Gmail grayed out in 3.5.23

Since yesterday Gmail has been grayed out in 3.5.23. You can click Gmail and it takes you to Google/My Account and has you logged in. From there I can select the Google apps icon at the top and check my mail but notifier isn't actually showing new mail nor does clicking Gmail in notifier actually take you to the inbox anymore. I've removed xnotifier and reinstalled v 3.5.23 for it to have the same exact issue.

I have 4 Gmail accounts and 1 Google Apps in X-notifier 3.5.23. Since today 27/April/2017 some of them are not checked. It seems like Google has put some kind of limit on how many accounts you can login at the same time.   I hope I don't have to abandon this great addon after many years.

jeroen's picture

It is perfectly normal server practice to limit max sessions per client ip. It is considered impolite for clients to cross that limit and ground-down intelligent server logic.

It would indeed make sense to have X-notifier limit the account sessions per provider server to lets say 6 unless providing a delayed session priority.

I added all my Gmail accounts up to 11 (6 Gmail + 5 Google App) and of course they don't all establish session at once. Number 10 and 11 take some time. But it works. Firefox has the network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server default set to 6 and it makes no sense to increase that number. The Gmail server will simply limit your connection to 1 when you set it to 11. And right they are.

You people should be following the frequently suggested troubleshooting practice instead of complaining that things are not working in your setup. The developer of this add-on cannot prevent the client environment, where his software normally should work, from getting polluted. That is your own responsibility. And yes, complex software is not as robuste as we want it to be. An add-on is a plugin of a browser and depending on lots of software (settings) not controlled by the add-on itself. I think you consumer people are taking (working software) things too much for granted.

My XN 3.5.23 is working as expected.

X-notifier has been greyed out for me on Gmail accounts too .When will this extension ever be fixed?

ph's picture

Well, seems gmail has changed a couple of things and not there is a hard cap of 10 simultaneous accounts logged in from the same device. Which is making all the other accounts X-notifier tries to log in , in excess of 10, to be unable to log in.

If someone finds a workaround, please let us know here!

I sent a email to the Support for X-notifier and hope they can resolve some things with this.

crashhot's picture

using 3.5.2 as I really don't like V4.0, been working perfectly until the latest changes at Google and now it's not working at all.

it's driving me nuts, I just want it to check my Gmail account and when I click it, I want to go to my Gmail account

At the moment it won't do either of those things

Perhaps there's no X-Notifier fault...

My Gmails (3) are working fine, but I don't use Google apps or 2-Factor auth, etc.
You'll be unlikely to see a 'fix' to X-Notifier as long as it seems to be working for most users... 
...and so it may be more likely a problem in your installation.  Sometimes things get corrupted.
If Google is making changes and slowwwly rolling them out, you'll have to wait for a flood of complaints, then  it will be more likely for X-Notifier to be 'fixed' quickly. X-Notifier has thousands of users.
However... you should troubleshoot your own installation first, in case of corruption...
...sometimes... a simple uninstall, restart your browser, reinstall the addon ...will clear problems. For more steps...

In Firefox...
- With X-Notifier 3.5.23 or older, you can right-click on the X-Notifier envelope icon, then click your problem account and see if it logs you into your inbox (if not, check your password in X-Notifier account definition).
With X-Notifier 4.0.2, you simply click the X-Notifier envelope icon and then click your problem account to see if it logs you into your inbox.
Next...
- You can open a new tab and manually go to your email provider website and login to your account to see if there are any prompts during the login process that might be interfering with login/checking. 
- You can disable all your other add-ons and restart Firefox to see if X-Notifier works without them.
- You can create a new user profile, add just X-Notifier and manually add just your problem account (do not import it) and see if it works. 
- You can clear cache and cookies.  

The X-Notifier developer has been busy with opening a medical clinic... I suspect it's unknown when he'll have time to check a logfile if you were to create one, as described in... http://xnotifier.tobwithu.com/dp/node/4. However...

Creating a log file, in more detail:

X-Notifier 3.5.23 and older:
1) Right-click the X-Notifier envelope icon and then hold 'Shift' key and click "Help"... this will enable a logging feature... ( you should see a 'Log' item on the menu when you open it again).
2) Again right-click the X-Notifier envelope icon and then click "Check now"... and wait until X-Notifier shows 'Not checked' on your account (hover mouse pointer over X-Notifier icon).
3) A third time, right-click X-Notifier envelope icon and then click "Log"... and it will prompt you to save the log file.
4) Create a new email addressed to xndevel@gmail.com, type a polite informative comment/request... and attach the log file, and send it.
When the developer has time, perhaps he can find a problem with your login process in the log file.

X-Notifier 4.0.2:

1) You simply click the X-Notifier envelope icon, then hold 'Shift' key and click "Help"... to enable the logging feature... ( you should see a 'Log' item on the menu when you open it again).
2) Again click the X-Notifier envelope icon and then click "Check now"... and wait until X-Notifier shows your account is 'not checked' (it will be shown in red when you later click the X-Notifier icon after the 'Check now' cycle has been completed.)
3) A third time, click X-Notifier envelope icon and then click "Log"... and it will prompt you to save the log file.
4) Create a new email addressed to xndevel@gmail.com, type a polite informative comment/request... and attach the log file, and send it.
When the developer has time, perhaps he can find a problem with your login process in the log file.

Troubleshooting takes persistence... and tedious steps sometimes... if  you uninstall the addon to reinstall it, be sure to shutdown/restart your browser before reinstalling... you want to have a clean run to do reinstalls, or to run X-Notifier after disabling other addons, etc.

Good luck.

scgt1's picture

Working again and checking mail automatically. Believe me for the comments on setup. That wasn't the case. Just did a fresh reformat on this computer a few days ago and there is nothing extra installed. For it to work one moment then stop working for the span of a day then go back to working again when nothing was done with the computer. Yep must be the "client" end.

 

client is a relative term.

If it works for a large number of users for a long time, then becomes sporadic... it has been more indicative of changes on the provider login method... not X-Notifier. However, corruptions do occur on user profiles/machines.  I'm not debating, I'm just noting situational options. 

jeroen's picture

(A client is any program connecting with a server.)

That confuses me, RpD ;-)
When the provider changes the login method, X-notifier has to follow that change. Or am I misunderstanding your logic?

I have seen text where it seems to depend on which side you're speaking from as to which is client and which is server... probably a misinterpretation from one of the sides.  People confuse them sometimes... depending on which they think is 'serving'.
Anyway, yes, I was saying when the provider changes, X-Notifier follows... just that X-Notifier doesn't simply start not working, unless either the provider changes or there's a corruption of a user's browser profile on their own machine... and more often, it's a change on the provider's login method. But troubleshooting helps eliminate the possibility of corruption on user side... so we don't just demand a 'fix' from X-Notifier and ignore a possible faulty installation or corruption.  Blame game isn't constructive, as you know.

For years, I've had anywhere from 14-20 gmail accounts with x-notifier and the other day, my default one said "not checked" and would go to the same My Account page if I clicked on it.

Now, it keeps getting worse and worse. I'm currently at 5 accounts that are greyed out and don't check.

- I have no problem physically getting into the accounts. No security alerts or anything. They just don't log in with X-Notifier and go straight to My Account if I force it.

- I've cleared the cache/cookies. No dice.

- I've upgraded from 3.5.23 to whatever the latest one was. All that did was kill some other functionality as well, so it was a downgrade, really. I reverted back to 3.5.23 and that's when it went from 4 accounts to 5 accounts.

- I've tried disabling all but just the accounts that don't work and they still won't log in, even without having a single other one getting in the way.

- This actually runs into the same issue on Chrome as well (I was using Firefox before). Chrome logs into 10 accounts and then refuses to check anything else. At least with that, it checks the top 10 and stops there instead of picking random ones like the Firefox one does.

There's definitely something going on with Google as I use Blogger and they very slightly changed the interface for that, but I haven't run into any issues with anything other than X-Notifier, so this is definitely an issue for more than just one or two people and it appears to be getting worse.

It actually wouldn't even be as bad if you could pick which accounts it would log in to, but now it just seems like if it ran into an issue, you're S.O.L. and the longer we wait to nip this in the bud, the more accounts it will disable.

Any other ideas?

jeroen's picture

Create a new test profile in firefox, install only X-notifier 3.5.23 and import your XN account file (that you exported from the XN Options page in your present profile).

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles

I am suspicious of exported account files sometimes... so when I test a new profile, I recreate accounts from scratch, so I don't import a corruption.  Just my tedious method. ;)

Google has changed something that definitely breaks X-notifier 3.5.23. even using only 1 gmail account it will not work consistently like before.

For those who say there is nothing wrong and everything is working as expected, remember Google pushes out changes in phases--maybe you are not affected by whatever Google  changed yet.

Many of us are aware of phased rollouts... as fellow X-Notifier users, we just want to make sure other users go through due troubleshooting to eliminate problems on their own setup.  I have had to be tediously persistent to correct some of my own problems in the past... and then sometimes they clear up on their own.
It can be a trial to listen to users rant about how bad X-Notifier is, when we're trying to help and get attacked in their frustration... and sometimes our troubleshooting tips help, and they recant.  
X-Notifier has been updated many, many times over the years to keep up with email providers' seemingly capricious changes at times... and the trigger can be the number of complaints that flood the forum.  We try to reproduce the problems we hear about... if we can, then we join the chorus of requests for a fix. If not, we note that it works for us and some troubleshooting should be done.

crashhot's picture

agreed, I'm only checking one Gmail account, one Hotmail and one Yahoo account with x-notifier and it's only the Gmail account that's affected

I've got no problem with this developer but it's going to affect everyone so he might as well get on top of it.

Over the past few hours, X-Notifier has gone from disabling 1 account to 5 and now there's TEN that are disabled....

jeroen's picture

I know Google is changing their login page, but I also read yesterday they did not change the login logic, only the look and feel (Starting April 10, 2017*, we’re rolling out an update to the Google Accounts sign-in page to give users an improved experience to securely sign in to their accounts. This new design will make browser sign-in flows consistent across computers, phones and tablets.)
https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/2017/04/update-refreshing-google-accounts-login.html

So I really didn't think X-notifier has to correct the login process. Also because after the first 6 immediate logins, the rest will follow with 2 or 3 manual user Check now's after some minutes. But I might be wrong. The new look and feel devides the login experience in 2 steps for email + password. Wasn't the old login just a one step experience? Just perhaps there is something to improve in the XN login proces emulation. But as I said before, mine always all login successfully eventually.

angelpie's picture

It is NOT Gmail. Won't sign in to Yahoo or Hotmail for me, even if I uncheck everything else.

crashhot's picture

they all work so it would be nice if this was fixed for those of us who it affects and those of you who it will affect as it spreads.

angelpie's picture

I think I have found one thing that causes this. I cleared history on FF and then ran CCleaner. When I restarted FF, most of my mails were greyed out. I uninstalled and reinstalled 3.5.23, re-imported the .xn file, but no love. After a few minutes, my default gmail account finally signed in, and one other gmail account, but despite signing completely out of all google accounts and trying again, it wouldn't work.

I then unchecked all my gmail accounts and tried to only check Yahoo, but to no avail. Also did the same with Hotmail to no avail, so it's not Gmail that is the problem, it's x-notifier. For some reason, if I sign in manually to an account, it will sign in to it from then on, be it Yahoo or Gmail, but not unless I do that.

Again, by the process of elimination, this isn't a mail provider server problem. It's happened to me many times before after FF updated, but I have all auto-FF updates turned off now, so that isn't the problem either. I love XN as much as the rest of you, but you have to stop blaming your problems on everybody else.

ETA: Now, suddenly, all accounts greyed out and not even signing in manually will help. I signed in to my default gmail account, but XN will still not bring it up. I can get to it through Gmail easily by signing in.

ETA2 - Chrome version working perfectly, so NOT Gmail and NOt any other mail. It's the FF version that is broken.

 

"I love XN as much as the rest of you, but you have to stop blaming your problems on everybody else."
Uhm... we don't have any problems... that's the point.  I have about two dozen accounts from many providers... hotmail/outlook/live, gmail (three), mail.com, yahoo, aol, apple, facebook, linkedin, ebay, twitter, tumblr, deviantArt, etc.  All are working fine in Thunderbird, Firefox, and Chrome... except deviantArt for which the script needs updating but I haven't brought that to the developer's attention for the moment.  So... I guess we'll just wait for the phased rollout to hit us who have no problem... or the developer, as he has email accounts too... but he can't fix what isn't broken for him.  You're all welcome to send the developer a broken account username/password (to xndevel@gmail.com), so he can analyze the problem and fix it.   Ot keep troubleshooting, like I mentioned, I have had to be persistent in the past... once I believe I had to give up my present user profile and load up a new one.  Whatever... we've offered help and you're pushing back. So... good luck.

EDIT: When testing, don't Import saved accounts. Recreate from scratch, because the Export could have saved a compromised account definition(s).

angelpie's picture

So I used a new profile with nothing but XN, and most (not all) gmails worked, but Yahoo and Hotmail did not work, so still problems. What do I do now? I'm not really good with profiles, and I don't want to lose all my add-ons by using a new profile. What do I do?

It's very odd, to me, that your Hotmail/Yahoo weren't working in a new profile while gmail did. I have no other suggestions than what's posted before, except last resort checking other software running in background, like security programs, whatever. If it checks gmail, it should check the others though. Note... do -not- set your hotmail (and perhaps yahoo) check interval too low... 10-15 minutes is preferable.  I know that hotmail/outlook/live.com objects if you hammer their server too fast. 
I will note that I allow my browser to save my login username/password... whether this helps X-Notifier or not, I have no idea... it would seem it shouldn't, as X-Notifier saves its logins separately within browser security.
Curious if, in the new profile, you open a tab, go to hotmail and yahoo and login directly and see if there are any prompts or anything interfering with a simple direct login. Then when logged in, have X-Notifier "Check now"... I find that seems to cure my glitches sometimes, although it perhaps shouldn't.... but I sometimes get good results occasionally... as if it sets a bit somewhere ;)...
After that... contact the developer... all of you. 

 

Conrad's picture

Hi, I have tested my 3.5.23 I've backup a month ago on a few portable versions of Firefox 50-51-52-53.

So, same extension, same browser that worked well for long time. The problem is still here.

So again I tried X-notifier on a portable and clean version of Chrome, same problem here too.

Conclusion 1: Google has changed something!

Conclusion 2: the developer of this awesome extension doesn't want to continue, in my opinion. Since the version 4.0.2 months ago, no answer at all. In the past, he updated his extension after 24 hours from the incompatibility. After 4 months of silence I think this extension is abandoned.

Any alternative you have tried?

 

Razor512's picture

Sadly no one seems to be making anything as goodas the old version of x notifier. there are many that are more convenient where a single click opens the email instead of pulling up a menu where you then have to click on the account (even if you only have 1 account in there). But it is hard to find ones that work properly while also not using that obnocously large unread count which covers other content since it ignores the borders of them.

angelpie's picture

I'm going to contact the developer, but I've done everything I possibly can, and I want to put this here in case anyone else is having the same problems, so they can see it.

I went nuclear, did a completely clean uninstall of FF (reset doesn't delete every instance out of every place, so I went in and deleted everything from the registry and everywhere else) and reinstalled it to make sure it isn't FF.

Installed 4.02 and it worked for all Gmail, but not for Hotmail or Yahoo. Uninstalled that and installed 3.5.23 and it has the same old problems. Usually, when it does this, if I go ahead and sign into the Gmail accounts, it works, but not this time. I deleted the offending Gmail accounts and re-entered the info, to no avail. It will still only check 2 of my 8 gmail accounts, and will not check hotmail or yahoo.

Disabled all other add-ons, restarted FF with only XN 3.5.23 enabled, and not only will it not check the same accounts now, but when I click on the icon, instead of giving me a list of checked accounts, it takes me to the primary gmail account. So I signed out of all Google accounts, restarted FF, deleted all accounts from XN, only added back one of the offending accounts, and it refuses to check it, takes me to the sign-in page, but the drop-down is still gone. When I click on the icon, it takes me to that signed in account. When I mouse-over the icon, it says "Gmail not checked."

Went back to 4.0.2 and now it isn't working either at all.

I'm going to have to just use something else now, because I have taken up too much time with this program that evidently hates me. I think I have done all the troubleshooting I can possibly do and cannot fix the problems.

I don't know what else to do, so I'm emailing the developers, then I'll use something else. I'm done now.

I am frustrated with this as well but apparently there is a major change going on with gmail hence their new sign in screen (which I hate). There is a gmail checker but you must use Chrome (which I do not). As I use chrome on my phone and ff on my desktop I only get notifications on my phone. Maybe the developer can get the new sign in screen to work and maybe not. Up til now this has been one of the best extensions, but if it can't be "fixed" I will not hold it against him

angelpie's picture

I had to jump through all kinds of security hoops to get into Yahoo and Hotmail just now. They, too have instituted this two-page login, and are demanding verification through your security email. I tried to log in to Yahoo, it demanded verification through my security account, so I went to hotmail, and it demanded verification through my security account there. I had to keep all those tabs open while I got security codes for all of them. Thank heaven they all have different security accounts, because I'd be screwed if the hotmail and yahoo had had each other for security accounts. LOL

So it's not just Gmail, it's all of them. I won't give up on XN, because it's the only one that works properly, but I'm going to have to check my emails manually for now. I hope he doesn't give up on the add-on. It's obvious something strange is going on that we, as lowly users, were not informed of beforehand. Wouldn't blame him for giving up, though.

Out of nowhere, my primary account started working again, although that was the only one. Then, this updated to 4.0.2 and now, 5 accounts that didn't work before are working, although it definitely seems to cap out at the 10 account limit, and it's somewhat random which ones are going to work. Also, even if you limit yourself to say 8, that doesn't mean all 8 of them are going to work.

Ugh.

Conrad's picture

Hi guys, the developer doesn't give a reply. This is a clear message. In my opinion X-Notifier rests in peace.

Any valid alternative? Have someone tried another similar extension?

I agree he should at least give a response either way. My guess is that he is also tired of Gmail changing things, along with his new business venture.

 

There are other options, Google search is your friend, I have been testing a different one, and so far so good, takes a little getting use to, and you also have to label your inbox, but so far it has been working.

http://add0n.com/gmail-notifier.html?type=context

Conrad's picture

I tried the extension you suggest last week but ...I think it's not a comparable addon. Unfortunately for us, X-Notifier was perfect under all points of view. Why the developer doesn't reply, WHY?

I agree, but for now it's all we have, so Im using the extension I mentioned and have had no issues. Takes a little getting use to, but as most have said they do this on their time, so until a fix is in the works, we have no choice but to look at other options.

I've also emailed the developer. We've exchanged emails before.
I don't know if mine will be any more effective than yours now, but we'll see what happens.
X-Notifier is a sideline and receives varying levels of attention as he works his other main occupations.
Hopefully we'll see a response sooner rather than later. Just saying... I've emailed.

EvilDragon's picture

I also confirm GMail not working with 3.5.23. It goes to "My Account" page and doesn't open e-mail at all.

Please fix urgently!

I've heard going even further back to a lter version has resolved the issue, I haven't tried, but someone told theirs is working again, so you might want to test that out. For now I'm good until a fix it supplied.

tobwithu's picture

I'm sorry for the late answer and the sad news.

http://xnotifier.tobwithu.com/dp/node/3531

I haven't been hit with the new Gmail login yet, but... for Firefox/X-Notifier 3.5.23, the POP3 and IMAP scripts also work to access my Gmail accuonts.  
POP3:   server, pop.gmail.com   ...or pop.gmail.com:995
IMAP:  server, imap.gmail.com  ...or imap.gmail.com:993

I hope the new update for X-notifier will be better than 4.0.2 cause that doesn't work . It wipes out all the email accounts i have . Yahoo doesn't work for  X-notifier 4.0.2  It failed for us for Gmail too cause of Googles update. It's shame X-notifier was such a good extension . X-notifier Neo doesn't allow us to add more than one Gmail account which I wish it was more explantory . Thanks for your help.

Just for everyone's info...
My yahoo account works fine with X-Notifier versions 3.x and 4.x, unless and until Yahoo is rolling out some login changes.

tobwithu's picture

1. If you set to delete cookies when Firefox restarts,

all settings in X-notifier 4.x will be lost.

This is a known bug of Firefox.(http://xnotifier.tobwithu.com/dp/node/3353)

2. As you can see in screenshot(https://addons.mozilla.org/En-us/firefox/addon/xnotifier-neo/)

 X-notifier Neo supports multiple Gmail accounts.

Try to use Gmails multiple login function. X-notifier Neo detects it automatically.

theGuruWithin's picture

Hi tobwithu,

I love XN and have used many years and have donated.... You are awesome navigating the Google Firefox dev insanity.

I was wondering how many Gmail accounts NEO will accomidate.  Interesting your choice of names... wondering how you decided on NEO for this new addin.

Also I have gotten 7 of my 12 accounts to work with Version 3.5.23 once again after a maddening weekend of trying different things to get it to work...

I tried the suggestion of turning on and turning off 2 step authentication suggested in previous post and this doesn't seem to work.   If you are aware the steps on new Google Login page to change setting to be more compatible with 3.5.23 your thoughts would be much appreciated.

Any suggestions of how to continue to get functionality of the perfect XN into the future?

tobwithu thank you again for all your hard work and for your generosity of spirit supporting Open Source Community; coming from Generosity instead of Greed.  Together we are changing the world for the better... much love and respect.

Again, in Gratitude,

theGuruWithin

scgt1's picture

since sometime yesterday it's been working normal. Previous (all weekend) it was gray it wasn't gray it was gray....... Gmail is the only account I was having problems with but it seems to have leveled off since yesterday as it's been working fine again.

EvilDragon's picture

Yes! It's back and working now!

What I did was enabler 2-factor authorization then disable it, and it started working!

 

@tobwithu: please do NOT remove the Google script from xn!

The only reason he's removing it (from future versions) is when it stops working completely because Google has changed the login procedure and he has -not- found a way to program for it.  
If it doesn't work for the new login procedure, it won't work... and it will eventually quit working for everyone as Google transitions all users to the new login.  
He said it will be removed for future versions... not immediately.

angelpie's picture

Are you enabling/disabling two-factor authorization on Gmail, or on x-notifier? Can't figure out how you are doing this.

 

 

EvilDragon's picture

On Gmail.

angelpie's picture

I'll miss this great add-on, but I don't buy that it's Google's fault, because mine doesn't work on any email. I hope it eventually gets fixed, but I think maybe it won't. Hopefully, someone will be able to create another add-on that works.

Thanks, tobwithyou for all your hard work and for a great add-on that worked well for many years. I've lost a lot of my favorite add-ons with the changes to FF, because their developers just don't want to put in the work to fix them. At least you tried.

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