ON GMAIL LOCKOUT USING LEOPARD MAIL

CHOKE-POINTS

(Update below)

Techmeme is full of the installation and usage experiences people are having with Apple's Leopard upgrade today.  Thought I'd add a problem I'm having to the mix.

One of the 300 features I was most looking forward to trying out in Apple's new OS X Leopard upgrade was the new and improved Mail 3.0 client.  In particular, the new client promised to work seamlessly with popular email services like Yahoo! Mail, Google Gmail etc.  And for a person who constantly sends reminders to himself via email, I waslooking forward to trying out the new Notes feature in Mail 3.0.

So after upgrading three Macs successfully with Leopard, I activated my Google Gmail and Yahoo! mail accounts to work with Mail 3.0 on my primary MacBook Pro laptop, and my desktop iMac.  Both computers started downloading my email from Google and Yahoo!, and all was good.

This morning, I tried to log into my Gmail account via Firefox on one of my PCs, and I got this message from Gmail:

"This account has been locked down due to unusual account activity. It may take up to 24 hours for you to regain access.

Unusual account activity includes, but is not limited to:

1. Receiving, deleting, or downloading large amounts of mail via POP in a short period of time.
2. Sending a large number of undeliverable messages (messages that bounce back).
3. Using file-sharing or file-storage software, browser extensions, or third party software that automatically logs in to your account.
4. Leaving multiple instances of your Gmail account open.
5. Browser-related issues. Please note that if you find your browser continually reloading while attempting to access your Inbox, it’s probably a browser issue, and it may be necessary to clear your browser’s cache and cookies.

If you feel that you have been using your Gmail account according to the Gmail Terms of Use, you can troubleshoot your problem by clicking here."

I logged into Yahoo! mail from a browser to see if the problem occurred there, and all was well there.

Only Google had a problem with my syncing to desktop mail clients via POP.

Not sure if this is an Apple or Google issue, or if I should deactivate the new Leopard enabled Mail clients from accessing Gmail, and most importantly, WHEN I'd have access to my Gmail account again.  The last one is most important. 

I've never used a mail client for POP access to Gmail before, so don't know if this problem has been faced by folks syncing Gmail with Microsoft Outlook or other desktop mail clients.

It does seem that one-time downloading of email from a POP mail connection would be normal and that Google Gmail should not view that as "unusual".

Separately, I do have an observation on Apple's Mail 3.0 client though.  By default, it's set to remove a copy of the POP mail items from the server "after one week".  So if you don't want that to occur, you should change it in the Advanced tab of Apple Mail 3.0.

Wonder if others are having this Mail 3.0/Gmail problem as well.  Any thoughts/comments appreciated as always.

Update 1:  A quick check on Google under "Gmail lockdown" makes it clear that this is a long-standing problem folks have had with mail client access of Gmail via POP.  Here's Jason Calacanis' plea for help from back in 2005 as an example.

Not sure what the solution is though, other than waiting for Google to ultimately unlock the account.  There's no link to email to support. 

Leopard's Mail 3.0 is off the hook in all this it seems.  But may have to re-think using Mail 3.0 after all, if it'll interfere with my general Gmail use from any browser.

Update 2:  Fourteen hours into my Gmail lockout I'm realizing how foolish I've been relying on Gmail across all my machines over the last few years. 

Need access to my some info I've archived on Gmail, without which I can't book some flights for my parents.  No good.  Have to sit on my hands until some autobot at Google decides to turn my account back on.  Very frustrating.

Update 3:  My Gmail account is finally unlocked after 25 hours, 3 emails to Gmail support, 3 automated responses essentially repeating the above-quoted litany of reasons why I might have been punished, and a ton of frustration.

I have nothing but the highest regard for Google's services, especially Gmail.  I've been evangelizing and recommending the service to friends and family for years now.

But this experience does make me think that my embrace of "living in the cloud" with Gmail may have been a bit premature. 

Gmail arbitrarily locking me out with no phone/email support access to a human being, with NO RECOURSE but to wait 24 hours or more is disconcerting to say the least.  Never mind that I'm a paying subsriber to Gmail extra storage services.

Fixing a problem should be on the customer's schedule, not the provider's.

From my perspective, I was locked out of my account for 25 hours for merely using Gmail POP service, provided by Google. 

There was no warning before-hand that POP access might lead to this result, no option to limit the amount of my Gmail inbox content, accumulated since the dawn of Gmail a few years ago, that would be downloaded to the mail client on the Mac.  No option to warn Gmail ahead of time that such a download is NOT a Spamming attack or a security breach in my account.

I was judged guilty before opportunity to prove my innocence. 

And I'm not alone in this experience.

This lockdown communication issue with Gmail users has been a problem for several years now it seems.  Searching the Google search results to "Gmail Lockdown" makes the pain out there clear.  But there don't seem to be any easy answers for affected Gmail users other than just wait and hope that access is restored.

Please help fix this for all of us, Google Gmail team.  In the Google, non-Evil way we've all come to rely upon.

Comments

[John M.]

If I were you I would dispense with using POP on Google altogether. They just implemented IMAP which is a huge improvement. In my one week since switching to Gmail IMAP it has worked fine with both Mail 2.0 and, since last night, Mail 3.0.

[Michael Parekh]

Thanks John. Will try that if and when I ever get access to my Gmail account again.

In the meantime, have deleted my Gmail POP accounts on both Mac Mail clients.

[Mike S.]

IMAP is not a panacea to this problem, as Apple Mail will still try to synchronize with GMail, as it does with POP.

The problem here seems to be that Google lit up IMAP support, but didn't think through all the implications for their anti-spam/anti-using-Gmail-as-remote-storage rules. Specifically, no one seems to have grasped that people will enable IMAP on multiple devices, those devices will need to sync, and those initial syncs will mean needing to download significant amounts of data from multiple clients, perhaps simultaneously.

Another dimension of lameness gets layered on when you consider the users most likely to get hit by this are those that have been with Gmail the longest, and thus have that much more of their personal mail squirreled away on Gmail's servers.

Someone with an in at the Google-borg, section Gmail, needs to put a bee in their bonnet to fix this. It's happened to me twice in the two days since IMAP support was added.

I don't think Google's been a poor start-up for some time, perchance they could afford some timely support?

[alex tolley]

This is "news I can use". I am just about to buy a Mac laptop and I rely on GMail.

[Emma]

I'm having problems only in sending via Mail 3.1. While I receive forwarding from my gmail IMAP accounts, I cannot reply or send new messages.

I've only been working on this problem for under an hour. My new iMac arrived yesterday with Leopard.

What is the solution to the forwarding and replying via POP problem.

Still hoping to remain a gmail fan . . .