The process to add a gmail account to my Mac Apple Mail application fails

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The process to add a gmail account to my Mac Apple Mail application fails

I use Apple mail to consolidate email accounts on different services, including my gmail account. Everything was fine until I changed my password on the gmail account recently. Things seemed to work fine on my iPad and iPhone, but not on my iMac.

When I launched the mail application on the Mac it told me I had to enter my password for my gmail account. I clicked to do this and was taken to a small google window in the browser. (I'm using Safari.) After filling in my account information (email address) and password (both verified by using them also to directly log in at google), I was asked to verify that this is me by opening the Google app on my phone. I did this and clicked the confirmation button.

Back in the browser the small window redrew — indicating that google had received the confirmation from the Google app on my phone. It offers to send login information "to Mac OS." There are two buttons, cancel and continue. I clicked continue... and got a 400 error from Google. I tried this multiple times with the same result.

Thinking that resetting everything might help I deleted the gmail account entirely on the Mac and used the accounts page to Create it again. I clicked the Google link in the window and it took me to the same series of browser windows... with the exact same results.

I tried restarting the computer and repeating the process... with the same result — the 400 error.

I'm at a loss and would really appreciate any input on this.

Posted on Jan 7, 2024 10:06 PM

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Answer 1

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danmitchell Author

Level 1

22 points

Jan 8, 2024 9:04 PM in response to BDAqua

The key here — as I quickly figured out from the video (thanks) — is to:

Create an "app password" at the google website after you login.
Copy that password as soon as it appears on the screen and put it in a safe place at least temporarily. (Don't click anything in the window in which the app password appears until you do this.)
Go to the Apple Mail App on Mac OS. Go to your list of accounts to add a new one. Do NOT click on the Google entry on the list. (That's counterintuitive, but it is key.) Instead click the link at the bottom of the list to create a new account manually.
For the new account, enter your existing gmail email address and THE APP PASSWORD you just created — NOT your regular Google account password.

This adds the new account to Apple mail and Mail will start downloading your email from this account.

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