Alternate title: Because google hates you.
8/8/2025 – The joy continues. Now you can’t have “less secure application access”. You now need “App Passwords”. From zoho’s help page:
Earlier you could configure your Google account in Zoho Mail using your Google account password by enabling a Less secure app or App-specific password. Now, the support for the Less secure apps has been deprecated by Google. In the Source Password field, use the 16-digit App Password generated from Google. To learn more about how to use App Password, click here.TLDR; Turn on (or back on, if you foolishy turned off) 2 step authentication, then create a google app password and use that for the email password.
So you’re setting up an application to access your gmail, or even worse, as far as google is concerned: You’re trying migrate your email away from gmail because you’re tired of the big brother politically motivated control that they try to exert over your life.
One of the first things you’re going to need to do is to allow access from “unsecure” apps. Which apparenly, in google parlance, is any other server aside from a google server.
If you were lucky enough realize that this “protection” is what’s causing you problems (Because you will most likely just get a “login failure” message with other useful information). AND if you’re lucky enough to find the setting for “Less secure app access”:
(Or just follow this link: https://myaccount.google.com/lesssecureapps?pli=1)
You’re still not out of the woods yet. You foolishly thought that since you told google that you were fine with another application soiling their inner sanctum, you were home free now.
Nope, apparently, there’s a memory, or cache, or magic-we-hate-you setting, that is still set to “go away” once you enable “less secure” applications.
If you read through google’s gmail troubleshooting (https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7126229), there’s one line near the bottom of the page:
If the tips above didn’t help, visit https://www.google.com/accounts/DisplayUnlockCaptcha and follow the steps on the page.
And if you follow that link (sometimes more than once), it will reset the we-hate-you flag.
I’d love it if somebody could explain to me with a straight face as to why that flag is not reset when you enable “less secure” application access. Frankly, I think it’s because they hate you for using non-google mail tools.
