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gmail keeps locking out outlook access

Gmail uses port 995 and 465 for sending and receiving email from outlook. Due to a firewall config problem port 995 was blocked for several days. While it was blocked a number of new gmail accounts were setup but users could obviosuly not get out. When port 995 was enabled again the new gmail accounts could still not receive email and kept prompting for credentials. Gmail accounts that were setup some time ago worked fine.

When I login to one of the gmail accounts that is not working via the browser outlook then starts to work again. If I go to gmail and look at account activity I can see account disabled entries with location set as unknown. There seems to be something in gmail causing the accounts to not be accessible from outlook until you login through a browser. This keeps happening to these same accounts. Any ideas what this might be?

gurutc

This was very likely due to partial authentication or session attempts by the Outlook clients. An excessive number of failures will lock the account. I'm guessing this is especially going to happen for new accounts that never get a successful auth via Outlook.

Probably has to get a successful authentication at least once before it's gonna work.

- gurutc

Sid_F

ASKER

Yes I understand about the initial authentication issue. This problem is not related to that as clients have been working fine but then stop working and have to login through ie where it appears some sort of enabling the account occurs again and they can use outlook again until the next day when it starts again.

gurutc

Are you using POP or IMAP?

- gurutc

gurutc

looks like imap. what url are you using?

does imap.googlemail.com port 993 - ssl access - work?

- gurutc

gurutc

How often are your Outlook clients setup to check email? More than once per 10 minutes?

- gurutc

gurutc

also for ssl smtp use port 465.

gurutc

Also, are the new accounts configured with what Google considers to be a 'strong' password?

- gurutc

Sid_F

ASKER

Using pop and as mentioned in op 465 and 995 enabled. Password is similar to David123 the same password is being used on all accounts at present as it's teacher student setup. Send and receive frequency is outlook default. To be honest it's not something I checked as I'm sure gmail settings would have mentioned this if outlook default setting was too high

gurutc

That password is not a strong one. Also, the defaults on pop connections, you can find it under More Settings, Advanced Server Timeouts is 1 minute but 5 is recommended. Enable SSL for pop and TLS for SMTP and they're recommending using port 587 for SMTP.

Hoping,
- gurutc

Sid_F

ASKER

I understand your recommendations but there is something else at play as other accounts are ok and have the same settings. It's specifically why gmail keeps saying account disabled in the activity

gurutc

Would you be open to using or trying IMAP? I use that from Outlook to gmail and it works more reliably. Also, you're don't have a situation where the same account is being checked from multiple pcs at the same time right?

- gurutc.

Sid_F

ASKER

We have created 15 new accounts to get around this but I am confused as to what could be happening.

gurutc

So it was just a group of accounts that had the issue, and creating new replacement ones fixed it?

Very strange. What version of Outlook?

- gurutc

Sid_F

ASKER

Outlook 2007 yes very strange as mentioned in the activity for these accounts I could see account disabled and location unknown

Sid_F

ASKER

All I really need to find out is why in recent activity is says account disabled with a grey wrench symbol beside is and location listed as unknown.... I can't click on anything to get further info. Does anyone know if I can raise this with some type of support?

gurutc

The best and maybe only way to get help from Google is to go to their forums.

Here's the URL for their Gmail Help Forum:

The Google GMail Forum

Their techs cruise these forums for issues and to support users.

But I'd try setting up the accounts as IMAP accounts also.

- gurutc

gurutc

Also it may be related to the 2 step verification. This link explains how to turn that off:

Turn off GMail 2 Step Verification

- gurutc

Sid_F

ASKER

Yes 2 step is already off by default. Imap is not an option as it also opens up its own problems with how mail is laid out in outlook. It requires extra steps on each account. I will check the forums and see what comes back

gurutc

I'm still searching hard for an answer too. I really think your David123 password type isn't strong enough. But if that's working for others then I don't know. Have you looked at setting up an application password? That's part of the 2 step process that, if enabled, might work.

Are your users also using smartphones to check the accounts?

- gurutc

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Resolved with work around