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Gmail, 2FA and App Passwords

I've been a Pegasus Mail user for approaching 25years and for the past several years I've been a Gmail user, with several different email accounts, who has now become seriously inconvenienced by Google's recent introduction of OAuth2.0.


To date I haven't gone down the route of setting up an App Password on each of my Gmail accounts to enable me to continue to use Pegasus Mail; instead for the last couple of months I've relied on being able to access my Gmail mailboxes using a variety of solutions including the Gmail app on my iPhone, accessing the Gmail accounts using a web browser, and using Thunderbird Mail (with OAuth2.0) to access the Gmail accounts, but it's becoming increasingly inconvenient to continue to use these solutions so I'm reconsidering going down the App Password route so that I can revert to using Pegasus Mail. However, there are several unknowns with this approach that hopefully people on here will be able to help with...


If I set up 2FA and an App Password on one of my Gmail accounts, will the same App Password work with the other accounts?


If I set up 2FA and an App Password on my Gmail accounts so that I can revert to using Pegasus Mail, what effect will this have on my abilities to access the Gmail accounts using other means such as the Gmail app on my iPhone - will they still function as at present?


If I set up 2FA and an App Password on my Gmail accounts so that I can revert to using Pegasus Mail, will I be able to cease using 2FA and App Passwords on the accounts when (or if!) Pegasus Mail is eventually approved by Google to use OAuth2.0 for accessing the accounts?


Hopefully someone can help with answers to the above...!


Regards to all, and thanks in advance.


--
Martin Davies


I've been a Pegasus Mail user for approaching 25years and for the past several years I've been a Gmail user, with several different email accounts, who has now become seriously inconvenienced by Google's recent introduction of OAuth2.0. To date I haven't gone down the route of setting up an App Password on each of my Gmail accounts to enable me to continue to use Pegasus Mail; instead for the last couple of months I've relied on being able to access my Gmail mailboxes using a variety of solutions including the Gmail app on my iPhone, accessing the Gmail accounts using a web browser, and using Thunderbird Mail (with OAuth2.0) to access the Gmail accounts, but it's becoming increasingly inconvenient to continue to use these solutions so I'm reconsidering going down the App Password route so that I can revert to using Pegasus Mail. However, there are several unknowns with this approach that hopefully people on here will be able to help with... If I set up 2FA and an App Password on one of my Gmail accounts, will the same App Password work with the other accounts? If I set up 2FA and an App Password on my Gmail accounts so that I can revert to using Pegasus Mail, what effect will this have on my abilities to access the Gmail accounts using other means such as the Gmail app on my iPhone - will they still function as at present? If I set up 2FA and an App Password on my Gmail accounts so that I can revert to using Pegasus Mail, will I be able to cease using 2FA and App Passwords on the accounts when (or if!) Pegasus Mail is eventually approved by Google to use OAuth2.0 for accessing the accounts? Hopefully someone can help with answers to the above...! Regards to all, and thanks in advance. -- Martin Davies

If I set up 2FA and an App Password on one of my Gmail accounts, will the same App Password work with the other accounts?

No. You will need to obtain an app password in each of the accounts.


If I set up 2FA and an App Password on my Gmail accounts so that I can revert to using Pegasus Mail, what effect will this have on my abilities to access the Gmail accounts using other means such as the Gmail app on my iPhone - will they still function as at present?

None. What Google is doing is forcing users who are using what they consider 'less secure apps" to use a Google generated password that is different from the uses Google account password. If is unfortunate that they require 2FA be enabled in order to do this.


If I set up 2FA and an App Password on my Gmail accounts so that I can revert to using Pegasus Mail, will I be able to cease using 2FA and App Passwords on the accounts when (or if!) Pegasus Mail is eventually approved by Google to use OAuth2.0 for accessing the accounts?

Interesting question. I don't know where Google stands regarding turning 2FA off once it is enabled. I suspect it will not be an issue because 2FA only comes into play when you login to a Google website. It is not intrusive unless you have to do this often.


[quote="pid:54209, uid:33762"]If I set up 2FA and an App Password on one of my Gmail accounts, will the same App Password work with the other accounts?[/quote] No. You will need to obtain an app password in each of the accounts. [quote="pid:54209, uid:33762"]If I set up 2FA and an App Password on my Gmail accounts so that I can revert to using Pegasus Mail, what effect will this have on my abilities to access the Gmail accounts using other means such as the Gmail app on my iPhone - will they still function as at present?[/quote] None. What Google is doing is forcing users who are using what they consider 'less secure apps" to use a Google generated password that is different from the uses Google account password. If is unfortunate that they require 2FA be enabled in order to do this. [quote="pid:54209, uid:33762"]If I set up 2FA and an App Password on my Gmail accounts so that I can revert to using Pegasus Mail, will I be able to cease using 2FA and App Passwords on the accounts when (or if!) Pegasus Mail is eventually approved by Google to use OAuth2.0 for accessing the accounts?[/quote] Interesting question. I don't know where Google stands regarding turning 2FA off once it is enabled. I suspect it will not be an issue because 2FA only comes into play when you login to a Google website. It is not intrusive unless you have to do this often.

Thanks for the replies to my queries, Brian - they're very helpful. All I need to do now is sort out the App Password for each of my Gmail accounts and then reconfigure Pegasus Mail accordingly...


--
Martin Davies


Thanks for the replies to my queries, Brian - they're very helpful. All I need to do now is sort out the App Password for each of my Gmail accounts and then reconfigure Pegasus Mail accordingly... -- Martin Davies
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