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Server denied POP3 access for the given username and password. [SOLVED]

by Howard B. Richman

“Server denied POP3 access for the given username and password.” This is the frustrating error message when you see when you are attempting to set up a pop account with gmail. Another part of the error is: “Server returned error: “[AUTH] Authentication failed.”

This is when you are attempting to set things up FROM your gmail account to “fetch” or to “check” email from another domain.

I Tried “Everything!”

I spent about 4 hours on a Sunday dealing with this while setting up a fetch email for a client. I was SURE I had the right configuration. I tinkered with the SSL settings and the port settings and the server settings and the username settings and the password. Yes, I even changed the password several times and NOTHING WORKED.

Here is the Solution

The host my client is hosted on is hostgator and their c-panel has this nifty feature called “generate password.” These passwords are super strong and include weird characters like: “{%^*}.(_)” to mention a few. So on a whim, I attempted to change the password to the email account I was attempting to set up (within the c-panel of THAT account) ONE MORE TIME. but this time I made is super simple, non-complicated using just letters and numbers and NO STRANGE CHARACTERS!!!!! WOW. When I saved that password and then entered it into the little box within my gmail settings IT WORKED!!!

I’m mentioning Hostgator just so you see how I came to the conclusion. But I’m aware that most hosts that use the c-panel interface also have the “generate password” button so I suspect that my solution will work for other hosts as well.

I’m posting here just because I had the feeling that others might be suffering with the same situation and I wanted to share what I discovered. You would think that it would be the opposite but apparently, google/gmail likes simple passwords or the “fetch mail” feature cannot be set up.

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