Email app passwords · Gmail Create a Gmail
Create a Gmail
app password.
Google only accepts an app password from mail apps that don't sign in through Google's own login screen — and it only offers them at all once 2-Step Verification is on.
Applies to gmail.com, googlemail.com addresses.
Before you start
2-Step Verification must be switched on. Without it, the App passwords page simply doesn't appear.
Step by step
How to create your app password.
- Turn on 2-Step Verification: Google Account → Security → How you sign in to Google → 2-Step Verification.
- Go to myaccount.google.com/apppasswords directly — Google no longer reliably shows the option inside the Security menu.
- Type a name for the app, then generate the password.
- Copy the 16-digit code and paste it into your mail app where it asks for your password. The spaces Google shows are for readability — they don't matter.
Worth knowing
- The App passwords page is unavailable in three cases Google names explicitly: your 2-Step Verification uses security keys only, you're signed in to a work or school account, or the account has Advanced Protection (which revokes any existing app passwords on enrolment).
- Google Workspace accounts can't use app passwords at all since 1 May 2025 — Google removed username-and-password access for third-party apps entirely, and the admin setting that used to control it is gone. OAuth sign-in is the only route.
- Changing your Google password revokes every app password you've created, so all your apps stop at once.
- Each code is displayed only once. If you lose it, generate a new one and remove the old.
- Advice to "enable IMAP in Gmail settings" is out of date: since January 2025 IMAP is always on and the toggle no longer exists.
Or skip the app password entirely
BlueMail signs in to Gmail through the provider's own login screen, the same way your browser does — so there's no code to generate, copy or replace later, and nothing breaks the next time you change your password. Free on iOS, Android, macOS, Windows and Linux.
Download BlueMailThese steps follow Gmail's own documentation. Official guide →
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