Using GMail's App Passwords With Paperless-NGX

I saw some errors in my paperless-ngx logs recently:

[2022-11-09 15:33:13,556] [ERROR] [paperless_mail] 
  Error while authenticating account paperless gmail: 
    Response status "OK" expected, but "NO" received. 
    Data: [b'[AUTHENTICATIONFAILED] Invalid credentials (Failure)']

After doing some digging, I discovered the following that will be affecting a lot of Paperless-ngx users with dedicated gmail accounts for ingress.

As of 30/05/2022, Google stopped supporting the Less Secure Apps mode which was often used to enable Paperless-NG to work with GMail via IMAP. Now, you need to enable 2FA and then generate an App Password (with instructions here). This password is then used within paperless-ngx like the account password previously.

For more guidance on how to set up Paperless-ngx with automated email ingress and rules, have a look at my other articles

• Paperless-ng On Raspberry Pi With Email And Samba
• Upgrading from Paperless-NG to Paperless-NGX
• Scheduling Backups To OneDrive For Paperless-ng Using RClone

Tips

1. Make sure to select Mail as the app type. You’ll then want to select Other Custom Name for the device type.
2. Make sure to use a meaningful name
3. The app password is only ever shown once so make sure to copy it there and then. It is made up of 16 characters. DO NOT SHARE OR RE-USE THIS PASSWORD

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