How to fix: Failed due to unexpected error 80004005. No description is available
Background: This error message comes up in Mozilla’s Thunderbird when using an Google hosted email account (Gmail, or a Google hosted domain/mail server that piggy backs off go Gmail,). “Failed due to unexpected error 80004005. No description is available” is technically either a password or security error message.
Various forums have tried to troubleshoot this error message but failed in my case.
In my case, this is actually a common error message. I have 8 email accounts setup through Thunderbird. When I travel or work remotely Google frequently kicks back this error message when I connect to a new, unknown, wireless network for the first time. 95% of the time just waiting five or ten minutes “fixes” the error message. The other 5% of the time I have to go into the security settings for that specific email address, and tell it that yes, that is indeed me logging in.
What you need to do is instead turn on “less secure app access.” Occasionally Google will flip this as it tries to make your account more secure (which is good,) but it breaks Thunderbird.
To do this go into Security settings:
Then go to Less Secure App Access:
And turn it to “On” despite Google’s warnings.
This fixed for me!
Other troubleshooting steps I took:
– Re-entered the account password a billion times
– Told Gmail security that this is indeed my device
– Deleted (multiple) saved passwords for the account in Thunderbird’s Password Manager
– Changed the smtp server from smtp.googlemail.com to smtp.gmail.com
– Deleted the recreated the account in Thunderbird