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General => Technical Help => Topic started by: LizzieW on Saturday 14 March 20 13:03 GMT (UK)
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For years I've used Thunderbird to download emails from Google, but now it won't work. I'm not the only one getting the message "Authentication failure while connecting to server imap.gmail.com". I've tried all the solutions given when I google the problem and none of them seem to work. I can access Gmail by logging on to Google and I saved it to the Bookmark toolbar, so now I don't even have to log in, just click on the icon. However, it won't let me save emails to document files unless I save as a web page - for instance when I make a purchase, I usually save the emails relating to family history etc.
So now I've decided to try a new FREE email browser. Does anyone have any suggestions. Not Microsoft Outlook for some reason that doesn't work properly for me and I don't really like its set up. I've looked at SeaMonkey (which looks like Thunderbird), has anyone used it?
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I've decided I'll just use Chrome and ignore Firefox, Thunderbird and SeaMonkey - which apparently is a Mozilla product anyway.
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Mozilla was originally Open Source and free to use but recently accepted 'investment'of $400 million from Google, in their desperate quest to monetize all the web and World Domination. I regularly install other browsers but find faults with most of them and stick to Epic. In the past months I've tried TOR ( the onion router) and Microsoft Edge, Brave and they all plaster the internet with advertising. Apart from the absolute nuisance to us users I am now feeling sorry for the duped advertisers who are paying a fortune for ads which just annoy us and have no relevance to our purchasing desires. I do use Gmail and Thunderbird to download them but occasionally sign into Gmail directly. I recently looked at alternative email downloaders and concluded they are all in the game of harvesting your private info for their gain so what is truly free anymore. Wikipedia will list browsers which include email downloaders and separate email handlers but it's become suck it and see. If you find another alternative please let me know. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_email_clients
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_web_browsers
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Mozilla Corporation
From 2004 to 2014, the majority of revenue came from a deal with Google, which was the default search engine in the Firefox web browser. In November 2014, Mozilla signed a five-year partnership with Yahoo, making Yahoo Search the default search engine for Firefox in the US.
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An expanded Firefox search deal with Google helped push Mozilla's annual revenue up 8 percent to $562 million for 2017 -- money that should come in handy as the nonprofit tries to salvage what's good about the internet.
Firefox-generated search revenue
The lion's share of Mozilla's revenue -- $542 million, according to the 2017 tax reports it released Tuesday -- comes from deals that send our queries in Firefox to search engines such as Google, Yandex and Baidu. An earlier deal with Yahoo ended in an as-yet unresolved lawsuit with its owner, Verizon. Mozilla is paid in proportion to the search traffic it sends to search sites, which make money by sometimes showing search ads alongside search results.
The internet is awash with fake facts ...or at least misleading. When they say 'not for profit' they are misleading you in the same way that leading charities are paying executives massive salaries.
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Lizzie, are you having problems with your mail program, the one that you use for receiving, creating and sending emails or with your browser, the program that you use for looking at websites? It's an important difference and your original comment wasn't clear.
I use Thunderbird as my email program and Chrome as my browser and haven't been experiencing any recent problems.
Martin
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Thank you for all the interesting information regarding Mozilla etc.
Martin - it's Thunderbird I'm having problems with perhaps because I use gmail. I can get it up on my laptop but it just doesn't work, a little blue circle just keeps going round and round and etc. I also get a message which states:
Authentication failure while connecting to server imap.gmail.com
I went on line to see if there was anything I could do to fix this problem and despite trying many supposed fixes, nothing works. People have been having the problem for over 2 years but it seems it has been worse since both Mozilla and Thunderbird updated late last year, although the problem only started with me a couple of days ago. So if Thunderbird still works for you, then I think you are one of the lucky ones.
Anyway, I've now downloaded Chrome and I have Gmail as a tab so at least I can view my emails without having to keep logging in to Google. I have all the files showing that I save some emails too until I've decided where else to put them, or until whatever I'm working on has been finished. However, what I can no longer do is "Save As" and actually save the emails to folders in My Documents. Now, even though an email is open, it will only save as a complete web page - which is better than nothing I suppose.
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"Authentication failure while connecting to server imap.gmail.com"
Never had any problem getting gmail from either gmail account on T/bird
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My settings are exactly the same as yours (not the email address obviously but still gmail) and it just doesn't work and when I click on Get messages - in the past they automatically arrived - I now have to log into Google. I log in, click that I'm OK with Thunderbird opening the emails, but I still get the "Authentication failure while connecting to server imap.gmail.com"
It's just so annoying. I'm OK using Chrome to open the emails but it's slower than Thunderbird.
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If you go to your downloads folder, how many T/birds are there?
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Should only be one.... any others can/may cause conflict.
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For a Free one, try Mailspring.
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Only one downloaded. In fact I actually uninstalled Thunderbird yesterday and then installed an older version to see if that would work but it didn't.
Thank you Midase - I'll have a look at that.
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Which version of Thunderbird are you using? There was recent fix to resolve an issue with "Get New Messages for All Accounts" not working for OAuth2-authenticated IMAP accounts. The latest edition is 68.6.0.
I use Thunderbird quite happily with gmail, but I access it as pop3 rather than imap.
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I did have the updated version - it's been updating for sometime now, even though it's not working properly. So I uninstalled that and downloaded an older version 60.6.1 but it's still not working. I did wonder if the problem was because the access had somehow changed to imap rather than pop and also the I don't remember the Authentication method being OAuth2. I can't remember what it used to be but OAuth2 just looks wrong.
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If you go to your downloads folder, how many T/birds are there?
Should only be one.... any others can/may cause conflict.
The Downloads folder contains just that, stuff that has been downloaded via the browser but not necessarily installed. There's nothing wrong with having multiple versions of the Thunderbird installer in the Downloads folder and not experience any email server connection issues.
Thunderbird is pretty good at checking what is already installed so will typically overwrite any previous installation, so the user does not have multiple instances of the email client installed if different versions of the installer file is run.
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My settings are:
Server Name: pop.gmail.com
Port: 995
UserName: <email address>@gmail.com
Connection Security: SSL/TLS
Authentication Method: Normal Password
This lets me download emails into Thunderbird for keeping, but I can still access the emails online through a browser.
If you think the Authentication Method is wrong, then try changing it to Normal Password and see if it makes any difference? If not, then perhaps delete the connection and set it up as pop rather than imap if you think that is also incorrect? Unless you have other devices which access the same email account.
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Angus - I tried changing the settings to match the ones you have, which look like the settings I used to have, but above them and unchangeable it shows IMAP Mail Server. Anyway I tried using the settings you have and then I got a message stating IMAP server was down!
So I closed Thunderbird when I re-opened it, the settings had all reverted to the IMap ones. I clicked on Get Messages and a google page came up for me to log into. This started happening yesterday, I never had to log into Google to get messages downloaded before. I logged in as requested and a page came up stating Mozilla Thunderbird Email wants to access your Google Account xxxxx@gmail.com. This will allow Mozilla Thunderbird Email to "Read, compose, send and permanently delete all your email from Gmail. If you click allow this will enable this app and Google to use your information in accordance with their respective privacy policies. You can change this and other Account Permissions at any time. If I click on Allow, then I get the same authentication failure while connecting to server imap.gmail.com - the whole thing is ridiculous.
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Well I have no idea what I've done but Thunderbird suddenly started working. I decided I would try Mailspring as suggested by Midase and while that was downloading, Thunderbird downloaded a few emails. Let's hope it continues working properly.
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I did have the updated version - it's been updating for sometime now, even though it's not working properly. So I uninstalled that and downloaded an older version 60.6.1 but it's still not working. I did wonder if the problem was because the access had somehow changed to imap rather than pop and also the I don't remember the Authentication method being OAuth2. I can't remember what it used to be but OAuth2 just looks wrong.
They are my settings...
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Well I have no idea what I've done but Thunderbird suddenly started working. I decided I would try Mailspring as suggested by Midase and while that was downloading, Thunderbird downloaded a few emails. Let's hope it continues working properly.
Yes, T/bird will do all the settings for you be it imap or pop etc, Port No
Whatever your setting are set to is what T/bird needs!
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I'm now back with the settings like you have and after over 48 hours of tearing my hair out, Thunderbird suddenly decided to start working and is now downloading lots of emails. I really don't understand computers at all ::) Perhaps it was because I'd decided to download Mailspring and it got jealous ;). In any case, Mailspring didn't work either.
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8)
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I'm not sure whether Thunderbird allows you to alter the type of connection (pop/imap), I've a feeling when I tried to do the same, I had to completely delete the connection and re-add it with the type I wanted.
That is a bit bizarre though. Is it still on imap? Perhaps there was an issue with just your account and it's all suddenly started working again?
I know you're going to be tempted to leave things now they are working again, but don't forget if you're still on the older version of Thunderbird, there is a new edition which supposedly addresses fetching new emails when there is an imap server and using oauth2 security.
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I'm still on imap. When I googled to see how I could solve the problem, it seemed as though it has been an ongoing problem for a few years now. It has just updated itself again, so I guess everything should work OK for now. Fingers crossed.
I've just looked at Thunderbird Release Notes and the top item under "FIXED" is Problem with Google authentication (OAuth2) - so it would seem there was a problem which after many complaints on Thunderbird's website has been fixed. Earlier they were suggesting the problem was with Google, but who knows whether it's Thunderbird or Google who've fixed the problem.
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This Thunderbird problem with (IMAP) connections may well be connected to the
updated TLSv1.3 problem that has recently been found with Firefox.
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I didn't think Mozilla and therefore Firefox were connected any more. I don't understand what the problem was but it seemed to have something to do with Google.