
"The STAT command did not succeed. Error getting message number and sizes. Mail server pop.gmail.com responded: Invalid credentials."
tanstaafl wrote:One possibility is that account is set to use "normal password" as the authentication method. With Gmail you now need to use either OAuth2 or a application specific password (which requires two step verification be enabled) as the authentication method. I suggest you use OAuth2.

The update to version 78 should migrate your address book data from *.mab files to *.sqlite files. However, it should have created a backup of the *.mab files too.

It looks like the project just enabled auto-update from 91.* to 102.*. Its going to get harder to get help for 68.* as time goes on as its tough to remember quirks and version specific bugs for something that old that only uses legacy add-ons. I'm not aware of any reason to use a 32-bit build of Thunderbird when using a 64-bit version of Windows nowadays.
WV-Mike
Posts: 121
Joined: January 13th, 2008, 6:53 am

Re: Cannot download Gmail

Post by WV-Mike »

tanstaafl wrote:One possibility is that account is set to use "normal password" as the authentication method. With Gmail you now need to use either OAuth2 or a application specific password (which requires two step verification be enabled) as the authentication method. I suggest you use OAuth2.
I switched to 0Auth2 and noted the error messages in my reply to Dan.
When I check the passwords in Tbird both Gmail accounts have password string starting with 1//0dywwrECmY

I had to log into Google and grant permision for the Thunderbird to have access for both accounts
On account is operational the other is not.
The server settings for both are identical except for the log in name.

I understand the problems with using and older version. But have two upgrade disasters I am not eager to try again.

Thanks to all,
-Mike
The update to version 78 should migrate your address book data from *.mab files to *.sqlite files. However, it should have created a backup of the *.mab files too.

It looks like the project just enabled auto-update from 91.* to 102.*. Its going to get harder to get help for 68.* as time goes on as its tough to remember quirks and version specific bugs for something that old that only uses legacy add-ons. I'm not aware of any reason to use a 32-bit build of Thunderbird when using a 64-bit version of Windows nowadays.
WV-Mike
Posts: 121
Joined: January 13th, 2008, 6:53 am

Re: Cannot download Gmail

Post by WV-Mike »

I changed the outgoing to 0Auth2 which triggered a Google Login.
I can now send but I still cannot download with one account.

The other account works fine.

Aaarg...
-Mike
User avatar
tanstaafl
Moderator
Posts: 49647
Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: Cannot download Gmail

Post by tanstaafl »

Log into webmail for that last troublesome account . If there is a captcha that will give you the opportunity to clear it. Thunderbird doesn't know captcha's exist.

"The STAT command did not succeed. Error getting message number and sizes. Mail server pop.gmail.com responded: Invalid credentials.""

I suggest you compare the server settings for the accounts using help -> more troubleshooting information. Its sometimes easier to spot differences in its mail & news settings than by comparing tools -> accounts .
WV-Mike
Posts: 121
Joined: January 13th, 2008, 6:53 am

Re: Cannot download Gmail

Post by WV-Mike »

tanstaafl wrote:Log into webmail for that last troublesome account . If there is a captcha that will give you the opportunity to clear it. Thunderbird doesn't know captcha's exist.
I have never seen captcha used with a gmail.
"The STAT command did not succeed. Error getting message number and sizes. Mail server pop.gmail.com responded: Invalid credentials.""

I suggest you compare the server settings for the accounts using help -> more troubleshooting information. Its sometimes easier to spot differences in its mail & news settings than by comparing tools -> accounts .
-------
Mail and News Accounts
ID Incoming server Outgoing servers
Name Connection security Authentication method Name Connection security Authentication method Default?

account2 (none) Local Folders None Normal password
account5 (pop3) pop.gmail.com:995 SSL/TLS OAuth2 smtp.gmail.com:465 SSL/TLS OAuth2 true
account6 (pop3) pop.gmail.com:995 SSL/TLS OAuth2 smtp.gmail.com:465 SSL/TLS OAuth2 true
-------
The server settings look the same to me. Am I missing something?
What is:
"account2 (none) Local Folders None Normal password"

Thanks,
-Mike
WV-Mike
Posts: 121
Joined: January 13th, 2008, 6:53 am

Re: Cannot download Gmail

Post by WV-Mike »

Another puzzling thing:
There is only one Gmail account shown in the Outgoing servers setting.
It is configured for the account which will not function.

The other Gmail account which has no entry in the Outgoing servers settings sends and fetches without errors.
????
-Mike
User avatar
tanstaafl
Moderator
Posts: 49647
Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: Cannot download Gmail

Post by tanstaafl »

The listing has a smtp server setting for both accounts. I suspect the second account got re-configured to use the first accounts smtp server entry. If so you just need to select the correct smtp server setting in the list box at the bottom of the pane in tools -> account setting that specifies the accounts email address.

I am surprised at the error message though because it should have been something like "login failed. incorrect username or password" rather than talking about a application password.

They just fixed a bug in Thunderbird 102.* where it frequently doesn't display the assigned smtp server for an account in tools -> account settings. It does show up in help -> more troubleshooting information. Perhaps the same bug exists in version 68.*.
WV-Mike
Posts: 121
Joined: January 13th, 2008, 6:53 am

Re: Cannot download Gmail

Post by WV-Mike »

tanstaafl wrote:The listing has a smtp server setting for both accounts. I suspect the second account got re-configured to use the first accounts smtp server entry. If so you just need to select the correct smtp server setting in the list box at the bottom of the pane in tools -> account setting that specifies the accounts email address.
I only see one account setting.
Here are screen shots. One account "inthealltogether" works, "epicroadtrips" does not. "epicroadtrips" will send but not fetch.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/cLJHSgiB8QDyeCr78

Thanks,
-Mike

I am surprised at the error message though because it should have been something like "login failed. incorrect username or password" rather than talking about a application password.

They just fixed a bug in Thunderbird 102.* where it frequently doesn't display the assigned smtp server for an account in tools -> account settings. It does show up in help -> more troubleshooting information. Perhaps the same bug exists in version 68.*.
User avatar
tanstaafl
Moderator
Posts: 49647
Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: Cannot download Gmail

Post by tanstaafl »

Version 68.5 is the oldest version that supports OAuth2 in Gmail POP accounts and you exceed it. Your settings look fine though I'm surprised you didn't check the checkbox to check for mail on startup or every X minutes. I assume you're either explicitly selecting that account from the Get Messages list box or selecting that account in the folder pane and then pressing the button.

I suggest you backup your prefs.js file as a precaution and then view it in a text editor such as notepad. Compare the stored settings for the two accounts. If you ignore the two spam settings only mail.server.serverX.name and mail.server.serverX.userName (where X is the server id) should be different. You can find the server id by searching for pop.gmail.com (its stored in mail.server.serverX.hostname) . Its not going to necessarily match the account id.
WV-Mike
Posts: 121
Joined: January 13th, 2008, 6:53 am

Re: Cannot download Gmail

Post by WV-Mike »

tanstaafl wrote:Version 68.5 is the oldest version that supports OAuth2 in Gmail POP accounts and you exceed it. Your settings look fine though I'm surprised you didn't check the checkbox to check for mail on startup or every X minutes. I assume you're either explicitly selecting that account from the Get Messages list box or selecting that account in the folder pane and then pressing the button.
I suggest you backup your prefs.js file as a precaution and then view it in a text editor such as notepad. Compare the stored settings for the two accounts. If you ignore the two spam settings only mail.server.serverX.name and mail.server.serverX.userName (where X is the server id) should be different.
You can find the server id by searching for pop.gmail.com (its stored in mail.server.serverX.hostname) . Its not going to necessarily match the account id.
I opened a copy of prefs.js and searched for "pop.gmail.com" and it was not found.
Thanks for your detailed reply but I am afraid it is beyond me.
-Mike
WV-Mike
Posts: 121
Joined: January 13th, 2008, 6:53 am

Re: Cannot download Gmail

Post by WV-Mike »

I found a work around solution.
I created a new account with the same UserID and PASS and I can now send and fetch email from the problem Gmail account.

Some issues:
When I try to check the settings for the newly created account, I get a message saying another account with that name already exists.

Is there a way to move the mail from the old account to the new one and safely delete the old account?

Thanks to all,
-Mike
WV-Mike
Posts: 121
Joined: January 13th, 2008, 6:53 am

Re: Cannot download Gmail

Post by WV-Mike »

I was able to move the mail from the old account to the new one.
Now, how to delete safely the old one?
-Mike
Post Reply