GMAIL Lost after upgrade to IOS 8.3

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Level 1

33 points

GMAIL Lost after upgrade to IOS 8.3

I have lost access to my GMAIL accounts after upgrading to IOS 8.3 !

IOS Settings does not provide me a way to enter a new application password for the account - there is NO PASSWORD box displayed anywhere in the GMAIL configuration. So I tried deleting the account and re-adding it but i get stuck in an endless loop of two-step confirmation and it "appears" to add the account (prompts me for which features - mail, notes, calendar, etc.) but then when all is said and done NO GMAIL ACCOUNT shows up in my list of accounts. WTH?

And trying to navigate Apple's support screens has become an exercise in frustration and futility!

Anyone got any ideas how to fix this mess?

Posted on Apr 8, 2015 6:56 PM

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Answer 1

Mystic1 Author

Level 1

33 points

Apr 10, 2015 1:08 PM in response to Mystic1

To Update this thread, and for the benefit of others with similar issues - I powered my iPad off for about 5 minutes, powered it back on, waited (with it on) for about an hour, then tried to add the Gmail account again (I'm a glutton for punishment, i guess) and this time IT WORKED! Not sure if the waiting is what helped or what, but i went thru the exact same process only this time when it showed the feature selections (email, contacts, calendar, notes) after accepting the Gmail permissions screen it didn't automatically flash all the way back to the "add Account" screen but stayed on the feature selection screen and displayed a "save" link in the upper right corner. Once I pressed the "save" link the account was created and all was right with the world (well, the IOS email world at least). Hope this helps someone else - but it definitely seems like some kind of handshaking issue between Apple's email configuration software and Gmail's authorization process.

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Answer 2

Apr 11, 2015 11:19 AM in response to Mystic1

Just wanted to add to this thread. I found out that this might be related to using the iCloud Keychain on iOS and with a computer using Mac OS X. Due to how iCloud Keychain stores all passwords across all synced devices, which can be both iOS devices and Mac OS X computers, the methods for accessing and updating those passwords has changed. Not sure whether this is intentional by Apple or not, but it seems that the ability to update passwords stored in iCloud Keychain is not something you can do through iOS (or at least, I have not been able to find a way to access the keychain and view/update any of the passwords stored there).

If you have a computer set up to use iCloud Keychain, you can use the Keychain.app to view/modify any passwords that are stored there, which "should" update the passwords stored on the iOS device, if that keychain item is actually synced to the iCloud Keychain. (Tested this and confirmed)

The problem appears to arise specifically if you only have one iOS device (or only have iOS devices) using iCloud Keychain. The option to update passwords seems to be missing. Not sure it this is new to 8.3, but this is the first time I have run into this problem, and cannot seem to find any reports detailing this problem anywhere else. In fact, to a greater degree, most articles/sites that discuss the iCloud Keychain only refer to the usernames and passwords stored by Safari, which are not the only passwords and information stored by the iCloud Keychain. This issue being a prime example.

I did notice that when re-adding my gmail account using my iPhone, the login page was actually just a webkit presentation of the gmail login page (webkit being the underpinnings of Safari, used for displaying HTML, but not actually the full app or Safari), which is where I entered my username and password, which I am assuming is now stored in my iCloud Keychain. I even checked in Settings>Safari>Passwords&Autofill>Saved Passwords, and my gmail username and password are NOT listed there, so iCloud Keychain is storing some items somewhere else, which is not accessible by the end user through the UI.

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