Thunderbird + OAUTH2 w/ Gmail = constant pestering of user/pass
As so many others here.... *shake fist at Google* ...
I did the switch to OAUTH2 for both POP and SMTP. I deleted the passwords, dumped the cookie cache, accept cookies from sites (always on 3rd party; keep until I close thunderbird), added an exception for https://accounts.google.com , then closed and started a fresh session of Thunderbird (currently on version 91.9.1 - the latest in my Ubuntu repos).
When I start Thunderbird, it asks for the user/password and then it downloads new messages. Great.
Except every few minutes, it asks me to re-authenticate for /every/ gmail account. Grrr....
Per the below comment, it seems that Thunderbird is supposed to save the password... but it doesn't. I still have passwords for all the non-google accounts, but I dumped all the gmail passwords per the many many instructions I've found. There's also nothing from google in the cookies (however, I've gone to other sites like the Thunderbird addons and those cookies do show up in the list). https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1375538#answer-1501083
I found someone saying that web servers might be a problem, I have no webservers installed on this system and nothing is listening to ports 80 or 443.
How do I get gmail to stop pestering me every few minutes for my user/pass and force Thunderbird to save the OAUTH2 token?
Thanks!
Ausgewählte Lösung
I "solved" the problem in the short term by getting the cheapest yubikey I could. I set up 2FA on the gmail accounts. Then I created an app password... Google is so dumb. They "removed" passwords because of "insecurity" but then you can simply set up a password again....
My long term solving of the problem is that I'm switching to another email provider - disroot.org . I've already closed a bunch of the spam/junk gmail accounts I used to sign-up for promotions. I'm down to my two primaries that I've had since before 2005... I've already backed up the entirety of my email from gmail to Thunderbird and have denied the ability to send email from those accounts on Thunderbird. The hope is that as I catch any one/thing that is still using the old accounts, I can route them to the new ones then after a while I will ditch gmail all together.
So if you get stuck with this nonsense, buy the cheap Yubikey, setup 2FA, and use an App Password - then switch to a better email provider.
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I just went through all the steps again. Re-enabled the old way of doing it and verified that works. Then cleaned everything I could from remote content, cookies, cache, everything. Changed back to OAUTH2 for both SMTP and POP3, added the one exception for gmail, then closed Thunderbird. First start, it asks for user/pass (which the checkbox says to remember and then I allow thunderbird access) and it pulls data. Right click the account -> Get messages and it asks for user/pass again. There are no cookies for gmail (just addons.thunderbird.net) and there are no saved passwords for gmail (just other accounts for other non-gmail services).
Grrrr....
Grrr.....
So it seems Google isn't allowing pop3 anymore unless you set up an account password... which can only be done with 2 factor... which can't be enabled unless you give them either a phone number (which [explicative deleted] NO! ) or use their app which I can't do either (I use LineageOS without the google junk installed - and it doesn't look like google works with FreeOTP+ without their stupid software).
Fine. It looks like I have to convert the accounts from POP3 to IMAP.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/switch-pop-imap-account
Bloody heck... I can't just switch it? I have to create a new account? WTH??
Fine. Per the instructions, creating a new IMAP account for gmail. Thunderbird detects all the settings and it opens the OAUTH2 prompt. I put in the user/password and ....
"Unable to log in at server. Probably wrong configuration, username, or password."
The hell it is... The configuration is correct, the username is correct, and the password is correct!
Fine. Clicked on the advanced settings and made Thunderbird create the account even if it didn't pass the test. Double checked all of the settings. Things look fine. Now to test the email again.... And I get an error that goes by too quickly to read the whole thing but basically says I have too many IMAP connections to google and it doesn't even ask about OAUTH2 authentication.
Fine. Set the IMAP connections to ONE! Close Thunderbird and open Thunderbird again.... Same error. Grrr.....
Hello there stack korora We have read your message We try to help you.
Thank you for the message. Thank you for using Thunderbird.
Greetings Firefox volunteer.
Geändert am von Googlethunderbird
Ausgewählte Lösung
I "solved" the problem in the short term by getting the cheapest yubikey I could. I set up 2FA on the gmail accounts. Then I created an app password... Google is so dumb. They "removed" passwords because of "insecurity" but then you can simply set up a password again....
My long term solving of the problem is that I'm switching to another email provider - disroot.org . I've already closed a bunch of the spam/junk gmail accounts I used to sign-up for promotions. I'm down to my two primaries that I've had since before 2005... I've already backed up the entirety of my email from gmail to Thunderbird and have denied the ability to send email from those accounts on Thunderbird. The hope is that as I catch any one/thing that is still using the old accounts, I can route them to the new ones then after a while I will ditch gmail all together.
So if you get stuck with this nonsense, buy the cheap Yubikey, setup 2FA, and use an App Password - then switch to a better email provider.