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I am attempting to login to a gmail account on Thunderbird but I keep getting the following message:

Authentication Failure while connection to server imap.gmail.com

I have changed the related application password 5 times with no change in behavior. But if I use the web gmail the password changed and I can read my email. At present I can not read, download, or save my email with Thunderbird. I have two other email accounts but they are not affected. Any idea what is going on here?

plr108
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ferruccio
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  • The GMail authentication is very strong, and this is why it is not 'easy' to guess what the issue for you is. To start, take a look at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/thunderbird-and-gmail special at the part "Newer Gmail accounts won't work with Thunderbird 31 and older versions because these versions don't support Google's authentication" – LupusE Jan 08 '20 at 11:50
  • Thunderbird. Yes i have had something similair now and then, exactly also with one specific email (gmail) adress past half / full year, once in while. ¨Authentication failiure .. ¨ - the exact same thing, however, Thunderbird did seem to load in the emails inbox and folders after clicking randomly at the emails folders. This problem suddenly seems to have dissappeared since a month ago or alike. I never knew what caused this. (i am having several gmail adresses in Thunderbird configured and the others (also gmail) do not have this problem) I use the latest versions. – Bas Lamerichs Jan 08 '20 at 11:52

3 Answers3

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I was able to solve this issue by changing the following setting general.useragent.compatMode.firefox to true (found in Edit/Preferences/Advanced/General/Config Editor).

BulletBob
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  • I can not find the above link.I have very little Programming skill – ferruccio Jan 10 '20 at 23:56
  • I am not very good in using the Terminal so please give me the full detail to change this setting. – ferruccio Jan 13 '20 at 11:29
  • This is a setting in Thunderbird. You can follow the instructions found at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/config-editor – BulletBob Jan 13 '20 at 11:34
  • Perfect, thanks, this worked! For the OAuth2 login to work, I additionally had to temporarily enable cookies and set javascript.enabled to true. – sigalor Jan 27 '20 at 15:51
  • I have try the above suggestion but on my desk top it works;but on my laptop it do not work What I can do? – ferruccio Feb 01 '20 at 11:12
  • This is the only solution, that worked for me on three different machines. Funny that the official help doesn't show this (Or did I just overlook it?) – gelonida Feb 05 '20 at 21:14
  • I am still on Ubuntu 17.10, using Thunderbird 52.9.1. I had a slightly different problem; I was able to log in to my gmail account, but the passwords wouldn't save, and Thunderbird stuck forever on "sending login information..." setting the useragent compat mode as suggested here solved the problem. Yay! I get to put off upgrading my computer for just a bit longer... – LSharkey Sep 25 '20 at 20:21
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Go to TOOLS, OPTIONS, SECURITY. Then go to SAVED PASSWORDS if autofill logins and passwords is checked, uncheck it.

Don
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I was able to fix this by using a Google App password. Gmail considers Thunderbird to be an insecure App.

Instructions here: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833

Grant
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