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Ask HN: Did Google turn off IMAP access for good over the weekend?
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.
https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/2020/03/less-secure-app-turn-off-suspended.html https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/2020/03/less-secure-app...
Since May 1st, using IMAP to access a G Suite account stopped working, though, with a message:
> IMAP command 'AUTHENTICATE PLAIN <authdata>' returned an error: NO [AUTHENTICATIONFAILED] Invalid credentials (Failure)
I know the credentials are good because they work in the browser. Maybe an automated process somewhere kicked in?
- jimmyvalmer 6y agoWow, for me it started happening Monday, May 4, 5:50 EDT.
- sanchay 6y agoHappening 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.
- sanchay 6y agoAlso for me this page (https://myaccount.google.com/lesssecureapps https://myaccount.google.com/lesssecureapps) says - "Setting could not be read".
- generalpass 6y agoUnless 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.
- dlandau 6y agoAt least for me it's for work
- httpsterio 6y agoRunning your own mail server is a sure fire way of making sure that your email don't get through to anyone.
- generalpass 6y ago> 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?
- EllipticCurve 6y agoI can confirm. Same thing for, started 3 hours ago. It seems to work again for the moment though (after one hour, no change from my side). The setting is also gone for me!
- kl4m 6y agoCan't you create an "application password" for IMAP?
- kgwxd 6y agoThat requires two-factor auth, which requires giving them a phone number.
- Spivak 6y agoYou can't set up TOTP without giving Google a phone number?
- aasasd 6y agoI'm not sure if Google allows using phone notifications first (another 2fa method) and then switching to TOTP, but TOTP isn't allowed as the first choice.
- trazire 6y agoThey support using phone numbers and then switching to TOTP and deleting the phone number.
- aasasd 6y agoSo how does this avoid giving the number to Google?
- 0xdeadb00f 6y agoIt doesn't. I think they were just confirming this: > I'm not sure if Google allows using phone notifications first (another 2fa method) and then switching to TOTP...
- chipsa 6y agoCan you setup google voice?
- maltfield 6y agoAlso 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.
- bashrulz 6y agoLSA is back in settings, it should work fine now.
- hazeii 6y agoPlenty 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 6y agoI have no problem with it so far. Thunderbird on Debian through VPN in Amsterdam. (edit: wording)
- hazeii 6y agoPlenty 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/
- eloh 6y agoYou 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 6y agoOr 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
- nanna 6y agoGuide to setting up OAuth2 in offlineimap: https://hobo.house/2017/07/17/using-offlineimap-with-the-gmail-imap-api/ https://hobo.house/2017/07/17/using-offlineimap-with-the-gma...
- matheusmoreira 6y agoDo mutt and git-send-email have support for OAuth2?
- tankenmate 6y agoNot 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.
- chadcatlett 6y agoI don't know about git-send-mail, but mainline mutt has oauth2 support for imap4, pop3, and smtp. I haven't used it but it looks like it pushes the oauth2 token refresh off to an external script.
- dgudkov 6y agoThe problem with OAuth and Google is that Google requires from 3rd party vendors verification and it's very hard to obtain. Unsurprisingly, Google rejects requests for verification without any explanation and ignores any follow up communication.
- maltfield 6y agoLots 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
- tjbiddle 6y agoReading 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.
- throwaway49872 6y agoIt's really time to move away from Gmail & co. Any suggestion for a comparable email service?
- chappi42 6y agofastmail or with (many) own domains: mailbox.org, runbox.com ...
- roblabla 6y agoI 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 6y agoHow’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 6y agoThis is terrible, I'm [genuinly] surprised that other people recommend fastmail.
- chappi42 6y agoI 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-aabill-australia/ https://fastmail.blog/2018/12/21/advocating-for-privacy-aabi... [2] otherwise I'd try ProtonMail (but it has a price in useability)
- zozbot234 6y ago> 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 6y ago> I guess someone didn't get the memo. Probably 'cause they can't log into their IMAP account right now...
- mopsi 6y agoOn 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.
- mcint 6y agoAh, misread. I was just looking into entirely self-hosting this last week. https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted#email https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted#ema... See especially homebox, Mail-in-a-box "complete solutions". With brief exploration you might also be comfortable with just running the MTA for sending and forwarding, and MDA for "delivery", i.e. reading.
- rkeene2 6y agoI 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).
- ForHackernews 6y agoI haven't used it in a few years, but https://www.iredmail.org/ https://www.iredmail.org/ was fairly hassle-free if you're familiar with linux server administration.
- compuguy 6y agoI personally like dockerized Mailcow: https://github.com/mailcow/mailcow-dockerized https://github.com/mailcow/mailcow-dockerized
- aaronpk 6y agoI'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.
- neilk 6y agoI’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 6y agoIIRC Apple Mail uses IMAP via Oauth.
- thayne 6y agoSo it's specifically IMAP without OAuth?
- tedivm 6y agoYes- 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-support-for-basic-authentication-access-to-exchange-online-apis-for-office-365-customers/ https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/office/blogs/end-of-su...
- rob-olmos 6y agoThis is the original announcement I'm aware of: https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/2019/12/less-secure-apps-oauth-google-username-password-incorrect.html https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/2019/12/less-secure-app...
- flipbrad 6y agoFor a few hours this morning, Gmail also had difficulty retrieving mail from other Gmail accounts via POP3.
- IRegretNothing 6y agoThey 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.
- ejo4041 6y agoI 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.
- OrgNet 6y agoLoL Google.... I thought that I was a victim of your random account deletion for a bit
- SafaT 6y agoIt 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.
- grizzles 6y agodoes anyone know if POP is still working?
- linjan 6y agoYep, the same. I solved that by changing password to the same for "blocked" account.