Unable to add a Google account to my iphone

Thank you for your replies. I am curious if either of you have actually *added* a Google account to your iOS devices in the last 24-48 hours. Simply having the account already installed doesn't necessarily help me here, as I'm dealing with the inability to install the Google account, not use one already installed.

Update: other folks were having the same issue not long ago. It might be a temporary situation. I did search for solutions, but it wasn't until I narrowed my Google search to between Jan 1 and today that I got relevant results.

I haven't had the time to open an inquiry there yet. I work on a help desk, so my time is limited to focus on any one issue. But I will do so, and will report back here when I do. Having said that, the conclusion I drew (thus why I mentioned it) is that this has been an issue in the past, therefore it is reasonable to assume it could happen again.

Yeah, it has been very difficult to diagnose. What I am going with right now is for the end user to export his contacts from his Google account to iCloud and use the gmail app for iOS. If he's going to be using iOS, there really is no sense in him trying to keep his contacts in Google. That works great for Android phones, but not so much for Apple phones. It's one thing to want to check his gmail email, but quite another to expect full system integration with a Google account on an Apple phone.

That's nice. How do you sync them? I assume you create a Google account on your iOS device. When I perform a Google search on this topic, I notice many instances like this one over a period of years where that is not possible. It sounds like you've been fortunate in marrying two competing systems, neither of which has a vested interest in making sure their systems work well with their competitors'. As a help desk technician, my job is to make our employees' jobs easier. I have to help remote users, whose mobile device screen I can't see, and thus I have to keep things as simple as possible.

They provide a troubleshooter, much like the ones you see in Windows. Doesn't seem to help much.

The troubleshooter suggests I create an app password via Google account security, which I've done several times. The password is never accepted. They also suggest not using an app password and signing in normally. There are no other suggestions. I posted this same question on their forum, which you are welcome to view if you're interested.

Right now it appears the "Google" button does not work. I've consulted with a colleague who by coincidence is also using an iphone 6S with iOS 12.2 installed and he gets the same result. It looks like the OS is using the older encryption standard SSL instead of the modern TLS, which is a pretty big security hole. But it is pretty clear that Apple doesn't give a hoot to a.)Update the encryption used for Google account users and b.)Fix a button that is currently non-functional. (One of my other colleagues has his Google account installed on his phone, but he has an iphone 8 with iOS 12.1) So I don't know. There's tons of moving parts involved and it's anyone's guess where the issue lies exactly.

In the case of the employee I was asisting, it turned out to be an account verification issue. I have been throwing out ideas and suggestions left and right in the hopes something would stick, and it was to sign in at this link to verify his account that worked. I tried that and it didn't help me. But he is using an iphone X with iOS 12.2. See what I mean? It's like a slot machine that's played over time - based on these factors on this day with this device you may have one of these issues. Or you may not - pull the handle and find out!!

I can't explain it, except to theorize he has a different model phone or that there are factors in play that none of us understand. It would probably require an Apple expert with both phones in front of him and some kind of analysis tool connected to each to figure out what exactly is going on - and who has that kind of time?