[Users] [Bug 4601] New: gmail no longer supports "insecure" client

[cr]

On Fri, 03 Jun 2022 19:31:36 +0000
Richard <lists-claws at listmail.innovate.net> wrote:

> 
> > That's the same thing that happened to me, but it's nice that it's
> > working again.
> 
> When something like that happens, providing a relevant bit of the
> claws network log can help others spot issues and give potential
> solutions.
> 

Apologies, but (it seems) my failures with Gmail seem to have
disappeared from claws.log and claws.log.bak - it doesn't seem to keep
its logs long.

My Gmail accounts are currently set with my regular Gmail passwords -
haven't changed them.   The failure consisted of Claws popping up an
error box along the lines of 'authentication failed' or something
similar.   

I just reproduced it by changing one letter of my password (in Claws
user config) and got:

Error
Authentication failed
- ERR [AUTH]  Username and password not accepted

And here's the log (XXXX's are just me obfuscating)

* Account 'Chris': Connecting to POP3 server: pop.gmail.com:995...
[13:02:40] POP< +OK Gpop ready for requests from
  2404:4408:6354:XXXX:XXXX:XXXX:XXXX:fe4c v21mbXXXXXX28ivo 
[13:02:40]  POP> USER ChrisXXXXXXXX at gmail.com 
[13:02:40] POP< +OK send PASS
[13:02:40] POP> PASS ********
[13:02:41] POP< -ERR [AUTH] Username and password not accepted.
*** error occurred on authentication
*** Authentication failed.

In other words, Gmail was just refusing to accept my passwords (I have
two Gmail accounts & my wife has one) - and then without me changing
anything or doing anything (other than logging into Gmail directly,
sniffing around but not touching anything) - next day it started working
again.   

I'd guess somebody in Google flipped a switch then thought better of it
and flipped it back again.

cr