Google Workspace and Outlook with POP Mail

Last year, Google announced that they were removing the “allow less secure apps” option. As of May 1 2025, “allow less secure apps” is disabled in accounts that were still using it.

Affected users will receive this error message in Outlook: Task 'user@gmail.com - Receiving' reported error (0x800CCC92): 'Your email server rejected your login. Verify your username and password for this account in Account Settings. The server responded: -ERR [AUTH] Username and password not accepted."

If you have the account added as POP and receive this error, you need to use an app password to sign in. If you do not have two-step verification enabled, you will need to enable it to create an app password.

While Google says “Third-party email apps that are no longer supported include Microsoft Outlook and the mail app on iOS and MacOS” its not entirely true. You can still use apps that don't support oAuth2 but will need to enable 2-step verification and use an app password in place of your real password. This applies to all versions of Outlook when the account is added as POP3 or with older versions of Outlook with the account added as IMAP. If the Google sign in screen does not come up after Outlook finds the account, you need to enable 2-step and use an app password.

You do not need to use 2-step verification if you are adding the account to Outlook 2016 (retail version), 2019, 2021, 2024 and classic Outlook in the Microsoft 365 subscription.

Provided the email admin did not disable the option to create app passwords, you can create an app password in account settings, at https://myaccount.google.com/u/0/apppasswords

To enable 2-step verification, go to https://myaccount.google.com/security. You should have at least three methods of authentication.

The “allow less secure apps” option was removed from personal accounts several years ago. Using 2-step verification and an app password works with those accounts too.