Google errors in email client

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Is your email client (Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird etc) reporting that your Google password is incorrect even though you know it is correct?

This problem troubles a lot of users of the Google Apps product (both the free and paid versions) and has an easy, albeit annoying, fix.

If you receive either of these messages in your mail client :

web login required

or

invalid credentials

Check that your login details are correct obviously. If you know them to be correct, you have been locked out from your Google account.

To correct this, go to https://www.google.com/a/yourdomain.com/UnlockCaptcha (replace yourdomain.com with your domain name)

Enter your login credentials and you should have successfully unlocked your Google account.

Many things can trigger the problem to occur such as;

  • a weak password
  • your email client checking for messages too frequently
  • the password entered incorrectly multiple times

Some users report that they see less occurrences of this problem after increasing the length or complexity of their Google password.