Outlook 2016 repeatedly asking for Password for gmail account

Anonymous
2022-10-03T04:14:03+00:00

Today, I've had to clean re-install Windows 10 and, therefore, also had to re-install Office 2016.

Everything is working fine except that I can't configure Outlook to retrieve emails from my gmail account and have been browsing/searching the subject for hours.

Have had the same problem a few times before and solved it by changing the following gmail settings:

(i) to accept "less secure apps" (which option, by the way, is no longer available),

(ii) turn off "2-step verification".

Those settings have not been changed since, but Outlook is repeatedly asking for a password and I can't set up the account. I get the same result if I let Outlook configure the account or if I do it manually using the settings from the gmail page or via the mail link in Control Panel.

Have also checked that Microsoft apps & services has been given access to gmail.

The only new thing I found was this: https://accounts.google.com/DisplayUnlockCaptcha and I confirmed.

Question: Is this a Microsoft problem or a gmail problem . . . each not trusting the other's security?

Anyway, whichever it is, I would be most grateful for suggestions.

Many thanks in advance.

Outlook | Windows | Classic Outlook for Windows | For business

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Anonymous
2022-10-03T05:04:36+00:00

Hello JohnTCI

Hi, I'm Karl and will be happy to help you today.

What you need to do is enable 2 factor authentications on your Gmail account and then generate an <App Password> to be used as the password or the email account in Outlook. This is a Google change that took effect June 1, 2022

Recap of steps

#1 - enable 2 factor authentication for the GMail account

Turn on 2-Step Verification

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/1858...

#2 - generate a Google <App Password> for this account (do not turn off 2FA fter generating the <App Password>)

Sign in with App Passwords

https://support.google.com/mail/answer/185833?h...

#3 - Change the password in Outlook for the email account to use the <App Password> you generated in step #2 (suggest using copy ;n paste - the <App Password> is a contiguous 16 character string - no spaces)

*** for an account already configured in Outlook, to change the email account password

#4 - press CTRL+ALT+S to bring up the Send / Receive dialog

#5 - Select the <Group> (most people only have one) --> click on ,<Edit>

#6 - Select the GMail account --> click on <Account Properties>

#7 - paste the <App Password> for the email account password

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  1. Karl Timmermans 3,685 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2022-11-15T20:19:23+00:00

    For some reason, you probably know why. When the account created and downloaded emails it created an additional folder list with 'inbox' etc. but titled as the email address. Previously I didn't have that and mail had gone direct into the Outlook default folders 'Inbox' etc. It is not the end of the world as things had felt (for email for me) but I will have to manually move mail to the default folders where my main mail is stored.

    The only reason that would happen if I understand this correctly is because you didn't create the account to use an existing PST file - step #3d

    That aside, very glad you were able to configure the account.

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-11-15T10:55:28+00:00

    Karl,

    I cannot thank you enough for your kind and patient help. With the detail you posted I tried one last time and after one mistake identified by double checking the detail you provided I managed to get both send and receive working (I think I had missed the TLS setting in 'advanced' before). It then took running through send/receive 6 times to get copies of my mails down. All worked as before, where I could right click on an image place marker in an email and use the download images feature.

    For some reason, you probably know why. When the account created and downloaded emails it created an additional folder list with 'inbox' etc. but titled as the email address. Previously I didn't have that and mail had gone direct into the Outlook default folders 'Inbox' etc. It is not the end of the world as things had felt (for email for me) but I will have to manually move mail to the default folders where my main mail is stored.

    I have documented all that I did so I have a record in case of horrible things happening. I dread anything going pop on the Google side, but I have to hope.

    I wish I could convey how much I appreciate your help the process has been truly difficult here and very very depressing.

    With kindest regards.

    Phil

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-11-14T09:32:40+00:00

    Karl,

    Thanks for your reply.

    It took a while to summon the courage to try working through the changes, always in fear that switching on 2FA may only add to my problems because of some unseen or understood reason that I got locked out of the account completely. The community it littered with people in such a situation and there is no obvious help for them. That would be a disaster worse than the current mess.

    I walked through Google's process to switch on 2FA getting messages to my phone confirming it was on. I also went and got a set of 10 codes that were supposed to help recover the account if things went wrong.

    Then I used the manual setup process in Outlook 2010 to the gmail account. That meant using advanced/additional settings to change the default ports that Outlook offers to 995 incoming and 587 outgoing, switch on SSL and enter the 16 characters of the <App Password>. It was when I clicked the 'Test Settings' button that I got the error messages back.

    Perhaps there is some time limit to get through that process or the <App Password> times out, I have no idea?

    As the <App Password> is provided in blocks of 4 chars it is not clear if the 'space' chars were required. However, I worked on the 'fact' that they say 16 chars so left the 'space' chars out. Was it that, again I have no idea?

    The process has been extremely depressing. Despite your kind help it simply hasn't worked for me. I thought about migrating to another email provider like outlook.com but the information is no better and I haven't done that.

    Kind regards

    Phil

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  4. Karl Timmermans 3,685 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2022-11-14T00:15:55+00:00

    I really don't understand why you're having so much trouble. Just to satisfy my curiosity, I configured a GMail POP account using Outlook '2010 with 2FA enabled and entering the generated <App Password> as the email account password and everything worked without a hitch.

    Have to ask this since one other person recently reported having all kinds of issues and the reason was because they turned off 2FA on the Gmail account. Other than that, have not encountered anyone else having a problem configuring a Gmail account.

    >>

    I am now planning that I'll have to go and shut down all online accounts that use my email address, as you can imagine that its not great.

    <<

    That would be a very, very painful approach to take

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