Hello!

Anyone here using Thunderbird and using imap to pull in the
mail?

I have a friend that has somehow triggered gmail to force them
to re-login with their credentials. This is totally annoying
because the person is a senior and they have trouble
remembering the password that was established months ago.

The person is also using Gmail on their iPad and that one is
cooperating fine.

So.. is it normal for Gmail to start prompting for login
credentials every few months?

--
../|ug

--- OpenXP 5.0.47
* Origin: (2:221/1.58)

Hello Wilfred!

** On Thursday 17.12.20 - 14:07, Wilfred van Velzen wrote to August Abolins:

I had the same thing in my older TB (52.1.0) happen to me this week. It popped up a browser window in TB with the google login screen. First I couldn't get past this, untill I enabled "accept all cookies"..

I was in an AnyDesk session with the computer last night. The
connection was slow as hell. The person has a satellite
solution for internet. Even a basic visit google.ca took
minutes.

After an hour poking around as best as I could and trying to
help her remember her gmail password, I called it a night. I
think I spent about 70% of time waiting for the internet to
respond.

So.. maybe there is a timing issue that triggers the login
prompt?

However, I failed to check the version of TB! :/ But I'm
pretty sure I set her up with a recent version since the pc is
using Win7.

Anyway.. she's getting a family member to visit her on the
weekend. Apparently that fellow knows his way around
computers and can prombably help her re-establish a new
password, *AND* hopefully remember to do that for her iPad
device using Gmail too!

..moving everything over to a new desktop computer with
a newer TB, that seems to access the gmail account just
fine. I have no intention to fix it in the older TB.

Interesting. Now I have to wonder what TB version I was
dealing with. Would TB version info be passed to Gmail when
used in an imap configuration? Maybe I can check some
archived emails from her and look in the headers.

So.. is it normal for Gmail to start prompting for login
credentials every few months?

This was the first time it happend to me. Maybe google
changed something in their authentication procedure. And
as TB already has my account details (email address /
password) in it's config the popup browser window with
the login screen is totally unnecessary. Login/connect
top the imap server should be automatic and transparent
from TB.

Thanks for the info about your experience. So, either I am
dealing with an older TB version like yours, or there is a
timing issue (due to satellite) that triggers a failed logon.

But the latter seems unlikely since the ipad is using the same
service at the home.

--
../|ug

--- OpenXP 5.0.47
* Origin: (2:221/1.58)

Hi August,

On 2020-12-18 08:25:00, you wrote to me:

"This is fixed in TB 68.2.1, but unless there is a
60.9.1 released, you can apply the workaround:

[...]

If I remember correctly I checked the password that was
set in TB, and that was the correct one. And I haven't
changed my gmail password in ages...

The workaround relies on making an adjustment via the
about:config, so that the retention of the password is "seen"
(or something like that). Not sure if an existing pw would
still work after the workaround - maybe it only gets saved and
seen properly when a NEW password is configured?

Ok, you got me curious enough! ;)

I made the change in my TB config, restarted it, and added my gmail account again. And it works fine again! We'll see if the browser window for authentication will appear again, but so far so good...

Myself, I still stick with smtp/pop. I found that an imap
configuration simply took too much time and too much data to
sync over a metered mobile connection.

It works fine here. I want to keep the mail on the gmail server anyway, so I can access it from other devices and see the same mail. That's where imap works best...

Bye, Wilfred.

--- FMail-lnx64 2.1.0.18-B20170815
* Origin: FMail development HQ (2:280/464)

Hi August,

On 2020-12-18 19:06:00, you wrote to me:

I made the change in my TB config, restarted it, and
added my gmail account again. And it works fine again!
We'll see if the browser window for authentication will
appear again, but so far so good...

Nice. That means that my senior friend only needs to
"remember" the old password and we can then apply the TB
config change too. But I fear that she will be forced to
reset it, and update her iPad account too. That is surely
going to frustrate her. :( But hopefully, the son-in-law
will make sure she writes down the new password. I could then
have another remote session to do the config change.

Maybe the config change and a restart of TB is enough to get things going again?


Bye, Wilfred.

--- FMail-lnx64 2.1.0.18-B20170815
* Origin: FMail development HQ (2:280/464)

Hello Wilfred!

** On Saturday 19.12.20 - 12:32, Wilfred van Velzen wrote to August Abolins:

..But I fear that she will be forced to reset it, and
update her iPad account too. That is surely going to
frustrate her. :( But hopefully, the son-in-law will
make sure she writes down the new password. I could
then have another remote session to do the config
change.

Maybe the config change and a restart of TB is enough to
get things going again?

I think it's too late to try just that. The weekend is upon us
- the son-in-law is surely already present. Unless he knows to
track down the workaround like I did, and try it first, he
will just opt for resetting a new password. Then, the
original problem will still lurk in the shadows.

Another thing I am a bit worried about, is that he will opt to
update the TB version, and the look-n-feel of what the senior
is used to will be different. At first, I too installed one of
the more recent versions for her - but she did not like it -
it was far removed from what she was used to using before -
WinMail.

Another reason an older version was better was because it was
the last version that could Import old email messages
properly. She did not want to lose her older TB email
archives. When she was using WinMail, I gave her assurance
that the older TB mail was still accessible - just treat it as
a set of archive folders. At that time, she seemed to settle
with WinMail for daily use, and switch to TB to look up old
stuff if necessary.

Actually, I had set her up with TB many years ago, on an XP
pc. And, I installed a newer TB on that machine - and
migrated the old email files. We were still using pop/smtp at
the time and all her email was stored locally.

Somewhere along the way, her family switched her to WinMail.
Then, she called me in frustration wondering where her old
emails were. (Winmail had no way to import the TB stuff)

Then, a few years later, WinMail developed the infamous "no
longer supported" notices and would cease to work right.

So.. I migrated the original TB email folders (they were still
on the Win7 pc) into a newer TB. She was delighted. At the
same time, I switched her system to imap so that we wouldn't
have to worry too much about "losing" mails.

I have a feeling I'm going to get another call and require to
reset things if her family member thinks that a TB upgrade is
going to solve everything.


--
../|ug

--- OpenXP 5.0.47
* Origin: (2:221/1.58)

Maybe the config change and a restart of TB is enough to
get things going again?

I think it's too late to try just that. The weekend is upon us
- the son-in-law is surely already present. Unless he knows to
track down the workaround like I did, and try it first, he
will just opt for resetting a new password. Then, the
original problem will still lurk in the shadows.

Update. That is exactly what happened. They opted for new gmail password.

From the header in a recent email:

Message-ID: <6abb2f70-ebdb-19c4-c762-ae5a1f112f61@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2020 12:33:33 -0500
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:78.0) Gecko/20100101
Thunderbird/78.5.1

According to Mozilla, this was a Dec 2 release.

But the last time I worked on that pc, was in Oct.

So.. they probably opted for one more update in the 78.5.x series.
--- SBBSecho 3.11-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Ok, you got me curious enough! ;)

I made the change in my TB config, restarted it, and added my gmail account again. And it works fine again! We'll see if the browser window for authentication will appear again, but so far so good...

[snip]

It works fine here. I want to keep the mail on the gmail server anyway, so I can access it from other devices and see the same mail. That's where imap works best...

So, was that still with version 52?

BTW, don't you use TB for the OpenPgp integration with Enigmail?
--- SBBSecho 3.11-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Hi August,

On 2020-12-19 10:35:15, you wrote to me:

Ok, you got me curious enough! ;)

I made the change in my TB config, restarted it, and added my gmail
account again. And it works fine again! We'll see if the browser window
for authentication will appear again, but so far so good...

[snip]

It works fine here. I want to keep the mail on the gmail server anyway,
so I can access it from other devices and see the same mail. That's
where imap works best...

So, was that still with version 52?

Yes.

BTW, don't you use TB for the OpenPgp integration with Enigmail?

Yes.


Bye, Wilfred.

--- FMail-lnx64 2.1.0.18-B20170815
* Origin: FMail development HQ (2:280/464)

Hi August,

On 2020-12-18 15:27:16, I wrote to you:

I made the change in my TB config, restarted it, and added my gmail account again. And it works fine again! We'll see if the browser
window for authentication will appear again, but so far so good...

And it didn't even after the resent re-login, which resets the complete gui environment, so is almost like a reboot.

Bye, Wilfred.

--- FMail-lnx64 2.1.0.18-B20170815
* Origin: FMail development HQ (2:280/464)