Unable to send a test email: Bad email username or password

Post date: 07-Apr-2016 19:16:27

If you receive the following error while testing your Gmail settings in Taximeter:

Unable to send a test email: Bad email username or password

and you are confident that you are using the correct <user>@gmail.com username and password, then head over to Account Security Settings (https://www.google.com/settings/security/lesssecureapps) for the Gmail account in question and enable "Access for less secure apps".  This allows you to use the Google SMTP mail server for clients other than the official ones and would appear to resolve this issue.  Note that Taximeter securely connects to the Gmail SMTP server on port 465 using a TLS encrypted link.  You may have to wait up to an hour for the setting to take effect as it is rolled out across Google's infrastructure.

If your Google account has 2-Step Verification enabled, you can generate an application-specific password here, https://myaccount.google.com/apppasswords.

From May 30, 2022, Google no longer supports the use of less secure apps.  To continue using a Gmail account to send email from Taximeter, enable 2-Step Verification and generate an App Password for use within the app (see https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833 for more information).