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Alright, so I'm in email2@gmail.com, which I just created. I want to POP from email1@gmail.com to email2@gmail.com. I go to Gear / Settings / Accounts and Import / Add a POP3 mail account you own. I type in email1@gmail.com as the address, and:

Username: email1@gmail.com
Password: <Password>
POP Server: pop.gmail.com
Port: 995
Unchecked Leave a copy of retrieved message on the server.
Checked Always use a secure connection (SSL) when retrieving mail.
Checked Label incoming messages: email1@gmail.com
Unchecked Archive incoming messages (Skip the inbox)

I receive the following error message:

Server denied POP3 access for the given username and password.
Server returned error: "[AUTH] Web login required: https://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?answer=78754"

Which leads me to probably one of the most unhelpful support page I've ever read in my entire life.

Beforehand, I logged into both of the accounts and went to Gear / Settings / Forwarding and POP/IMAP and clicked Enable POP for all mail (even mail that's already been downloaded) and When messages are accessed via POP delete Gmail's copy. This made no difference. Are there password restrictions in POP? I just can't think of what else it might be.

NobleUplift
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2 Answers2

31

I guess Google considers their own client 'insecure'. Try allowing access for 'less secure apps': https://www.google.com/settings/security/lesssecureapps

edit (2019-12-17):

As this is a popular answer, I want to use this to warn people running into this problem that the solution presented here will likely soon stop working.

Yesterday Google communicated the following to G Suite administrators:

We’re constantly working to improve the security of your organization’s Google accounts. As part of this effort, and in consideration of the current threat landscape, we’ll be turning off access to less secure apps (LSA) — non-Google apps that can access your Google account with only a username and password, without requiring any additional verification steps. Access through only a username and password makes your account more vulnerable to hijacking attempts. Moving forward, only apps that support a more modern and secure access method called OAuth will be able to access your G Suite account.

Access to LSAs will be turned off in two stages:

  1. June 15, 2020 - Users who try to connect to an LSA for the first time will no longer be able to do so. This includes third-party apps that allow password-only access to Google calendars, contacts, and email via protocols such as CalDAV, CardDAV and IMAP. Users who have connected to LSAs prior to this date will be able to continue using them until usage of all LSAs is turned off.
  2. February 15, 2021 - Access to LSAs will be turned off for all G Suite accounts.
mschilli
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  • They actually consider POP 'insecure' as the client has to store the password if it doesn't want to ask it for every sync. Whether it comes from their client or not makes no difference. – user2313067 Mar 10 '15 at 18:51
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    How is that different for IMAP? And why do they allow to enable/disable POP *and* enable/disable 'less secure "apps"'? – mschilli Mar 12 '15 at 18:25
  • I seem to search for this answer every 6 months and this is the fastest I've found it. OP should accept this. Really annoying behaviour from gmail here. – Rhubarb Feb 20 '17 at 10:04
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    Unfortunately "This setting is not available for accounts with 2-Step Verification enabled" – MatrixManAtYrService May 21 '17 at 18:22
13

I got this fixed. The answer for me was in that link that we all received. I thought I followed it and probably did but not with the secondary account that I wanted to add.

So this is what I did:

  1. Logout of your primary gmail account.
  2. Login to the secondary gmail account (the one you wanted to add).
  3. Go to https://accounts.google.com/b/0/DisplayUnlockCaptcha and follow the instructions on the page to allow access.
  4. Logout of this account.
  5. Log back into your primary gmail account and now try adding that second account. It should work now.
  6. You should get an email to confirm that you own that account. Make sure you login to that second account again to confirm (by clicking on the link or entering the confirmation code).

It worked perfectly for me. I have two gmail accounts synced into one now :)

Source: Can't add pop3 account in gmail account at gmail forum

Community
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Charlie Perry
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  • Fantastic. you dont need to log out of the accounts to do this now though, just switch back and forth using googles account switching feature. – Andrew May 19 '18 at 17:56
  • So, looking at the question, and looking at your answer,  I guess you’re referring to ``email1`` as “the secondary account” and `email2` as “the primary account”. – Scott - Слава Україні Mar 27 '19 at 16:02
  • This answer totally works - especially the part where you got to go to the UnlockCaptcha link. Give it a go – Husain Khambaty Feb 16 '20 at 04:29