Google has announced that it will stop supporting outdated protocols to connect to Google Workspace, such as Caldav, Carddav, IMAP, and Pop, as well as Google Sync. This decision means that third-party applications that rely solely on passwords to access Google accounts will no longer be able to connect. The company made this announcement in its blog WorkSpace updates.
According to Google, these outdated protocols posed an additional risk to users as they involved transferring Google account information to third-party applications and devices, potentially leading to unauthorized access to the account. In order to protect users, the decision was made to discontinue support for these protocols. Users who continue to use these old protocols will lose access to their accounts.
Instead of the outdated protocols, Google is recommending the use of “Sign in with Google,” which is based on the OAUTH security standard. OAUTH, as explained in Microsoft documentation, restricts the access of external applications or services to user data with specific permissions.
How to Respond to the Changes
For users still using old clients like Outlook prior to 2016, Google advises upgrading to Microsoft 365 or downloading the current versions of Outlook for Windows or Mac. This process involves first creating a backup of emails in .pst format and then importing them into the new client.
Those connecting Google accounts through applications on iOS or MacOS will need to delete and re-add their accounts to enable OAUTH. Instructions for connecting an account on Mac can be found on Apple’s support page.
For other email clients such as Thunderbird, users will also need to reconnect their Google accounts and configure the use of IMAP with OAUTH. Detailed configuration instructions can be found on the support pages of the respective applications, such as