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App is stuck on white screen when choosing option to connect gmail #1067

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flordagirl opened this issue Jul 16, 2021 · 10 comments
Open

App is stuck on white screen when choosing option to connect gmail #1067

flordagirl opened this issue Jul 16, 2021 · 10 comments
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@kurahaupo @ccatlett1984
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duplicate xoauth problems caused by lack of approval to use "sensitive" Gmail API

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@flordagirl
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flordagirl commented Jul 16, 2021 •
edited by kurahaupo

[edited by @kurahaupo]
Before you report your issue, please consider perusing the FAQ and searching the issues page to see if it has already been reported.

Expected behaviour:

app is supposed to connect to Gmail

Actual behaviour:

app is stuck on screen with a white box with a yellow and green spinning circle after choosing the option to connect to Gmail.

Steps to reproduce the behaviour:

open app, Tap to connect your Gmail account. Select the Google account you want to connect. Tap 'ok'.

Please specify the following:

  • Android version: 9
  • Phone model / brand: LG K40
  • SMS Backup+ version installed: 1.5.11
  • Messaging app: n/a
@kurahaupo
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@flordagirl please clarify, which method are you using to connect to Gmail? Have you set up IMAP access?

@kurahaupo kurahaupo added duplicate xoauth problems caused by lack of approval to use "sensitive" Gmail API labels Jul 19, 2021
@kurahaupo kurahaupo self-assigned this Jul 19, 2021
@ccatlett1984
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Xoauth2 is no longer supported by Google, you have to use smtp.
Get the beta version from the play store ( join the beta from the app page in the store).

@kurahaupo kurahaupo reopened this Jul 21, 2021
@flordagirl
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Xoauth2 is no longer supported by Google, you have to use smtp.
Get the beta version from the play store ( join the beta from the app page in the store).

I have no idea what "Xoauth2" is. Could you please post a screenshot of what the app looks like in the Play Store?

@flordagirl
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@flordagirl please clarify, which method are you using to connect to Gmail? Have you set up IMAP access?

I already tried Edge. Didn't work. Probably did set up IMAP, not sure. Please list steps to set up IMAP.

@ajhepple
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Hi @flordagirl, there are other discussions about the Google authorisation issue, some of which describe how to set up IMAP access. Also, there is an article at Android Police that many people find useful.

@flordagirl
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flordagirl commented Jul 21, 2021 via email

@kurahaupo
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@flordagirl It's quicker for me to type out the instructions than to go and find which page gives the best answer:

  1. You need to switch the email access method from XOAuth to IMAP. Although you can do this with all versions, the built-in instructions are much clearer in the 1.6β release; however you need to join the beta program on Google Play to get access to that version. Note: if you stay with the non-beta version 1.5.11, all the setting and options are still present, but they are arranged differently, so it might take you a while to find them.
  2. While you wait for that to take effect, go into your Google account settings and create an app password. Write it down so you can type it into SMS Backup+ later.
    1. it's a secure method of bypassing two-factor authentication; because
    2. it only grants access to read and deposit messages in Gmail; and
    3. it is a random 16-character string, not your regular password, and you're never going to type it again once you've set up SMS Backup+, which means it's extremely unlikely to get stolen. If you ever lose the device that has that password recorded in it, you can just revoke it. You should always make a separate app password per-app, per-device; do not use the same app password for multiple apps (even on the same device), and do not use the same app password on multiple devices (even for the same app).
  3. In the app, go to Advanced settings (bottom of main screen), then at the bottom under Legacy settings, make sure that Connect to your Gmail account is off, and that Authentication is set to IMAP username/password.
  4. Go back to the main screen, and then to IMAP settings, and set:
    • Server address: imap.gmail.com:993;
    • Username: your.address@gmail.com;
    • Password: the app password from the previous step;
    • Security: TLS;
    • Trust all certificates: off.
  5. Go back to the main screen, then to Backup settings.
    • Make sure that Maximum number of items per backup is set to All. (Note: any other setting will prevent the app from working, because of changes that Google recently made to Android.)
    • I suggest choosing your own Gmail label / IMAP folder name, as this will create as this will be the label for all messages that are backed up. Personally I use many phones and multiple SIMs with different phone numbers, so I like to include those in this label, like SMS/nokia-c1+/+12345678901; however that's really up to you.
    • Browse around the other options and adjust to your preferences. (My personal guideline is to include as much information as possible - I can ignore it if I don't need it, but if it's not stored, I can't go back and re-create it later. You can change these settings later if decide you don't need to save so much.)
  6. Go back to the main screen and tap BACKUP to trigger an immediate backup. If it does back up some messages, you should be able to see them in Gmail within the label you created in step 5.

That's all. If it fails to back up any messages, please let me know.

@flordagirl
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flordagirl commented Jul 31, 2021 via email

@hannasm
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hannasm commented Sep 19, 2021

@kurahaupo This walk-through is gold. Maybe it should go in the README and/or FAQ somewhere? It seems like the XOAuth2 option should be removed from the UI completely as well but that's probably for a separate ticket

@flordagirl
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flordagirl commented Nov 1, 2021 •
edited

@flordagirl It's quicker for me to type out the instructions than to go and find which page gives the best answer:

  1. You need to switch the email access method from XOAuth to IMAP. Although you can do this with all versions, the built-in instructions are much clearer in the 1.6β release; however you need to join the beta program on Google Play to get access to that version. Note: if you stay with the non-beta version 1.5.11, all the setting and options are still present, but they are arranged differently, so it might take you a while to find them.

  2. While you wait for that to take effect, go into your Google account settings and create an app password. Write it down so you can type it into SMS Backup+ later.

    1. it's a secure method of bypassing two-factor authentication; because
    2. it only grants access to read and deposit messages in Gmail; and
    3. it is a random 16-character string, not your regular password, and you're never going to type it again once you've set up SMS Backup+, which means it's extremely unlikely to get stolen. If you ever lose the device that has that password recorded in it, you can just revoke it. You should always make a separate app password per-app, per-device; do not use the same app password for multiple apps (even on the same device), and do not use the same app password on multiple devices (even for the same app).

  3. In the app, go to Advanced settings (bottom of main screen), then at the bottom under Legacy settings, make sure that Connect to your Gmail account is off, and that Authentication is set to IMAP username/password.

  4. Go back to the main screen, and then to IMAP settings, and set:

    • Server address: imap.gmail.com:993;
    • Username: your.address@gmail.com;
    • Password: the app password from the previous step;
    • Security: TLS;
    • Trust all certificates: off.

  5. Go back to the main screen, then to Backup settings.

    • Make sure that Maximum number of items per backup is set to All. (Note: any other setting will prevent the app from working, because of changes that Google recently made to Android.)
    • I suggest choosing your own Gmail label / IMAP folder name, as this will create as this will be the label for all messages that are backed up. Personally I use many phones and multiple SIMs with different phone numbers, so I like to include those in this label, like SMS/nokia-c1+/+12345678901; however that's really up to you.
    • Browse around the other options and adjust to your preferences. (My personal guideline is to include as much information as possible - I can ignore it if I don't need it, but if it's not stored, I can't go back and re-create it later. You can change these settings later if decide you don't need to save so much.)

  6. Go back to the main screen and tap BACKUP to trigger an immediate backup. If it does back up some messages, you should be able to see them in Gmail within the label you created in step 5.

That's all. If it fails to back up any messages, please let me know.

YAYYYYYY OMG. Finally after over a year of the app not working for me, and spending hours upon hours searching through solutions that did not work, your steps worked!! Thank you!!!

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@kurahaupo kurahaupo

@ccatlett1984 ccatlett1984

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duplicate xoauth problems caused by lack of approval to use "sensitive" Gmail API
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@kurahaupo @hannasm @ccatlett1984 @ajhepple @flordagirl