
Ask HN: Did Google turn off IMAP access for good over the weekend? - JetSpiegel
Google was going to turn off access for LSA apps soon, and this includes IMAP for Gmail. However, with the pandemic they delayed this indefinitely.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com&#x2F;2020&#x2F;03&#x2F;less-secure-app-turn-off-suspended.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com&#x2F;2020&#x2F;03&#x2F;less-secure-app...</a><p>Since May 1st, using IMAP to access a G Suite account stopped working, though, with a message:<p>&gt; IMAP command &#x27;AUTHENTICATE PLAIN &lt;authdata&gt;&#x27; returned an error: NO [AUTHENTICATIONFAILED] Invalid credentials (Failure)<p>I know the credentials are good because they work in the browser. Maybe an automated process somewhere kicked in?
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eloh
You need to set up an app specific password [1] and use that for IMAP.

[1]
[https://support.google.com/mail/answer/185833?hl=en](https://support.google.com/mail/answer/185833?hl=en)

~~~
tankenmate
Or better yet use the IMAP / SMTP Oauth2 auth mechanism;

[https://developers.google.com/gmail/imap/xoauth2-protocol](https://developers.google.com/gmail/imap/xoauth2-protocol)

~~~
matheusmoreira
Do mutt and git-send-email have support for OAuth2?

~~~
tankenmate
Not sure, I know that newer versions of thunderbird and k9 do, but you may
need remove the account and re-create it; I didn't test changing the settings
myself, I just deleted the old accounts and re-created them as IMAP / oauth.

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neilk
I’m out of the loop - where does Google commit to turning off IMAP? Is there
any other standard that non-Google mail clients can follow?

Will Apple Mail lose Gmail compatibility or can they upgrade to something?

~~~
minedwiz
IIRC Apple Mail uses IMAP via Oauth.

~~~
thayne
So it's specifically IMAP without OAuth?

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tedivm
Yes- I used to maintain an open source imap library and looked into this when
they first made the announcement. Microsoft is also planning on doing the same
thing.

[https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/office/blogs/end-of-
su...](https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/office/blogs/end-of-support-for-
basic-authentication-access-to-exchange-online-apis-for-office-365-customers/)

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sanchay
Happening since morning, I got rid of Gapps on phone (for privacy concerns)
and can't use K-9 Mail anymore, guess I'll have to resort to mobile browsers
for email access.

~~~
generalpass
Unless it's for work, why not use a different service or host your own mail
server? I'd say setting up a mail server with projects like Mail In A Box is
easier than living without GApps.

~~~
httpsterio
Running your own mail server is a sure fire way of making sure that your email
don't get through to anyone.

~~~
generalpass
> Running your own mail server is a sure fire way of making sure that your
> email don't get through to anyone.

How is your experience so far with inboxing while using Mail In A Box?

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hazeii
Plenty of comments and current status at downdetector[0]. Clicking on the
different countries suggests it's a global thing.

Edit: the "Less secure apps" [1] setting was reporting "setting could not be
read", it's just re-appeared here in the UK (11:40 UTC).

[0]
[https://downdetector.co.uk/status/gmail/](https://downdetector.co.uk/status/gmail/)

[1]
[https://myaccount.google.com/lesssecureapps](https://myaccount.google.com/lesssecureapps)

~~~
chupasaurus
I have no problem with it so far. Thunderbird on Debian through VPN in
Amsterdam. (edit: wording)

~~~
hazeii
Plenty of others in NL appear to have been hit [0]. Seems to be resolved now
anyway.

[0]
[https://allestoringen.nl/storing/gmail/](https://allestoringen.nl/storing/gmail/)

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zozbot234
> However, with the pandemic they delayed this indefinitely.

I guess someone didn't get the memo. Or else yes, perhaps they got some
automated thing scheduled in advance and failed to roll it back properly as
announced.

~~~
bitlevel
> I guess someone didn't get the memo.

Probably 'cause they can't log into their IMAP account right now...

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ejo4041
I just switched to g suite for business over the weekend and setup mail
checking from my main account. I found enabling "Less secure apps" to get
sending and receiving emails from my other accounts via POP3 to be very odd.
Also had to create the app specific password. How is it a less secure app?
It's a gmail account checking another gmail account. That really didn't make
sense to me, but the tech support from g suite was happy to read the script to
walk me through the setup. It was pretty frustrating to not be able to figure
that out myself, it was not intuitive.

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maltfield
Also confirming an issue for the past few hours.

It's currently 2020-05-04 11:26 UTC and the issue is ongoing.

EDIT: does anyone know if google has an "uptime" page for their various
services where they can provide status updates as they diagnose the issue?
This is impacting our entire org on G-suite.

EDIT2: Found this, but it shows "Gmail" as "green" Yeah, it's still down
:rolleyes:
[https://www.google.com/appsstatus#hl=en](https://www.google.com/appsstatus#hl=en)

EDIT3: As of 2020-05-04 11:45 UTC, it's back up for me.

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mopsi
On a related note, how can I run internal mailserver that stores mail locally
on my network, accessible through IMAP or web interface, and uses accounts on
a POP3/IMAP-capable public server like Gmail only to receive and send mail (no
long-term storage)? Where should I look?

I'm comfortable with setting up a VM, but I don't know much about email.

~~~
rkeene2
I would use something like OfflineIMAP to sync from an external IMAP server to
your own Dovecot instance, assuming you want the local copy to be kept in sync
(e.g., read status should be copied to the local copy as it changes, etc).

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IRegretNothing
They removed access for 'insecure apps'. Go to your Google account > Settings
> activate 2 factor authentication and get an individual password for each
app.

Source: Had to do this to all my superb python bots that we using mails for
error reporting.

------
maltfield
Lots of people are reporting this outage on this Google Support Thread:

* [https://support.google.com/mail/thread/44318228?hl=en](https://support.google.com/mail/thread/44318228?hl=en)

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aaronpk
I'm having a different (but likely related) problem, which is that my SMTP
stopped working today.

I have a legacy Google Apps account on a custom domain, and have had two-
factor auth configured for years. Today my SMTP credentials stopped working,
so I went in and made a new app-specific password, and that is also not
working as my SMTP password. I also can't enable the "less secure apps" option
because 2fa is enabled. I don't see any path to fix this.

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SafaT
It also happened to me and nothing has helped to solve it for hours.

At the very end, I thought of changing my password and IT WORKED! Try "update"
your password.

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throwaway49872
It's really time to move away from Gmail & co.

Any suggestion for a comparable email service?

~~~
chappi42
fastmail or with (many) own domains: mailbox.org, runbox.com ...

~~~
roblabla
I second fastmail, it's a really great service. I've been a happy customer for
a year now, using my own domain and a sieve script for automated triaging of
my emails. Their web interface is really, really good, and they're working
hard to modernize the email protocols, with their work on JMAP and so on.

~~~
pedro2
How’s the Australian spy law [1] thing?

[1] [https://www.ctrl.blog/entry/goodbye-
fastmail.html](https://www.ctrl.blog/entry/goodbye-fastmail.html)

~~~
throwaway49872
This is terrible, I'm [genuinly] surprised that other people recommend
fastmail.

~~~
chappi42
I don't think the blog post is accurate, see [1]. From the three providers
mentioned above (fastmail/mailbox/runbox) which I have experience with,
fastmail has by far the best ui, speed and feel (atm).

As with gmail the fastmail provider does read your email content to provide
e.g. search (and in case of gmail who knows what more?). Both will hand out
information with a lawful warrant. -- And as long as the government is
reasonably sane [2] that's perfectly fine with me.

[1] [https://fastmail.blog/2018/12/21/advocating-for-privacy-
aabi...](https://fastmail.blog/2018/12/21/advocating-for-privacy-aabill-
australia/) [2] otherwise I'd try ProtonMail (but it has a price in
useability)

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tjbiddle
Reading through the comments, sounds like it's a blip.

But yeesh - would've been just my luck! I'm in the process of putting together
my de-Google plan lately.

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flipbrad
For a few hours this morning, Gmail also had difficulty retrieving mail from
other Gmail accounts via POP3.

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linjan
Yep, the same. I solved that by changing password to the same for "blocked"
account.

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OrgNet
LoL Google.... I thought that I was a victim of your random account deletion
for a bit

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jimmyvalmer
Wow, for me it started happening Monday, May 4, 5:50 EDT.

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bashrulz
LSA is back in settings, it should work fine now.

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grizzles
does anyone know if POP is still working?

