Cannot add Google account

boogaloojb wrote:

When I try to add a Google account in preferences > internet accounts, I click "Open in Browser" and then there is an infinite spinner.

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Are you logged into a gmail account(?) Verify you are seeing the second window that opens when you click "Open Browser"

Are you trying to set up a email account..?

I would do this set-up through the Mail.app

Add email accounts in Mail on Mac - Apple Support

I had this issue too and realized that my default internet browser was set to Chrome. I changed it back to Safari and it is now working - so I would give that a try!

Don't know if this might be an OS bug - as the "browser" options were working for AOL and Yahoo, just not gmail.

Good luck!

Do you have Safari Technology Preview installed?

I was just experiencing this same issue, and I discovered that if I launched the Safari Technology Preview app after the spinner was showing, after a slight delay it would open up the special private window to the Gmail login that was missing, and then things worked.

Safari, not Safari Technology Preview, is set as my default browser, so... apparently macOS is getting confused over which of them it should be using?

How I worked around this problem:

1. Switched my default browser from Safari to Chrome (not sure if this is necessary)
2. Quit Chrome
3. Clicked the button to "Open in Browser" again

Finally, the browser opened and I was able to sign in

I had the same problem, white browser pop-up, then spinning... However, I managed to solve it.

Open Activity Monitor to check if you have 'Not Responding' processes. If so, try rebooting your Mac and immediately continue to add or activate your Google account.

In my case, the reason for the stuck white browser pop-up is likely com.apple.hiservices-xpcservice that frequently becomes and stays not responding.

I believe this is caused by Safari. I haven't managed to solve why this service becomes not responding, or its function. My Mac seems to work just fine even when this service is stuck until suddenly it beachballs in tasks that shouldn't take any effort from the computer. And these can last minutes. Probably time-outs. I have a feeling that it has something to do with an app calling some Finder functions. Killing the process helps, but as the service won't recover automatically, I usually finish what I am doing and restart Mac.

This may or may not be your reason, but do check Activity Monitor.

I had exactly the same issue. Managed to solve it by changing the "User Agent" in Safari developer tools. Changed the User Agent to "Safari 15.2" as per the image below and restarted Safari.

After that, while adding internal accounts, clicking on "Open Browser" worked fine.

Hope this helps.

Aditya

My Gmail was working perfectly on the mail app until yesterday. Now it is showing offline. I click on the ~ to connect. It states - enter the password for the account. Google requires completing authentication in your web browser. I click Open Browser and then the circular motion comes up and it just continues. It does not allow me to enter the password?

@leroydouglas and @boogaloojb I am having the same problem, but I get the same spinner through System Preferences --> Internet Accounts and through Mail --> Add Account. Is there some other way to get around this? Ideally I want this new account feeding in to Mail and to Calendar, but either is better than neither. FWIW, I'm using Chrome.

To elaborate on the above: If I set my default browser (in System Preference > General) to Safari Technology Preview, or to Chrome, the process works as intended and the login private browser window is automatically shown in the default browser.

But somehow the specific combination of "Safari is default browser" and "Safari Technology Preview is install" is currently broken, and Safari Technology Preview is somehow interfering with or intercepting the request from the Internet Account pane to open that private browser login window.

In case anyone from Apple is reading this, I've filed FB9845168 describing the issue.

I was having the same issue, so I deactivated Ad Block, nothing, switched Chrome as my default browser, nothing. Quit Safari, nothing but it finally started working when I opened Safari, it asked me to set Safari as my default browser, I said yes, then the window opened and I was able to log into my Google account.

Been having the same problem for AGES. Tried putting my default browser back to Safari (I always use Chrome), tried again and it opened Safari immediately so I could log in, then changed my default back to Chrome.

Seems like it's confused if you're using a different default browser than Safari.

Same issue here. Monterey 12.2.1. When trying to add my Gmail from Internet Accounts or from the Mail app, it would load a window that would just endlessly spin. I tried authenticating with Google in Safari, closing out of everything, trying again, same issue.

The only thing that fixed it (as other people have mentioned) was changing my default web browser (System Preferences > General) from Chrome to Safari. Repeated the process, authentication window actually loaded to a Google Sign-in screen, everything worked. Then changed default browser back to Chrome.

I solved it by going to Safari Preferences -> Websites -> Pop-up blocked -> Allow for Gmail and other related .

then restarted Safari. Then infinite spinner stoped spinning :)

OR

while spinner is spinning, I went to Safari and signed into the google account

Hi!! I had this same issue after changing my gmail password and here is how I fixed it. In chrome, because I changed my password, I was logged out of "sync" for the account. Also, my default browser is chrome. So, I opened chrome, re-signed in to my account through the chrome app, then went to Mail > ~ button next to the account that had been disconnected, and followed the steps to open in browser and put my password in. The infinite spinner goes away. Hope this helps.