1620752 - "Login to server smtp.gmail.com with username [e-mail] failed." [autoconfig]

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Thunderbird :: Account Manager, defect)

Description

[Hylton Conacher]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.15; rv:73.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/73.0

Steps to reproduce:

I have an existing iCloud email accrount on TB and wanted to incorporate my Gmail account so I can take advantage of the EXCELLENT antivirus and spam filtering of Gmail but also have the flexibility across iOS devices to read and reply to email.
I added my Gmail account via File:New:Existing email account.
I entered Gmail via Firefox and ensured that the correct Labels of folders I wanted to appear were selected.
The GMail SMTP server was correctly inserted into TB.
I returned to TB and downloaded the email successfully from my Gmail IMAP store.
I then selected 'Write' and typed a message to a friend making sure that the From: account was the Gmail account I had added.
I attempted to send the message

Actual results:

On sending the message TB connected to the smtp.gmail server but then popped up a message that the 'Login to account Gmail SMTP' failed and asks either for a New password, Cancel or Retry.
Retrying brings the same error back
Entering a new password asks 'Enter your password for [e-mail] on smtp.gmail.com' which then gives an error of: 'Login to server smtp.gmail.com with username [e-mail] failed.'
Required password is the same as the incoming password so what's the issue??
Mail is NOT sent

Expected results:

Mail should have been sent and placed in the location specified by the account or the default og Gmail:Sent.

On doing research via Google it seems to be that the oAuth password option is the issue but surely if TB can use the Gmail credentials to download email, why can it not use the same credentials to send email back via gmail?

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Please see definitions at https://wiki.mozilla.org/BMO/UserGuide/BugFields#bug_severity

Comment 2

[Matt]

I see no bug, I see perhaps a support issue, but more likely a misconfiguration.

A default configuration would entail an OAuth authentication in the SMTP settings. https://autoconfig.thunderbird.net/v1.1/gmail.com Perhaps the reporter could confirm that is the case.

Also confirm that cookies are allowed in Thunderbird. OAuth requires cookies, it also basically requires that the password be saved, but I see reports of it being requested. What is that all about?

If this was windows I would just say turn off outgoing mail scanning in your anti-virus product, but being a MAC such software is not universal just yet. Do you have an anti-virus that might be causing the issue? If you have one, it probably is causing an issue. Even if it is only slowing sending by a huge amount.

Are you using a PVN? These are known to cause major issues with email clients. As many "internet security suites" are now dropping them into the equation without much explanation more and more folk are having issues.

In the troubleshooting information on the help menu, what SMTP settings are recorded for the account. (you can copy by dragging the mouse over the text and selecting Ctrl+C)

Comment 3

[Hylton Conacher]

Matt,

I let Thunderbird do all the server configuration as I used the File:Add:Existing email address. It detected it was a Gmail account and cobfigured accordingly.

On checking the SMTP server settings I amended the server from Normal password to OAuth2.

I NEVER save passwords in an app as changing them is a total mission. You can thank my early days 20 years ago as a netadmin with Outlook when I was a MS user. Password managers are a liability as they will eventually be compromised.

The iMac has no antivirus but I do regularily check for Malware and delete cookies, especially as cookies enable tracking.

Comment 4

[Hylton Conacher]

Matt, it was definitely a BUG but it seems to be in the file that auto configured the TB SMTP server for GMail. I say this as After I changed the SMTP setting from Normal password to oAuth2, I restarted TB, drafted an email and sent it using Gmail SMTP from my Gmai account on TB.

It would seem it is solved but lets see if I get a reply then I will know if the message got out.

Comment 5

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

So this account did not previously exist in Thunderbird?

Comment 6

[Hylton Conacher]

No, this account never existed on Thunderbird

Comment 7

[Hylton Conacher]

I believe the 'BUG' is in the https://autoconfig.thunderbird.net/v1.1/gmail.com XML file in the section beginning :
-<outgoingServer type="smtp">
<hostname>smtp.gmail.com</hostname>
<port>465</port>
<socketType>SSL</socketType>
<username>%EMAILADDRESS%</username>
<authentication>OAuth2</authentication> <---- IS THIS THE ERROR AS THE NAME '<authentication>' already been used under incoming server
<authentication>password-cleartext</authentication>
</outgoingServer>

Comment 8

[Hylton Conacher]

Instead of using iCloud to try and login to Gmail, the situation was resolved by creating two separate accounts on Thunderbird each with their own bespoke server settings. No further issues like this have been received.