We recently came across an issue when Authentication would not work when configuring Microsoft Outlook 2016 to connect to a client's Gmail account.

We'd never encountered this before but noticed a new couple of extra lines in the Set up Gmail with Outlook, Apple Mail, or other mail clients google page

In the ongoing war-of-words between Google and Microsoft, Google has deemed Microsoft Outlook to be a “Less Secure App” and Gmail users are being forced to access this page and grant access for less secure apps such as Microsoft Outlook

Google even go as far as taking a swipe at Apple and Mozilla by quoting the following:

“Some examples of apps that do not support the latest security standards include:

• The Mail app on your iPhone or iPad with iOS 6 or below
• The Mail app on your Windows phone preceding the 8.1 release
• Some Desktop mail clients like Microsoft Outlook and Mozilla Thunderbird”

..in an article called “Allowing less secure apps to access your account”

So if you suddenly stop being able to access your Gmail e-mail using Microsoft Outlook, then you know why and how to fix the issue.

:jk: