Knowledge Base

How do I fix email error message "Help: EInformationalException:SMTP server error. Your SMTP server (smtp.gmail.com) returned: 535 Username and Password not accepted." ?

Question

I’m receiving error "Help: EInformationalException:SMTP server error. Your SMTP server (smtp.gmail.com) returned: 535 Username and Password not accepted." What can I do to fix it?

Solution

The "535 Username and Password not accepted" error message usually means that the credentials are not quite correct. We recommend double-checking your password as well as your user name. With Gmail, your SMTP username needs to be your complete email address (example: username@gmail.com). Here is what your credentials for Gmail should look like:

• Return Address: username@gmail.com
• SMTP server: smtp.gmail.com
• Port for TLS/STARTTLS: 587
• Requires Authentication: Yes
• SMTP Server Username: username@gmail.com
• SMTP Server Password: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
• STARTTLS: Yes (if available)

Here is Gmail's guide to using SMTP.

If you've checked your credentials and are sure that they're correct, then you may need to look into the administrator settings for your Google account. Specifically, if your account has "Less secure apps" enabled which means it can use apps that don't use OAuth 2.0. If you can't enable it using the previous link you may need to get in touch with your Gsuite administrator to see if they can enable this for your account.

Note: If you're using 2-step authentication you cannot use "less secure apps".

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