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Does anyone have the workaround for the google oauth problem?

  • 3 replies
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  • Last reply by steve1150

steve1150
steve1150
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I have the same problem as others with the google account authentication web window doing nothing when you click "Next". I have seen on the other posts that the latest version of Thunderbird has been patched.

But, for those of us that are relying on distribution management for dist that have not released the patched version of Thunderbird into the repositories, does anyone have a workaround to use their gmail imap accounts in Thunderbird?

I am on Linux Ubuntu 16.4 LTS Thunderbird 45.8

I have the same problem as others with the google account authentication web window doing nothing when you click "Next". I have seen on the other posts that the latest version of Thunderbird has been patched. But, for those of us that are relying on distribution management for dist that have not released the patched version of Thunderbird into the repositories, does anyone have a workaround to use their gmail imap accounts in Thunderbird? I am on Linux Ubuntu 16.4 LTS Thunderbird 45.8

Chosen solution

Thanks for the replies. I didn't want to go off the beaten path of my distro upgrade schedule with any manual installs that will undoubtedly cause me headaches in some other capacity. Just looking for a workaround.

What I did discover for anyone that stumbles here looking for a temporary solution that is not involved, is to simply disable Oauth2 and enable access for "Normal Passwords" in gmail. quick easy and back into my email. My theory is that if you can't trust Thunderbird to respect your password without using OAuth-to-google, then you probably can't trust Thunderbird with the content your password protects.  :)

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Onno Ekker
Onno Ekker
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I read that Ubuntu has released Thunderbird 52.1.0 yesterday, so maybe this problem is solved in that version? The only workaround I know is, switching to normal password and allow access to less secure applications in Gmail's settings. Or else maybe you can temporarily install Thunderbird 55.0a1 from archive.mozilla.org http://archive.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/nightly/latest-comm-central/, configure OAuth, and then restore your working copy of Thunderbird 45.8 again.

user01229325
user01229325
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If the new version modified by Linux does not work this thread addresses a work around to use a normal Thunderbird version. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1159011#answer-965411

steve1150
steve1150 Question owner
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Chosen Solution

Thanks for the replies. I didn't want to go off the beaten path of my distro upgrade schedule with any manual installs that will undoubtedly cause me headaches in some other capacity. Just looking for a workaround.

What I did discover for anyone that stumbles here looking for a temporary solution that is not involved, is to simply disable Oauth2 and enable access for "Normal Passwords" in gmail. quick easy and back into my email. My theory is that if you can't trust Thunderbird to respect your password without using OAuth-to-google, then you probably can't trust Thunderbird with the content your password protects.  :)