Home Forums Networks & Cross-Platform Networking Loss of Gmail access

Unless the gods intervene, after January I am going to lose home access to my Gmail — primarily due to slow internet connection (dialup, generally running at 5-6 KB/s).

For a couple decades I have been accessing Gmail via its HTML interface which gets the job done.

When Google announced discontinuation of support for same at the end of next month, I tried switching to "Standard View", which is far less parsimonious in terms of what it requires in terms of configuration, being filled with functions and files relying heavily on pictorial gimcracks and geegaws up the ying-yang which require major electronic assets to transmit and store. My system cannot load/use the "Standard View" no matter what browser I try to use.

With respect to the latter, my go-to browser is Mozilla's Firefox. It baulks at "Standard View", due to my internet access feed. The same is true for iCab and even Google Chrome.

The only way to maintain my Gmail is to access same via high-speed internet access (such as via the public library's computers). For home use I'll have to find a more resilient email provider, and I haven't a clue where/how to find such (and I've tried looking).

If anyone knows how or if "Standard View" might be acquired as a stand-alone package and installed on Firefox (without the need for internet acquisition), I'd like to know. Google doesn't seem to care one whit about dealing concerns such as mine.

And once again it's time for a couple fingers of Alibi vodka.

Your slow internet connection is going to continue to create issues with anything to do with the internet, but have you considered skipping the browser and web interface altogether and using Apple's Mail application to access your Gmail account directly. It is reasonably straightforward in operation, will configure itself for Gmail automatically, and can be configured to send plain text messages. I won't help when receiving heavily formatted emails, but there isn't that much difference in that case whether you view the message in Mail or a browser. It may or may not be satisfactory, but it is at least worth a try and may salvage your Gmail account.

I just discovered a Mail application buried among a number of unused applications in El Capitán. I'll check it out to see if it's useful.

Well, that was a disappointing "abortion". Mail (version 9.3, 2016) cannot be used to the desired end because:
Authorization Error
Error 400: invalid_request
You can't sign in to this app because it doesn't comply with Google's OAuth 2.0 policy for keeping apps secure.

Back to square one.

Does your ISP offer email functionality?

If you mean whether or not my ISP offers an email address with my account — yes. But because I never used it, they closed it down (a couple months ago).

You might contact them and see if they would reactivate your email account.

Nope. Permanent.

So that's that. My version of Mail is unusable and apparently it can't be upgraded to suit Google.

Why not create an Apple email account and use it. If your Apple ID is your Gmail address, you will have to change it to an Apple email address, but that will be necessary anyway. iCloud Mail has a web interface (https://icloud.com) and, of course, works with Apple's Mail app. I have used iCloud mail for decades and it has been problem free. Apple will not sell your data and there are builtin security options.

How would that be a workaround? Google would still balk at Mail's trying to access my Gmail.

That seems awful vindictive!

Any stated reason why they won' reinstate it inasmuch as you've been paying for it?

Yes. Cost-savings.
Apparently a huge number of their customers/subscribers were not using their email accounts and it wasn't worth continuing same for such customers.
In fairness, they gave 6 months' advance notice and the advice to use the email account to avoid losing it.
I had never used it (except for some test purposes early on) in more than a decade.

Further to that (#65507): How would opening an Apple email account (iCloud) preserve and allow access to my Gmail?

This multifaceted issue is rapidly becoming waaay too complicated for my interconnected cerebroneuronal activity to process.

It would NOT help you directly access your Gmail account. The only help for that would be a new computer, iPhone, or iPad that is compatible with the Gmail changes. It WOULD⁣, however, give you a new working email account. I don't know anything about the Gmail changes, but with the old Gmail, it was possible to set it to forward your incoming messages to another email address, which you would probably want to do during the transition.

That's what I thought.

I'm going to wait until Google "forces" the issue at the beginning of February. If they haven't figured out how to allow the conversion to their so-called Standard View in a meaningful/efficient manner, then I guess I'm going to have to use high-speed public computers to access my Gmail (which I am already doing, but not exclusively).

Side note: HTML view is lickety-split with slow internet connection. There is essentially nothing Google has to do but let things lie to adequately service those of use who require such. Their idea of "no longer support" is wholly different from what is usually meant by the term. Most of the apps, including my Mac OS ("El Capitán") and browser are no longer supported, and everything seems to work just fine. (The term "imbeciles" comes to mind when I think of the administrators of Google.)

I just came across this in the app store. It isn't free ($9.99) but there is a free trial. It might be worth trying it out.

Yeah ... no.

The ratings on the website describe problems — completely at odds with the high ratings — that I am wholly unwilling to risk.
But thanks for keeping an eye out for promising possibilities.

Your choice, but the criticisms all revolve around complaints about how the app handles the licensing, not the functionality.

As of yesterday, Gmail finally eliminated its barebones (HTML) email client.
And so far I am unable to install/load its "Standard View" replacement due to its being bloated (ie, stuffed with all sorts of bells and whistles) which my at-home internet access can't handle reliably.
I've tried 4 different browsers: my go-to Firefox, plus Google Chrome, iCab and Safari, and none of the them will load the fat Gmail reliably. Once in a while Gmail will work with Firefox, but then something goes wonky, and while I can sometimes receive email, I can't compose/send any.

I've got no idea if your Mac can even deal with it, but just for the heck of it, why don't you try downloading <https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/17679/tor-browse> Tor Browser?

I don't know/understand how yet another browser (over 200MB) might address my issues (which seem to center around lack of internet speed.

Tor is a wild guess, and I've got absolutely no idea if it can help you in your situation.

The easiest way to describe it is that it enables access in some situations in which other browsers are blocked, such as paywalls, and perhaps, and with a lot of luck, it will help you with Firefox.

You may run into a problem, though, with your Mac not being up to its current required specs.

Gmail's "standard view" seems to be geared to users who prefer pretty pictures rather than bare-bones communication.

QUERY: Does anyone know how to alphabetize the Contact list?
Googling such only brings up solutions which are hopelessly out of date and/or geared to smartphone apps — and none of them are applicable.
(At the moment there's no rhyme or reason to the manner in which my contacts are listed — which requires my going through a very long list repeatedly.)

I thought you couldn't access Gmail?

My contacts are alphabetized, and I don't remember them ever being in any other order or, as the case may be, disorder.

I do, however, run into occasional anomalies with business names and people listed by either first or last name only.

And you hit on a real sore spot there! Too many Google results are geared towards phones and do not address desktop computers at all.

Given the changes at Google I don't know that this would work with your version of macOS or not, but it has always been a feature of macOS to merge the contents of Google's, and other provider's, "address books" into Apple's Contacts following these Apple instructions. Contacts and Contacts can be sorted by first or last name in Contacts > Settings > General.