Can't send Gmail on Verizon Note 4 via the "email" app. Server Authentication Error.

[AC Question]

Just in the last 2 days, when I attempt to send email from my Gmail account on my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 4, USING the "Email" app, I get an server authentication error and the email won't send. Here's the error:

Failed to send email
Error occurred on email server. - 530-5.5.1 Authentication Required. Learn more at" [and they nicely don't provide any "at" info].

If, instead, I use the Gmail app, (I hate Gmail's interface on Android) my emails send as expected.

I tried changing my passwords, I tried restarting my phone, I googled the error message and got lots of unrelated info, I don't know what else to try. I hope somebody here can help because I'd really rather not be forced to use the Gmail interface!

Thanks!

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! What happens if you remove the Gmail account from the Email app, then add it back? Also, do you have 2-step verification turned on for the account?

 

[Florida Sue]

I don't have 2-step verification turned on. I'm not sure how to remove and re-add the Gmail account from the Email app. Can you step me through that, by any chance? Thanks!

 

[B. Diddy]

The steps might vary a bit depending on the phone, but in general:

1. Open the Email app.
2. Tap Menu>Settings.
3. Select your Gmail account.
4. Look for a Remove Account option. You might have to tap Menu again to find it.
5. Once it's removed, go through the process of adding it back again.

Thanks for registering -- when you get a chance, head over to the Introductions forum and tell us something about yourself! http://forums.androidcentral.com/introductions/

 

[Florida Sue]

I removed and re-added it. At first, during the re-add, it had a security checkbox with a password. I tried entering my Gmail password, and received another server error and could not re-add my Gmail. However, I then tried unchecking that checkbox (so the password field disappeared) and then could successfully re-add it.

Unfortunately, I tried sending email from my Email interface again, and got the same server error and was unable to send it.

Any other ideas? Or will I just have to resign myself to using the Gmail interface for my email on my phone (ugh!)?

Thanks!!!

 

[B. Diddy]

Does this happen on both wi-fi and mobile data?

 

[maildroiddev]

This would be unrelated to two factor authentication, rather it would be related to oAuth2 authentication. I am surprised the default email app does not support that. Most of the third party email clients out there (including ours) supports oAuth2 where when you click to set up the account, it redirects you to sign in via the gmail web page and asks you to allow the app that sent you to access email. This is the direction Google has been moving for all emails apps over the last 2 years. I have seen that error many times from users until they moved to the oAuth2 approach.

 

[Florida Sue]

Hi, maildroiddev. I don't know what you mean by "auth2." Is that an email app or some authentication I set up on my gmail account or ??

Can you explain how I would set this up?

I also, in my googling to try to solve this problem, found an article from several months ago that said Google was abandoning the stock email app and it was not going to continue to work for people, but that Google was not actually REMOVING it (or allowing users to remove it either). I don't know if one of the two updates I received on my Note 4 (I believe they were both Verizon updates, but don't know how all that works, so they could have been from Google, I guess) caused this problem, but I did NOT have any updates in the days right before the problem first occurred (this week).

 

[B. Diddy]

Can you confirm if this happens on both wi-fi and mobile data?

Open the Email app, tap Menu>Settings, select the Gmail account, and look for the option to edit the account settings. Edit the Outgoing (SMTP) Server settings, and see if there is a password entered. If not, enter your Google password there, and see if that works.

The stock Email app on a phone is provided by the phone manufacturer (in your case, Samsung), and not by Google. The article you read might have been pertaining to Google's own Nexus phones (which I think used to come with a stock Email app as well as the Gmail app), but now just come with Gmail (because Gmail can act as an email client app as well, allowing you to add other email accounts, including exchange accounts).

I defer to @maildroiddev, since MailDroid is a well-known email client app. They know their stuff!

 

[maildroiddev]

So oAuth2 is a new mechanism that many companies are using with their products to sign into third party apps. If you use Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Facebook, Twitter and you sign into another site, they allow you to "re-use" the credentials from those sites. You would be redirected into that company site, asked to allow certain permissions, and then that is the security "token" where you would be logging into a site but that site does not have any of your credentials, instead it has just a security token passed to it from one of the sites you already have access to (Gmail, Facebook, Yahoo etc.).

In the case of email, Gmail (and Yahoo) has been really strict. They don't want your password in the hands of another app. It just means another security hole for them. This solves that since the email app now does not need your password and instead just asks for that token from Gmail. MailDroid for example allows you to connect that way and many other third party apps also allow that now (though we are one of the few, if not the only one, that also support Yahoo and AOL as well). Gmail now will block access to those other apps unless you use this new approach OR you set on Gmail to allow "less secure access". You can read about doing that here (https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6010255?hl=en)

Hope this helps!