OAuth2 Re-authorization Fails

[jmjsquared]

Greetings Jeff,

For several weeks now, POP Peeper Pro 4.5.3.0 repeatedly "loses" authorization to access several webmail and private IMAP accounts. he private IMAP accounts re-authorize normally. However, my webmail accounts, especially GMail, refuse to re-authorize.

I go through the normal steps; namely:
1. Click the "OAuth2" button.
2. Enter the correct password.
3. Click to "... allow POP Peeper";
4. Try to copy the code provided by Gmail to post into POP Peeper (which is something new);
5. Whereupon POP Peeper freezes for ~60 seconds and closes the Gmail dialogue window, without updating the OAuth2 credentials.

The subject accounts remain inaccessible via POP Peeper. Using its web interface, I have created "App-specific" passwords in Gmail as a (temporary?) workaround, thinking that some change in Gmail was causing the issue and that you would address it sooner or later.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks & regards.

[Jeff]

There's a couple things you mentioned that I have some questions about:

> Try to copy the code provided by Gmail to post into POP Peeper (which is something new);

That doesn't exist in POP Peeper v4.5.3. That's only in v5.0. So are you actually using v4.5.3 or v5.0?


> "loses" authorization to access several webmail and private IMAP accounts.

Is this specifically Oauth2 or normal password type of accounts, too? The mention of "webmail" and "private imap" suggests you mean regular password accounts, so I'll presume that's what you meant, but that seems to be very different than the Oauth procedure you mentioned.

So, my guess at this point, based on the information you've provided, you probably have 2 separate issues:

1) POP Peeper isn't saving the data that you change. So if you update a password, it may work until you've exited and restarted PP, at which point it reloads your old data. This can be tested by changing something minor (ie. the size/position of the main window) and then exit and restart PP to see if the change you made was as you left it before exiting. (this would explain why passwords you update work until sometime later)

2) Something may be blocking POP Peeper's access using http/https. From the main menu, select File / Error overview and press "web test" and you should quickly get a "server response: 200". Something else may indicate you have a software firewall or something else blocking POP Peeper. (this would explain the problem with Oauth2)


Let us know the results of these 2 tests and we'll go from there.

[jmjsquared]

Thanks for the "instant" reply.

PROBLEM SOLVED: It was my firewall, which, apparently, magically and intermittently started blocking some features of POP Peeper and/or OAuth.

However, FYI:

> Try to copy the code provided by Gmail to post into POP Peeper (which is something new);

That doesn't exist in POP Peeper v4.5.3. That's only in v5.0. So are you actually using v4.5.3 or v5.0?

<<< This does exist in version 4.5.3 , although I had never encountered it before. That's why I supposed a Gmail change triggered my issue, and asked for your advice.

> "loses" authorization to access several webmail and private IMAP accounts.

Is this specifically Oauth2 or normal password type of accounts, too? The mention of "webmail" and "private imap" suggests you mean regular password accounts, so I'll presume that's what you meant, but that seems to be very different than the Oauth procedure you mentioned.

<<< Pardon any confusion: I mean that, the problem occurred with Gmail, which I thought is a "webmail" service; as well as with two private-domain email accounts which retained the re-OAuth-ing. I access both type accounts using POP Peeper's IMAP and OAuth functionalities.

So, my guess at this point, based on the information you've provided, you probably have 2 separate issues:

1) POP Peeper isn't saving the data that you change. So if you update a password, it may work until you've exited and restarted PP, at which point it reloads your old data. This can be tested by changing something minor (ie. the size/position of the main window) and then exit and restart PP to see if the change you made was as you left it before exiting. (this would explain why passwords you update work until sometime later)

2) Something may be blocking POP Peeper's access using http/https. From the main menu, select File / Error overview and press "web test" and you should quickly get a "server response: 200". Something else may indicate you have a software firewall or something else blocking POP Peeper. (this would explain the problem with Oauth2)


Let us know the results of these 2 tests and we'll go from there.
[/quote]

No need to go further, Jeff. I temporarily disabled my firewall, re-OAuth-ed a problem Gmail account seamlessly. I re-enabled the firewall, tested re-OAuth-ing on a second, problem GMail account and all went well. I didn't even see that "..copy the code.." message.

Thanks again for the quick assistance.

--John

ASIDE: Can I "safely" install Version 5 over my current 4.5.3 at this time or should I do a clean-install?

[Jeff]

PROBLEM SOLVED: It was my firewall, which, apparently, magically and intermittently started blocking some features of POP Peeper and/or OAuth.

Glad to hear it was resolved.

This does exist in version 4.5.3

Well, it's possible that you were provided a code by Gmail, but what I meant is that POP Peeper v4 isn't equipped to handle a manual input (v5 *does* allow manual input). In v4, POP Peeper is meant to automatically extract that code and will then close the window. Your firewall must have been interfering to prevent that from happening and so you may have seen a little bit behind the curtains when it didn't work as expected.

Pardon any confusion: I mean that, the problem occurred with Gmail, which I thought is a "webmail" service; as well as with two private-domain email accounts which retained the re-OAuth-ing. I access both type accounts using POP Peeper's IMAP and OAuth functionalities.

No worries. From the perspective of POP Peeper, "WebMail" refers to specific protocols to retrieve email that don't use IMAP or POP3 (ie. if you look at the dropdown list for "server type" when you edit an account, you may see "Hotmail/Outlook" and "Yahoo" etc, which are the "WebMail" protocols). There is (now defunct) a WebMail protocol that supports Gmail, but the way that the "Gmail" protocol and the "Imap" protocol access your Gmail account are very different from each other, which is why the distinction is important. Of course, you then throw "OAuth2" in the mix (which is only supported by a very limited number of Imap servers) and it complicates things even more.

No need to go further, Jeff. I temporarily disabled my firewall, re-OAuth-ed a problem Gmail account seamlessly. I re-enabled the firewall, tested re-OAuth-ing on a second, problem GMail account and all went well. I didn't even see that "..copy the code.." message.

Hopefully it stays that way. It does concern me that it didn't prompt you for permission, but I haven't used a 3rd party firewall in a decade or two, so my personal knowledge of how they're supposed to work is a little dated.

ASIDE: Can I "safely" install Version 5 over my current 4.5.3 at this time or should I do a clean-install?

You can install v5 over v4.5.3.