Google Cloud Platform – Fix Authentication Issues with GCloud

After setting up the gcloud cli months ago on my Mac and it working without issue, a few days ago gcloud generated an error because it said I was not authenticated. I ran gcloud auth login which was successful and no error generated. But, any subsequent gcloud command failed with an error. For example:

gcloud projects list
ERROR: (gcloud.projects.list) UNAUTHENTICATED: Request is missing required authentication credential. Expected OAuth 2 access token, login cookie or other valid authentication credential. See https://developers.google.com/identity/sign-in/web/devconsole-project.

I then revoked my credentials, backed up my ~/.config/gcloud/ directory and then removed it to attempt to start fresh with gcloud init. The first part of gcloud init succeeds and I get the "You are now authenticated with the Google Cloud SDK!" web page but the subsequent step that prompts you to set a default project fails with this error:

You are logged in as: [bboles@example.com].

WARNING: Listing available projects failed: HttpError accessing <https://cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com/v1/projects?alt=json&filter=lifecycleState%3AACTIVE&pageSize=201>: response: <{'www-authenticate': 'Bearer realm="https://accounts.google.com/"', 'vary': 'Origin, X-Origin, Referer', 'content-type': 'application/json; charset=UTF-8', 'content-encoding': 'gzip', 'date': 'Wed, 23 Jun 2021 21:15:37 GMT', 'server': 'ESF', 'cache-control': 'private', 'x-xss-protection': '0', 'x-frame-options': 'SAMEORIGIN', 'x-content-type-options': 'nosniff', 'server-timing': 'gfet4t7; dur=20', 'alt-svc': 'h3=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-29=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-T051=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-Q050=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-Q046=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-Q043=":443"; ma=2592000,quic=":443"; ma=2592000; v="46,43"', 'transfer-encoding': 'chunked', 'status': 401}>, content <{
  "error": {
    "code": 401,
    "message": "Request is missing required authentication credential. Expected OAuth 2 access token, login cookie or other valid authentication credential. See https://developers.google.com/identity/sign-in/web/devconsole-project.",
    "status": "UNAUTHENTICATED"
  }
}
>
Enter project id you would like to use:

The issue is not with my account. I can login successfully on another machine and via gcloud in docker. I also created a new local account on my Mac and was able to setup gcloud successfully with the same Google account. I am at a loss as to what could be causing the issue at this point. All that I know is that it is something specific to my regular, daily use environment in my local account on my Mac.

Here are the steps I have tried that have been unsuccessful in getting gcloud to work again:

• Change my shell from bash back to zsh.
• Downloaded the gcloud archive that includes a python interpreter.
• Ran gcloud init after following the uninstall directions.
• Compared the contents of ~/.config/gcloud/ on a working machine with what is in the same dir on my non-working local account, including what is in the sqlite files (nothing jumps out as missing/broken).
• Running gcloud init and using a different browser.
• Running gcloud init --console-only.
• Running gcloud init in a shell with with my .bash_profile removed so none of my shell customizations would be a factor.

If I had to guess what caused the issue was something new I installed or a regular update to an existing tool. I have reviewed anything that was updated to see what the culprit may be but did not find anything substantial.

Any additional avenues I can use to further debug or any method I can use to "reset" anything that gcloud may touch would be greatly appreciated!

Relevant gcloud info output:

Google Cloud SDK [346.0.0]

Platform: [Mac OS X, x86_64] uname_result(system='Darwin', node='Brandons-MacBook-Pro.local', release='19.6.0', version='Darwin Kernel Version 19.6.0: Thu May  6 00:48:39 PDT 2021; root:xnu-6153.141.33~1/RELEASE_X86_64', machine='x86_64', processor='i386')
Locale: ('en_US', 'UTF-8')
Python Version: [3.8.8 (default, Mar 22 2021, 17:49:45)  [Clang 11.0.3 (clang-1103.0.32.62)]]
Python Location: [/Users/bboles/.pyenv/versions/3.8.8/bin/python3]
Site Packages: [Disabled]

Installation Root: [/Users/bboles/tools/google-cloud-sdk]
Installed Components:
  gsutil: [4.63]
  core: [2021.06.18]
  bq: [2.0.69]
System PATH: [/Users/bboles/.pyenv/versions/3.8.8/bin:/usr/local/Cellar/pyenv/2.0.1/libexec:/usr/local/Cellar/pyenv/2.0.1/plugins/python-build/bin:/Users/bboles/.rbenv/shims:/Users/bboles/.rbenv/bin:/Users/bboles/.pyenv/shims:/Users/bboles/.pyenv/bin:/Users/bboles/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/MacGPG2/bin:/usr/local/share/dotnet:~/.dotnet/tools:/Library/Apple/usr/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Mono.framework/Versions/Current/Commands:/Users/bboles/tools/google-cloud-sdk/bin:/Users/bboles/.rbenv/shims:/Users/bboles/.rbenv/bin:/Users/bboles/.pyenv/shims:/Users/bboles/.pyenv/bin:/Users/bboles/bin:/usr/local/opt/mysql-client/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/opt/mysql-client/bin]
Python PATH: [/Users/bboles/tools/google-cloud-sdk/lib/third_party:/Users/bboles/tools/google-cloud-sdk/lib:/Users/bboles/.pyenv/versions/3.8.8/lib/python38.zip:/Users/bboles/.pyenv/versions/3.8.8/lib/python3.8:/Users/bboles/.pyenv/versions/3.8.8/lib/python3.8/lib-dynload]
Cloud SDK on PATH: [True]
Kubectl on PATH: [/usr/local/bin/kubectl]

Installation Properties: [/Users/bboles/tools/google-cloud-sdk/properties]
User Config Directory: [/Users/bboles/.config/gcloud]
Active Configuration Name: [default]
Active Configuration Path: [/Users/bboles/.config/gcloud/configurations/config_default]

Account: [bboles@example.com]
Project: [None]

Current Properties:
  [core]
    account: [bboles@example.com]
    disable_usage_reporting: [True]

Logs Directory: [/Users/bboles/.config/gcloud/logs]
Last Log File: [/Users/bboles/.config/gcloud/logs/2021.06.23/16.05.57.047852.log]

git: [git version 2.32.0]
ssh: [OpenSSH_8.1p1, LibreSSL 2.7.3]