From 885f3fb60ac5b7e45a456d1f1687402d32c4c3db Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: William Carroll Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2022 12:15:32 -0800 Subject: feat(wpcarro/blog): Publish "2FA and Gmail's \"Send mail as\"" Small blog post about how I configured myself out of my personal email. Change-Id: Ibb8834b2150f94dba5f46a8ea634e7e9813b76a5 Reviewed-on: https://cl.tvl.fyi/c/depot/+/4817 Tested-by: BuildkiteCI Reviewed-by: wpcarro --- users/wpcarro/website/blog/posts.nix | 7 ++++ .../wpcarro/website/blog/posts/send-mail-as-2fa.md | 43 ++++++++++++++++++++++ 2 files changed, 50 insertions(+) create mode 100644 users/wpcarro/website/blog/posts/send-mail-as-2fa.md (limited to 'users') diff --git a/users/wpcarro/website/blog/posts.nix b/users/wpcarro/website/blog/posts.nix index f387a582d3..ac1677dc59 100644 --- a/users/wpcarro/website/blog/posts.nix +++ b/users/wpcarro/website/blog/posts.nix @@ -15,4 +15,11 @@ content = ./posts/quassel-google-vm.md; draft = true; } + { + key = "send-mail-as-2fa"; + title = "2FA and Gmail's \"Send mail as\""; + date = 1641497483; + content = ./posts/send-mail-as-2fa.md; + draft = false; + } ] diff --git a/users/wpcarro/website/blog/posts/send-mail-as-2fa.md b/users/wpcarro/website/blog/posts/send-mail-as-2fa.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..5d18935c7a --- /dev/null +++ b/users/wpcarro/website/blog/posts/send-mail-as-2fa.md @@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ +## Prelude + +This is a short story about how I configured myself out of my own email. Posting +this as an exercise in humility, a tutorial for my future self in case of +amnesia, and penance for my sins. + +## Background + +- I have 2x Gmail accounts: **work** and **personal**. +- I configure **work** to send emails as **personal**. +- I configure **personal** to forward incoming emails to **work**. + +This allows me to use **work** and manage both of my inboxes as one. I recently +added two-factor authentication (2FA) to **personal**, forgot about it, and +spent a few days unable to send **personal** emails from any **work** device. + +## Symptoms + +Whenever I tried to send emails on behalf of **personal**, I'd receive the +following error message as a reply: + +> You're sending this from a different address using the 'Send mail as' feature. +> The settings for your 'Send mail as' account are misconfigured or out of date. +> Check those settings and try resending. + +Useful error message if you ask me (especially in retrospect), but because I had +*forgotten* that I setup 2FA for **personal**, I naively assumed this issue +might magically disappear given enough time... kind of how restarting your +device resets the state and causes the symptoms of a certain class of bugs to +disappear. + +After a few days of mounting frustration, I decided to take a closer look... + +## Solution + +- Create an "App Password" for **personal**: + [instructions](https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833?hl=en). +- Login to **work** and delete **personal** from `Settings > Accounts > Send + mail as`. +- `Add another email address` for **personal** using the "App Password" you + just created. + +And now I'm back in business! -- cgit 1.4.1