Google 2FA Frustration

[nickyr]

Hi everyone

I just upgraded to a new iPhone and have run into a brick wall trying to set up my Gmail account. All my other Google account elements (YouTube, my Google account, etc.) are set up just fine but not my Gmail account.

The problem seems to lie with their 2 factor authentication.

I get the prompt on my iPad to confirm that it's me trying to sign in and this works OK. But soon my phone the app is stuck with a spinning wheel and the caption "one moment please..." on the screen. So I tried doing the 2FA via a text to my phone and after confirming my number, well no text ever arrives!

I've deleted Gmail from my list of mail accounts and re-installed it, but the same thing happens. I can access my mail on both my computers and my iPad with no issues. Any help greatly appreciated!

Nick

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Disable 2FA on Gmail. Set up the account, re-enable 2FA.

 

[nickyr]

thanks Ashwin. Tried that and it's now going straight to the spinning circle screen and hanging there. seems it isn't a 2FA issue at all and something else maybe?

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Well shucks. So much for my quick and dirty solution. How long have it let it sit there spinning? You might want to try another device just as a frame of reference to see how it works now.

 

[lclev]

I am going to assume you have installed the latest update to iOS. You should have iOS 17.0.2 installed. With that done try reading this article. There are some good suggestion. I have found gmail can be the biggest pain to get setup - 2F or not.

Fixed: Gmail Not Working on iPhone (2023)
(BTW: this article has been update for 2023)

Lisa

 

[nickyr]

thank you both

Ashwin - it just sits there and spins for hours. I'm reluctant to sign out on another device in case I get the same problems trying to sign back in

Lisa - thanks for the article. tried everything there to no avail (it seems the first option (captcha) is no longe available)

I'll probably have to just instal the Gmail app which will be a [ain as I have all my other email accounts to hand in Mail.

edited to add - yes I'm on 17.0.2. it was the first thing I was prompted to do on turning the phone on out of the box!

 

[Raz0rEdge]

I would suggest you install the Gmail app, if nothing, to confirm that it does indeed connect on that device. If it does, then the issue is with mail and we'll have to look further as to why.

Since I only have Gmail accounts, I do use just the Gmail app.

 

[Rod]

I have a Gmail account which works fine with Apple Mail on my iPhone running iOS 17.2 Of course I had it years before the most recent iOS upgrade and things have changed a bit security wise since then but it does prove there's no reason why it shouldn't work on a new device. I assume this is what you are trying to do, please correct me if I’m wrong.
If so I’m a bit confused. What app are you referring to when you talk about “signing in"?
If you are just adding Gmail to your accounts you do that on the Mail > Accounts > Add account page in settings. What puzzles me is this should already be present assuming you did a wireless setup from your old phone, restored it from your iCloud backup or restored it from a computer backup.

 

[IWT]

If you are just adding Gmail to your accounts you do that on the Mail > Accounts > Add account page in settings.

@nickyr

I'm with Rod on this. My 85 year old buddy of mine recently got the iPhone 14 and because his old iPhone was a 5, we couldn't do a Phone-to-Phone transfer, but were able to download from iCloud.

He wanted to add a Gmail account now that he had a new "toy, and the way we did it is exactly how Rod explained. No "signing in" involved. At least not in the way you described.

I understand that a "negative", as above, is not directly helpful, but it lends support to Rod's experience of how he set up his Gmail account.

Ian

 

[nickyr]

thanks again everyone. here's the full picture

old phone - iPhone 12 running iOS 17.0.1
accounts in my Apple Mail app - icloud, yahoo, gmail, AOL

new phone - iPhone Pro Max running iOS 17.0.2
set up method - via icloud back-up

When it came to accessing mail via the Apple mail app, I did indeed have to re-sign into all my accounts. (as an aside, I also had to sign in and go through 2FA for my Google account and my YouTube account separately)
anyway, back to mail, no issue with signing into iCloud, AOL or yahoo, but when it came to Gmail the following happened:

- user ID and password accepted
- used Google prompt as 2FA
- confirmed it was me via my iPad
- got the hanging, spinning circle screen as pictured above
- as per Ashwin's advice, I opened Gmail on my Mac
- disabled 2FA
- signed back into Gmail
- but got the same spinning circle issue (so clearly not caused by 2FA)
- I then removed the Google mail account from Apple mail app altogether and re-installed it via "add account" but same issue prevailed

I downloaded the Gmail app from the app store. Installed it and mail worked straight away with no need to sign in at all bizarrely. I guess it just accepted my ID from my Google account

Trouble is I now no longer have all my email accounts in one, easily accessed place. Also, I don't know if it's me but I just can't get on with the Gmail app.

anyway, thanks again, Nick

 

[Rod]

Yeah, I don't like it much either Nick. I have been thinking about your problem, made difficult because I've never had it myself which prompts me to ask, do you have the Google app on your iPhone?
That's this one;

 

[Rod]

The reason I ask is because for some time Google has offered the "Sign in with Google" as an option for signing in to other Google apps and services on mobile devices. It's confusing because the language used “Sign in with Google.” is ambiguous. Google what? Well they're referring to the Google App pictured in my previous post. See if this article shines any light on the problem;

Sign in with app passwords - Google Account Help

Important: App passwords aren’t recommended and are unnecessary in most cases. To help keep your account secure, use "Sign in with Google" to connect apps to your Google Account. An app password is a

support.google.com

It's just possible that because you have 2FA set up for Google you may need to create an app specific password for Mail on your iPhone but it's quite clear from my searching that this problem is a long standing one created primarily by Google themselves. There are hundreds of articles dating back to 2020 with the same problem.

I have read that resetting CAPTCHA can sometimes solve the problem, maybe worth a shot. See here;

iPhone Won’t Add Google Account - What to Do

Although iPhone has a built-in Google Account support, some users experience issues when they try to access it. Various reasons may prevent you from adding a Google account. Some concern your account and may be security-related, while other times you can blame it on a system glitch or a...

www.techjunkie.com

 

[Jimmysb]

I have a Google account, and gmail, and the password for the account is the same for mail, regardless of which device it is installed on.

 

[Glacirilla]

Disable 2FA on Gmail. Set up the account, re-enable 2FA.

Had the same problem and I did exactly as you say. Everything's fine now