gmail does go wonky sometimes. And there is a history of issues https://mzl.la/3vceuoL

Dang that's a long list of issues! But it doesn't help me. It just doesn't make sense that I can send and receive through TB, but can not sign into gmail to dump all the garbage they save on their server. It's been a month of trying what solved my issue years ago, so I suspect they figured out how I/we did it to get our accounts back and "fixed" that go-around. I'll keep doing it for another month then give up if I have to.

It also blows my mind that each and every recovery process they have does no good....just keep getting an email for a "critical security alert" sent to my RECOVERY email telling me "someone used my password to sign in and gmail blocked it" Then saying to sign in to see what happened! It was me! I can't sign in! I answered every question asked to recover my accounts and get nowhere. Not 1 person over there in the forums has made any comments or offered any help either. The next thing that happens is they plan on sending out emails to recovery address to verify a dormant account before they delete it. It will ask you to SIGN IN!

Back to TB. Can someone at TB explain why they are not treated as a legitimate sign in on gmail? I also noticed that when I click "download all messages" it doesn't show any attempt with these 6 gmails. If I do each one separately, it just flashes "no incoming mail on server" IF there isn't any. If there is, it downloads them. Strange.

Just curious, but folk with sign on issues like you describe often are also the ones with a VPN. Google does not like them because they mask your location on the web so when you pop up in Bucharest and 10 minutes later are in Manila because the VPN has changed exit servers, they just block access.

You tell them you live in Atlanta, they expect you to turn up in locations that you can physically have traveled to in the time since the last connection. If you have any sort of google maps tracking enabled on your phone, they will also be very suspicious of you are more than a few miles from where your phone says you are.

At this time I am having no Gmail issues and I have a number of gmail mail accounts that I only use to test Thunderbird features and they can go weeks between even receiving mails. But they are still polling on a 15 minute cycle.

I use a desktop only and no VPN. The only thing I have is a malware/add blocker. I even tried turning that off with no luck. I also have a static IP which is the norm now. I don't remember if I built this new computer before or after those emails got less use. Wait.....I was messing with my dads cell phone and found that if I turned it off then back on, it had a different IP address, so that is strange if gmail uses IP for verification of location? (I never tried to sign in to gmail with any cell phone) My ISP did change to something different a while back and not sure if that can be the issue. When I go to sign into their server to check and delete spam, my MalwareBytes blocks them saying its a phishing site. I just have to click "continue anyway" to get there. But the bottom line is I have a recovery email address and should be able to recover using that and the other questions their system asks.