Gmail IMAP Login Issues – How to Resolve ‘Please Log In Using Your Web Browser’ Error

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I've started using an organizational Gmail account (i.e. myself@myorg.org where myorg has a Google Applications subscription or whatever it is they call it).

Now, I can log in via the web and read my email and that's all fine. However, if I try to log in with IMAP (using the settings Google's support indicates), my login fails, and I get a message saying:

Alert from account myself@myorg.org@gmail.com:
Please log in via your web browser:
http://support.google.com/mail/accounts/bin/answer.py?answer=78754
(Failure)

I went there, and followed the instructions – up to "App Passwords". When I try generating an "App Password", I get a page saying:

The setting you are looking for is not available for your account.

What should I do?

Best Answer

While it may seem counter-intuitive, Google believes your IMAP client is a "less secure application" relative to your web browser. You must therefore

Allow less secure apps: If you don't use 2-Step Verification, you might need to allow less secure apps to access your account.

You should now be able to login via IMAP.