Gmail vs Thunderbird on Windows XP

[John Dulak]

Gmail vs Thunderbird on Windows XP

A while back I received an email from Google about accessing my Gmail account
using POP3 via Thunderbird.

It seems they will be turning off the ability to access Gmail via POP3 at the
end of May. They state "instead, you’ll need to sign in using "Sign in with
Google" or other more secure technologies, like OAuth 2.0." (There are 2 links
to "learn more" about "sign in with Google" and "oAuth2" but they both end up on
a "Sign in with Google page")

My current setup, which works perfectly, uses Thunderbird 16.0.2 to accesses
both Gmail and Comcast accounts using POP3. However T-Bird 16.0.2 will not do
oAuth2. The last version of T-bird that will run on Windows XP is 52.9.1 and
this *does* support oAuth2.

On a separate XP system's HD I installed T-Bitd 52.9.1 over top of the old
16.0.2 version. Everything, except an old add on, was inherited by the new
T-Bird. Great I thought. All I have to do now is create a new Gmail account
using oAuth2. I managed to create a new Gmail account which defaulted to
IMAP/oAuth2 and the servers and port numbers agree with what I could find on the
web.

HOWEVER it will NOT connect to the Gmail servers. I get a "sign in with Google"
window and enter Email and PW but it goes into some sort of endless loop!! After
some searching I found out that T-Bird 52.9.1 has a bug in its oAuth2
implementation!!! It was supposed to be fixed in version 68.2.1 but that will
not run on XP (Catch 22).

I am tempted to try and set up forwarding of the Gmail to the Comcast account
which still does allow POP3 but I suspect they may follow suit in the future.

Does anyone know of a patch for T-Bird 52.9.1 that corrects oAuth 2?

Does anyone know how to get T-Bird 68.2.1 to run on XP?

Does anyone know of another XP email client (free or modest priced) that will
play nice with Gmail?

JohnD

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'' Madness takes its toll - Please have exact change. ''

[Dave Maunder]

...in the same boat mate.
21 something years been runnnig gmail on XP, and freaking Google force us to move off it.
It just sux and is what most people would call Bullying.

My emails stopped on the 6th June. Looking for a suitable replacement right now (8th June 2022).

If I could, I' stab Google in the eye with a blunt chainsaw.

[Borris Yelson]

meh. An hour later, got 'POP Peeper Pro' (portable) working fine. (8th June 2022)
The last versions of Seamonkey and Thunderbird for XP do support oauth2 under imap, but seems as though they are not 1000% bulletproof and work.

This here 'POP Peeper Pro' (portable) works with imap/993 after a bit of mucking around.
https://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=942

gmail continue to lives on, on XP. woohoo.

[John Dulak]

On 6/8/2022 6:04 AM, Dave Maunder wrote:

>
> ...in the same boat mate.
> 21 something years been runnnig gmail on XP, and freaking Google force us to move off it.
> It just sux and is what most people would call Bullying.
>
> My emails stopped on the 6th June. Looking for a suitable replacement right now (8th June 2022).
>
> If I could, I' stab Google in the eye with a blunt chainsaw.
>

Dave:

You might want to look into another email provider. I am trying Lycos mail;

https://mail.lycos.com/

It is NOT FREE ($20 per year) but it does offer plain old POP3 service. I figure
if I am *paying* them they may think twice about dropping POP3.

HTH & GL

John

[Grzegorz Jasinski]

You can still use TB with gmail on XP.

Tools/Options(Mac:Preferences; Linux:Edit/Preferences)/Advanced/General/Config. editor, double-click general.useragent.compatMode.firefox to true.

The bug you mentioned can be fixed bu changing preferences.