Just wondering about the password.....how many characters in length eg: is it 16 (or less) characters ?

Please log on to gmail webmail account for that email address to check and confirm you have the option for 'POP download' selected and not imap.

Please confirm that gmail still has 'less secure apps' selected and not '2 step verification'.

Do you use a phone or another computer to access the problem gmail account?

Been through this before - but just to make you happy....

Toad-Hall said

Just wondering about the password.....how many characters in length eg: is it 16 (or less) characters ? A: PW is 14 characters Please log on to gmail webmail account for that email address to check and confirm you have the option for 'POP download' selected and not imap. A: POP Confirmed (again...) Please confirm that gmail still has 'less secure apps' selected and not '2 step verification'. A: Less Secure Apps Confirmed (again...) A: No 2 step Verification Confirmed (again...) Do you use a phone or another computer to access the problem gmail account? A: Use only 1 computer for access - either via Thunderbird or Firefox WebBrowser Confirmed (again...) A: Android Phone is set up only as backup identity check along with another backup email Confirmed (again...)

wavggg said

The burning question here is why does gmail accept my username and password to allow my login through the SMTP half of the deal but refuses to accept my username and password on the POP half of the deal to allow me to download and read my emails?

Simple really you are using oAuth2.0 to authenticate your SMTP. You are using password in clear text for the pop part. While Google maintain, or at least did, that oAuth2.0 is not available for POP accounts, you might try it as a suck it as see option. I doubt it will work, but it is worth a try.

Please remember this has been a functioning Mozilla-Gmail relationship for 15 years using only POP3 and never IMAP.

Google want everyone using IMAP. so their "hardened security" inevitably makes using POP harder for some reason.

I have only skimmed this thread, but the issue is that the gmail server is refusing connection. So really the issue s there is something wrong on the google end is my feeling. Despite claims to the contrary. Try logging into google and actually turning off the option for less secure apps and logging in again in a latter session to turn it back on again. Perhaps there is a disconnect between your actual setting and what is displayed on the web page.

Finally if you are sure you know all your passwords close Thunderbird and delete the password store and start again following a restart of Thunderbird. That will eliminate any possible corruption of the local store.

Open the troubleshooting information and click the show profile button it contains. Close Thunderbird in windows file manager delete (or rename or move) the following files and no others.

 signons.sqlite
 key3.db
signons.json
key4.db

My information indicated that the first two were replaced in the 30 something version numbers with the later two. So you might only have 2 of the files or all 4.

Matt -

thanks for jumping in...

However, I feel like these instructions leave much to my imagination and may be less that truly step-wise systematic to the degree of detail I need to not screw up what you plan for me to try...

Finally if you are sure you know all your passwords close Thunderbird and delete the password store and start again following a restart of Thunderbird. That will eliminate any possible corruption of the local store.

Open the troubleshooting information and click the show profile button it contains. Close Thunderbird in windows file manager delete (or rename or move) the following files and no others.

signons.sqlite
key3.db

signons.json key4.db

My information indicated that the first two were replaced in the 30 something version numbers with the later two. So you might only have 2 of the files or all 4.

please be more methodical... thanks gg

I just had a long chat with Edwin at Google Tech Support at 855-836-3987... I described the whole thing. To cut right to it - Edwin says that they can't reset any underlying server settings or check to see if any settings are "stuck" (e.g. actually different from the the settings that the account shows on my screen). He says that if my username and password work with a web browser, they should work through Thunderbird - as long as all the settings are correct and match. He feels that the problem may be in the way that Thunderbird is transmitting the username and password to the gmail server.

I explained that my other gmail account still works fine through Thunderbird, and if it were a systemic problem with the way Thunderbird was formatting the username - password data string - then logically the problem ought to appear on both accounts.... which it does NOT.

So please take this information and put it to the best use you can. Things are still not repaired and not back to normal.

greg

Matt:

I did the whole routine you outlined above and ended up with the same result.

Sorry greg

I appreciate everyone's suggestions.

It has now been a full month since this anomalous behavior began... without a working solution.

I invite others to add anything else that might work.

I have not done anything wrong with this account... I just want things to go back to normal. Thanks greg

This I hope you all find this interesting.....

Earlier today (apx. 3pm CST) Mozilla Thunderbird tech support interrupted my use of Thunderbird with an email announcement of an important security update to upgrade to version 52.5.0.

I closed Thunderbird and allowed the update to proceed.

Upon conclusion of the update, it rebooted Thunderbird but everything was missing.

I closed Thunderbird and restarted it - and everything was in its proper place.

Within Thunderbird, I hit the Get All New Messages link under the Get Messages tab - was prompted to enter a password for my primary Gmail account (the one in question in this thread) - and received the same Gmail 78754 error message that has persisted since 2017-10-27.

I decided that this upgrade fixed nothing.

I continued my normal use of Thunderbird throughout the afternoon with all my other email accounts which were not affected.

Now, at apx. 7:30pm CST, I clicked on the Get All New Messages link under the Get Messages tab again and AMAZINGLY, Thunderbird downloaded some 154 emails from my primary Gmail account - including all the emails collected over the past month that I DELETED from the Gmail server using the web interface - even the spam!

Interestingly, Thunderbird also announced to me, as these emails were being downloaded, that it could not find the sub-folders that I previously created for the destination of several of my email filters (within Thunderbird) - but in fact I can see them right before my eyes.

So I have no idea what just happened.

I then had my son send me a test email which went right into my Thunderbird client - so it is live and active.

I CANNOT CALL THIS A SOLUTION for my problem. It is as if some magic wand was waved by some background operator taking no credit - nor offering any apology.

So we will see how this works in the days ahead.

Thank you to Keith, Toad-Hall, Zenos, Christ1 and all for your efforts...

I wish I could be more definitive and helpful.

Best always greg

Any comments on my report of Nov 27 above where inexplicably things went back to normal after a month of trouble? It really seems like Santa snuck down the chimney and delivered a mystery gift without any sender's label or tag. I don't know which scares me more - an unexplained interruption of function or service OR - an unexplained correction of the problem. Could it really be the Ghost of Christmas Present? Was I a Scrooge who needed a lesson? All too strange. greg

The spontaneous resolution of problems is actually quite common and almost always the result of an update to another program on your computer. Most usually the anti virus/ Internet security suite.

The second cause is related to a failure somewhere in the mail providers network. They have a bad server somewhere in the network of mail servers and things work when you do not get routed to the bad one by the ISP's / Mail providers load balancer. When the bad server is finally identified and switched out the intermittent problems fix them selves.

A final reason is an add-on for Thunderbird which required an update, which has finally occurred. But that cause is diagnosed by starting in safe mode. (holding the shift key while starting Thunderbird or explicitly selecting the option from the help menu)

Thank you all for your ongoing efforts and patience.

Your reactions resonates with me as to how I perceive it too.

But what kind of place do we live where an implied promise of durable service (even if free in exchange for Google siphoning off my search engine inquiries for profit - there is still an implied exchange of mutual consideration) can get ignored for a month.... They certainly did not stop using my ongoing Google search inquiries to bolster their database of popular inquiries to improve their product while I was left in the lurch, right?

Now in addition, on my other Help Thread at Mozilla, a responder named Matt offered this...

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1183589?page=2

The spontaneous resolution of problems is actually quite common and almost always the result of an update to another program on your computer. Most usually the anti virus/ Internet security suite.

The second cause is related to a failure somewhere in the mail providers network. They have a bad server somewhere in the network of mail servers and things work when you do not get routed to the bad one by the ISP's / Mail providers load balancer. When the bad server is finally identified and switched out the intermittent problems fix them selves.

A final reason is an add-on for Thunderbird which required an update, which has finally occurred. But that cause is diagnosed by starting in safe mode. (holding the shift key while starting Thunderbird or explicitly selecting the option from the help menu)

So what I'm thinking is that since I have some 20 stored URLs that I pay for annually, that it might just be time to migrate all of my various email accounts over to those under my explicit control and abandon the free services like Gmail and Yahoo altogether. Heck, I could even offer email accounts to other people for a few bucks to assist in offsetting the expense of annual maintenance.

I think I might care more about a few "clients" known to me than Google or Yahoo could ever do with billions of faceless names under their control.

What say you pals?

Thanks greg