The discussion revolves around a POP3 polling issue in Discourse, where email-in and reply-by-email features stopped working. Users brianmcdonald, pelcami, and alexknowshtml report that re-enabling POP3 polling results in authentication failures. Debugging steps include checking server credentials, verifying SSL settings, and testing with net/pop in the Rails console. zogstrip suggests checking username/password and confirming Google account settings, noting that Google may have blocked polling from the server’s IP. pelcami received a suspicious email from Google indicating a possible security alert, suggesting that Google may have flagged the account. gerhard and pfaffman advise updating Discourse, but users confirm they are on the latest version. The issue appears to be related to Google’s security policies, possibly due to 2-step authentication or account verification requirements. bck055 also reports the same problem, indicating it may be widespread.
Hi all, I had been using the email-in and reply-by-email features and they were working well for a few months until they suddenly stopped working.
I suspected that the polling period was too frequent and google may have blocked my install.
I reset the email settings, created a new google apps email and double checked the “allow less-secure apps settings” etc but to no avail.
My problem is now that when I re-click pop3 polling enabled it gives an error “POP3 authentication failed. Please verify your pop3 credentials.” even though the credentials are correct and SSL is enabled.
Any ideas on what may be the problem? I tested pop3 polling from my laptop(not the discourse server yet) and it accepted the polling without any problem which makes me suspect that the settings I place in the admin settings section are not being applied properly. Any support would be much appreciated.
root@localhost-app:/# rails c
You are running an old version of bundler, please upgrade bundler ASAP, if you are using Discourse docker, rebuild your container.
[1] pry(main)> require "net/pop"
=> false
[2] pry(main)> require "net/pop"
=> false
[3] pry(main)> pop3 = Net::POP3.new("pop.gmail.com", 995)
=> #<Net::POP3 pop.gmail.com:995 open=false>
[4] pry(main)> pop3.enable_ssl
=> 995
[5] pry(main)> pop3.auth_only("replies@southsudanngoforum.org", "*******")
Net::POPAuthenticationError: -ERR [AUTH] Username and password not accepted.
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/2.0.0/net/pop.rb:1005:in `check_response_auth'
[6] pry(main)>
In the admin settings page all POP3 related boxes are selected except pop3 polling enabled as it gives an error.
Could the problem be associated with the old version of bundler mentioned. Should I run ./launcher rebuild app?
The bundle issue is not related. The error is coming from the username/password. Can you log in with these on the webmail? Make sure that Google hasn’t blocked a connection coming from another location (ie. where your server is hosted).
Login to webmail using these credentials works fine.
It may be possible that for some reason google has begun blocked polling from my discourse server’s IP address.
Is there a way to get google to remove this block? Allow less secure apps is already selected as are the unblocking steps shown in other threads here.
@brianmcdonald, I realize you may not have the same setup, but I too had a situation when the setup looks good, but on re-click “pop3 polling enabled” it gives the “POP3 authentication failed” error.
I have a https only site setup with Google Authentication working on a different machine a few days ago. Today, on a different server with same setup, something seems to have changed on the Google side. When I re-click “pop3 polling enabled” it gives the error "POP3 authentication failed. In the inbox of the POP3 account I was using, I received an email from Google containing this message:
I clicked the “Learn More” Hyperlink and it took me to a place that lets me configure the POP account to use “Access for less secure apps”. After I turned this radio button to “on”. Authentication worked.
