Can you please tell what message you get for the 10th account on the computer where it fails? Without further info about what's going wrong there, it is impossible to help you.

Thunderbird is requesting that I re-enter passwords for two of my ten gmail accounts. These ten gmail accounts have been in daily use for more than ten years on TB. I update TB regularly. Thunderbird will not accept my password entries on gmail accounts using 2-step verification, TB just re-asks the question without giving any error message., Next, I deleted these accounts from TB and tried to re-install them on TB. TB's "add account" procedure causes a Google window to appear requesting credentials on imap.gmail.com with a NEXT button to confirm. But when I click on NEXT nothing happens. I have checked the cookie settings and they are set correctly. I have this problem on four different PCs running Win7 and Win10. Win10 is up to date. As suggested by Mozilla support I tried downgrading TB to earlier versions, without success. With everything updated and reinstalled I still have the same problem. I am thinking TB has just become too buggy and volunteer support is overwhelmed. Witnout TB there is no chance I will use anything else from Mozilla. UNIFIED EMAIL folders is the main function keeping me with TB/Mozilla.. I have not found this INBOX CONSOLIDATION function available via Google, and I do not want to purchase Office to get Outlook. What should I do?

You must be running a version of Thunderbird lower than v.52. Upgrade to 52.2

Who told you to downgrade?

In response to your question: It may have been Joe. I do not think the trial downgrade did any harm. It is really easy to return to the latest update, which I did. MORE SIGNIFICANTLY >>> The problem persists. If we cannot learn what causes TB's FAILURE TO ACCEPT Google 2-step PASSWORDS and WE CANNOT GET GOOGLE TO ACCEPT IMAP VERIFICATION, THEN Mozilla users must look elsewhere. It is a shame, since this seems to be a bug affecting a small fraction of TB users. If there is no way to fix this bug, TB/Mozilla will be replaced those of us who are affected. Outlook seems to be the most recommended alternative to TB, despite the general distrust of Microsoft. Are there any other email clients that offer UNIFIED INBOX - EMAIL FOLDER CONSOLIDATION?

Thunderbird works perfectly well with Gmail. Version 52 was created just to be compatible with their new Oauth2 changes.

If you are using 2 step with gmail then you have to generate an application specific password to use instead of your normal password. Have you done this?

In Thunderbird account setting you can change Authentication from Normal Password to Oauth2 and have it work better.

Oauth2 works for IMAP and SMTP server but not POP.

This forum is for support of Thunderbird, not recommending something else. That is what Google search is for. Feel free to use any email client you want.

THIS PROBLEM IS NOT SOLVED

GMail My Account section Lists Thunderbird as a linked app "Apps connected to your account"

Google's "less secure apps" section either no longer exists or it is difficult to find.

I still have the problem and cannot use TB despite Google saying TB is linked to my Gmail account.

https://myaccount.google.com/security guided me to generate an "app password" which I did. It does not work with Thunderbird, or additional information (not apparent) is required to make it work.

I still have the problem and cannot use TB despite Google saying TB is linked to my Gmail account.

Post your troubleshooting info.

Go to Help-Troubleshooting Information Click Copy to Clipboard Come back here and paste that into a reply window.

Application Basics

   Name: Thunderbird
   Version: 45.8.0
   User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:45.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/45.8.0
   Profile Folder: Show Folder

             (Local drive)
   Application Build ID: 20170305125302
   Enabled Plugins: about:plugins
   Build Configuration: about:buildconfig
   Memory Use: about:memory

 Mail and News Accounts
   account1:
     INCOMING: account1, , (imap) imap.googlemail.com:993, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , smtp.googlemail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account2:
     INCOMING: account2, , (none) Local Folders, plain, passwordCleartext

   account3:
     INCOMING: account3, , (imap) imap.googlemail.com:993, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , smtp.googlemail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account4:
     INCOMING: account4, , (imap) imap.googlemail.com:993, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , smtp.googlemail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true
     OUTGOING: , smtp.googlemail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, false

   account6:
     INCOMING: account6, , (imap) imap.googlemail.com:993, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , smtp.googlemail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account7:
     INCOMING: account7, , (imap) imap.googlemail.com:993, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , smtp.googlemail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account8:
     INCOMING: account8, , (imap) imap.googlemail.com:993, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , smtp.googlemail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account9:
     INCOMING: account9, , (imap) imap.googlemail.com:993, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , smtp.googlemail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account10:
     INCOMING: account10, , (imap) imap.googlemail.com:993, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , smtp.googlemail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account11:
     INCOMING: account11, , (imap) imap.googlemail.com:993, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , smtp.googlemail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account13:
     INCOMING: account13, , (imap) imap.googlemail.com:993, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , smtp.googlemail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

 Crash Reports

 Extensions
   Lightning, 4.7.8, true, {e2fda1a4-762b-4020-b5ad-a41df1933103}

 Important Modified Preferences

   Name: Value

     accessibility.lastLoadDate: 1500503595
     browser.cache.disk.capacity: 358400
     browser.cache.disk.filesystem_reported: 1
     browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value: 358400
     browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run: false
     browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max: false
     dom.apps.reset-permissions: true
     extensions.lastAppVersion: 45.8.0
     font.name.monospace.el: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.tr: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-baltic: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-central-euro: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-cyrillic: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-unicode: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-western: Consolas
     font.name.sans-serif.el: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.tr: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-baltic: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-central-euro: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-cyrillic: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-unicode: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-western: Calibri
     font.name.serif.el: Cambria
     font.name.serif.tr: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-baltic: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-central-euro: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-cyrillic: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-unicode: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-western: Cambria
     font.size.fixed.el: 14
     font.size.fixed.tr: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-baltic: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-central-euro: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-cyrillic: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-unicode: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-western: 14
     font.size.variable.el: 17
     font.size.variable.tr: 17
     font.size.variable.x-baltic: 17
     font.size.variable.x-central-euro: 17
     font.size.variable.x-cyrillic: 17
     font.size.variable.x-unicode: 17
     font.size.variable.x-western: 17
     gfx.direct3d.last_used_feature_level_idx: 0
     mail.openMessageBehavior.version: 1
     mail.winsearch.firstRunDone: true
     mailnews.database.global.datastore.id: 6775be69-7bcc-420f-9388-4a2fd8a5249
     mailnews.database.global.views.conversation.columns: {"threadCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":"1"},"flaggedCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":"3"},"attachmentCol":{"visible":false…
     network.cookie.prefsMigrated: true
     network.predictor.cleaned-up: true
     places.database.lastMaintenance: 1500491200
     places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 104858
     plugin.importedState: true

 Graphics

     Adapter Description: Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
     Vendor ID: 0x8086
     Device ID: 0x0102
     Adapter RAM: Unknown
     Adapter Drivers: igdumd64 igd10umd64 igd10umd64 igdumdx32 igd10umd32 igd10umd32
     Driver Version: 8.15.10.2462
     Driver Date: 7-26-2011
     Direct2D Enabled: false
     DirectWrite Enabled: false (6.2.9200.17568)
     ClearType Parameters: ClearType parameters not found
     WebGL Renderer: Google Inc. -- ANGLE (Intel(R) HD Graphics Family Direct3D11 vs_4_1 ps_4_1) -- OpenGL ES 2.0 (ANGLE 2.1.0.316930d51ea9)
     GPU Accelerated Windows: 0

     AzureCanvasBackend: skia
     AzureSkiaAccelerated: 0
     AzureFallbackCanvasBackend: cairo
     AzureContentBackend: cairo

 JavaScript

 Incremental GC: 1

 Accessibility

   Activated: 1
   Prevent Accessibility: 0

 Library Versions

     Expected minimum version
     Version in use

     NSPR
     4.12
     4.12

     NSS
     3.21.3 Basic ECC
     3.21.3 Basic ECC

     NSS Util
     3.21.3
     3.21.3

     NSS SSL
     3.21.3 Basic ECC
     3.21.3 Basic ECC

     NSS S/MIME
     3.21.3 Basic ECC
     3.21.3 Basic ECC

The above is from one of the Win7 computers

The normal gmail password delivered by TB to a gmail account with 2-step verification causes Google to popup a frozen verification window that permits no entry or action.

OAuth2 cannot be specified for a TB account not yet in existence. TB cannot deliver an app specific password to Google.

perhaps I am missing some step. Apparently no solution exists or someone would make a list of the steps. Nothing could be more common that Gmail and Win10. Frustrating.

I have no idea what you are doing. All your gmail accounts state normal password. Change them to Oauth2. If you can not do that then maybe you need to hire some help that understands the process.

I have two gmail accounts which use google's 2 step verification. These two accounts existed in TB for ten years until recently TB asked me to re-enter their passwords. I did this repeatedly until it became clear that TB has stopped working with those gmail accounts, while continuing to work with accounts not using 2-step verification.

I tried deleting and then adding the two 2-step accounts. You do not see them in troubleshooting because these accounts no longer exist in TB on this computer.

The normal gmail password delivered by TB to a gmail account with 2-step verification causes Google to popup a frozen verification window that permits no entry or action.

OAuth2 cannot be specified for a TB account not yet in existence. TB cannot deliver an app specific password to Google.

From my experience over the past month on several Win7 and Win10 computers, with multiple re-installations of TB, TB downgrades and updates, TB has lost its ability to enroll GMail accounts having 2-step verification.

Whatever causes TB to request re-entry of a password for an existing gmail account works OK for the 1-step accounts but leaves the 2-steps accounts deactivated. So I deleted them in an attempt to fix the problem and now they cannot be added back to TB on this computer. I have these same 2-step accounts working with TB on other computers. However, when something causes TB to request password re-entry, I will lose access to those 2-step accounts on that/those computers also.

Perhaps I am missing some step. However, apparently no solution exists or someone would make a list of the steps. Nothing could be more common that Gmail and Win10. Frustrating.

If you know of someone who will share a solution in exchange for money, I will gladly pay them.

I have also asked for advice and guidance in this forum to choose another email client that offers a UNIFIED INBOX. Hopefully others drawn to these discussions will benefit from all the time we have devoted to documenting this Mozilla/Thunderbird support problem.

I am done. Good luck. Hire an IT person.

Indeed this seems to be an intractable problem. GMAIL USERS ARE WARNED and invited to update these dangling threads.

I doubt anyone will make it a charity and pay for a third-party IT person to (try to) fix Thunderbird. As noted in these forums, TB has been abandoned by Mozilla, presumably for busine$$ reasons.

The same thing happened to Quicken.

This community should increasingly discuss alternative products, while many of us will hope TB can be sustained or even revived. DOES ANYONE KNOW OF AN ALTERNATIVE EMAIL CLIENT OFFERING UNIFIED FOLDERS (A COMMON INBOX MERGING MULTIPLE EMAIL ACCOUNTS)?

I've noticed in the past that in order for an app-specific password for Apple iCloud to work, you should first remove all stored passwords for that account from your Password Manager. Maybe this also holds for GMail. Can you try to remove all passwords for your GMail account and then try again to login? When setting up a new account, it is possible to specify OAuth2 as the authentication mechanism. If you want to use GMail two-step authentication, this method combined with an app-specific password seems more safe to me, then allowing access to less secure apps in Gmail. If you do want to allow acces for less secure apps in GMail, all you have to do is google on gmail less secure apps and follow the link to go to Go to the "Less secure apps" section in My Account.

Hi Onno,

Thank you for writing. I do not mind if you expand this thread to include Apple iCloud, but I know nothing about this and have no other comment.

Regarding using OAuth2 with Gmail, I googled the issue and found primarily information for software developers: https://developers.google.com/gmail/api/auth/about-auth

I could not find information nor could I execute the procedure you suggested to enable OAuth2 on my existing Gmail accounts. I am still trying to find out what TB users are doing when they read Google's recommendation to turn-on 2-step verification.

For the benefit of TB-Google-Windows users, please list the steps to activate OAuth2. Thanks further.....

Apparently ( see https://support.google.com/a/answer/182076?hl=en) access to the "Less Secure Account" function is available only to "G-Suite" administrators and not to users of regular gmail accounts, like me.

If anyone has been able to add to TB a regular Gmail account having 2-step verification kindly indicate here what steps were used.