notes password correct but rejected

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Level 1

16 points

notes password correct but rejected

On my 2010 MacBook Pro Notes just started giving me a password error for one of my accounts (not my iCloud account, but the gmail account I actually use the most for notes).

I upgraded to El Capitan a while back and this just showed up (no new things added recently) - it's posted here as there is no notes-specific community..

I type the correct password, and it is rejected. I re-tested the password in gmail AND mail just to ensure it was correct and working. It is, but for some reason Notes will NOT take it - and I can't find any kind of workaround.

It's very important that I have access to these notes (I keep some regular-needed medical information in there).

One thing I'm NOT going to do is reset the gmail password - that would be an extreme hassle and make NO sense. I'm also disabled and it's not easy for me to make an appointment to go to the Genius Bar at the local Apple Store.

Does anyone have a solution (or similar problem)?

Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Feb 24, 2016 12:38 PM

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Answer 1

KiltedTim

Level 10

195,879 points

Feb 24, 2016 12:56 PM in response to jsliff

You probably need to create an app specific password for the gmail account to allow the Notes app to access it.

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Answer 2

Feb 26, 2016 4:18 PM in response to jsliff

I have this problem with multiple accounts in 10.11.x (forgot exactly when it started). Its sporadic, sometimes works, sometimes not. When it worked IMAP downloads were often painfully slow and uploads (such as when mail is moved from one folder to another) often failed. Then I connected with the Public Beta program and started sending "Feedback Assistant" reports, perhaps a dozen in all. Last of which was 10/29/2015. Forget which 10.11.x that was but the next Beta put an end to my Mail.app download hangs, password errors, and a lot of grief. Had forgotten about it until yesterday.

You might consider enrolling at https://beta.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/ to see if your problems have already been fixed. I have only had one problem with the Public Beta program in that Server 5.0.15 quit running with 10.11.4 Beta 4 (worked with previous), and one has to join the $99/year Apple Developer program to get Server 5.1.0 Beta. So today I installed 10.11.3 over 10.11.4 Beta and got Server running again but am having the old Mail.app password and download problems again... So I have 10.11.4 Beta 4 on MacBook Pro and 10.11.3 on Mac Mini Server, and gave up on reading email with the Mac Mini because I can't get back to Beta 3 easily.

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Answer 3

jsliff Author

Level 1

16 points

Feb 26, 2016 4:40 PM in response to David Kelly1

Actually I went to Apple's support page and entered chat - after about 5 minutes the rep decided it would be best to have someone call me, which happened not 2 minutes later! He took partial control of my system to check some things but could not do anything destructive or open files. He guided me around instead, we ended up completely deleting my gmail account, which is only used for a few iCloud functions (my old "@me.com" account is my primary one for that purpose) (it's all saved in Gmail or other folders on the Mac anyway, and the inbox reloaded after some time) - that revamped the settings and completely fixed it!

It was actually pretty convoluted procedurally - I recommend NOT trying to do it yourself!

Except for the time it took my inbox to reload the whole thing took maybe 20-30 minutes.

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