Level 1

29 points

"Mail can't connect to the account 'Gmail'"

This issue arose this morning. Mail requests my Gmail account password and, after having entered it numerous times, continuously fails to connect to the account. Mail is failing to connect to both the incoming and outgoing servers, despite the correct information being entered for each. Furthermore, Mail now fails to connect to the IMAP server of the added iCloud account. I'm on a 2012 iMac running Mountain Lion and Mail 6.3. I've tried readding the Gmail account, to no avail. Any ideas?

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion, 13-inch, Mid 2009

Posted on May 15, 2013 11:02 AM

Top-ranking reply

LooseNeutral

Level 1

13 points

Posted on Aug 29, 2014 5:44 PM

You've got to watch out for Googles tricky "Use Less Secure Apps" setting in your account, as I just just spent quite a few hours coming unhinged. that setting must be enabled to allow imap to work with Apple mail. I really like that little scare tactic from the GooGoblins. 👿

Click on your account picture ✅

select Account from the drop down ✅

next to Personal info on the top menu items, select Security ✅

Look at bottom left pane named Account permissions - Access for less secure apps select Settings ✅

Select Enable ✅

Select Done ✅

............😠

View in context

71 replies

Venivu

Level 1

4 points

May 28, 2015 4:33 PM in response to Christopher Corbettis1

Thank you! This worked like a charm after many efforts with other solutions. Thank you!!

Zipping

Level 1

79 points

May 30, 2015 2:13 PM in response to jacquir

You are beautiful. This helped me. It was driving me crazy.... Thanks for sharing this.

Nov 2, 2015 12:11 PM in response to akarve

Thank you!!!!! This was it!

t20

Level 1

0 points

Dec 26, 2015 1:45 PM in response to LooseNeutral

THANK YOU!!! what a crazy hidden setting, i was pulling my hair out and i consider myself savvy...

Mar 18, 2016 2:50 AM in response to LooseNeutral

Thank you for that… I was quietly going insane… you saved me!

ianwoc23

Level 1

4 points

Mar 29, 2016 7:11 AM in response to LooseNeutral

OF ALL THE THINGS I'VE TRIED IN ALL THE HOURS..... FINALLY THIS WORKED!!! UGH!

Apr 15, 2016 6:09 PM in response to LooseNeutral

This worked for me. Thanks!

Jun 1, 2016 11:45 AM in response to chuubie

2 years later this helped me. Thanks!

ndp1234

Level 1

9 points

Jun 30, 2016 8:10 AM in response to George Chapman

I've already tried that - that setting was already selected on Gmail. I've tried EVERYTHING in this thread and others. Looking for a novel solution if anyone can provide it. Thanks all for your help!

MHT123

Level 1

21 points

Jul 24, 2017 11:28 AM in response to ixmati

correct. had the same issues today, and had already done what it states above. although i didn't need to adjust /add my user name to be my email address, I did add it, after reading this, just in case. What I did do, is go to my Gmail account, on the Chrome/Google server, clicked on the IMAP setting, then when mail continued to NOT open anything but iCloud, although it EVENTUALLY said it was connecting to the internet, I went back to Chrome/Gmail, and UNCLICKED the IMAP setting. THEN IMMEDIATELY, my mail was PERFECT. My mail IS in IMAP, even though my Google serve has IMAP "unchecked". THAT is basically all I did. I did, as stated above go into the keychain, and check everything.

Jun 30, 2016 8:07 AM in response to ndp1234

Read suggestion above bout changing to less secure apps.

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"Mail can't connect to the account 'Gmail'"