gnome-calendar keeps asking for my google password

[Andrés Alcarraz]

Once in a while, perhaps two or three times a day gnome-calendar pops up a dialog asking for my google password.

I have two online google accounts set, but the problem begun after I upgraded from zesty, where I had those two accounts as well. They didn't appear in the new settings application, but still gnome-calendar was asking for the password. One of them has two phase authentication set and the other not.

After I added the online accounts in the new settings app, the calendar is synchronized but it still popping the authentication window and is very annoying.

bug report in gnome-calendar: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-calendar/+bug/1726922

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.10
Package: gnome-calendar 3.26.2-1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.13.0-16.19-generic 4.13.4
Uname: Linux 4.13.0-16-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.7-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Tue Oct 24 12:45:09 2017
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/gnome-calendar
InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-04-14 (193 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 17.04 "Zesty Zapus" - Release amd64 (20170412)
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANGUAGE=es_UY:es
 LANG=es_UY.UTF-8
SourcePackage: gnome-calendar
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to artful on 2017-10-22 (1 days ago)

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. The issue you are reporting is an upstream one and it would be nice if somebody having it could send the bug to the developers of the software by following the instructions at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Upstream/GNOME. If you have done so, please tell us the number of the upstream bug (or the link), so we can add a bugwatch that will inform us about its status. Thanks in advance.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Steve McBride (drsm)]

According to the Gmail email notice I received:
"Google will continue to block sign-in attempts from the app you're using because it has known security problems or is out of date. You can continue to use this app by allowing access to less secure apps, but this may leave your account vulnerable."

[Doug Reese (doug-8a)]

I just upgraded from 17.04 to 17.10 today and am experiencing the issue as described. One thing not previously mentioned by others: I have two factor auth enabled on my account. I was never asked for the 2nd auth, yet I still see my calendar data being updated.

[Andrés Alcarraz (alcarraz)]

doug are you sure you didn't allow it in online accounts settings?
That's the account and authorization used by calendar, I have 2 factor authentication and when I set it up in online accounts it asked me for the second face auth.
There's no way an app can access your calendar or other info if you have two factor authentication in google.

Else it would be a google bug.

[Doug Reese (doug-8a)]

Could it be that I had previously allowed me in due to having performed the second auth before the upgrade? Aside from that, it's possible I performed the auth during the initial stages of the upgrade and don't remember now.

That said, it just seemed strange and potentially relevant that I am repeatedly asked for my Google account login without being asked for an auth code.

[Andrés Alcarraz (alcarraz)]

Doug that's exactly what the bug says and why I filled it, you are not being asked for the auth code simply because there is a bug in the login. I filled the bug, the annoyance is because the application is asking for a password it doesn't need.

My feeling is that it is using some remanent pre-update account. In response Sebastian Bacher, I don't believe it's an upstream bug, since is generated in the upgrade process, I think the accounts were ill transformed in the upgrade process, either way I generated a bug report in gnome-calendar: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-calendar/+bug/1726922

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

There is no account conversion on upgrades or anything like that, and yes it's an upstream issue if the code doesn't work as it should

[Jeff Burns (admiraljkb)]

Here is the workaround for people coming into this bug with Two Factor Auth set. You need to generate an application specific password for the Google acct in "Online Accounts" from this page: https://security.google.com/settings/security/apppasswords

Google's full documentation on generating application specific passwords for applications that aren't compatible with MFA: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833?hl=en

I saw this as well, and set an app specific password to get around it, but it would be nice if I didn't have to use that workaround. :)

[Carlos Laviola (claviola)]

I'm affected by this issue and do have 2FA enabled, but using an app specific password did not fix the issue. I still get frequent popups.

[Alexander Panov (puneach)]

Well, the workaround that works for me is to toggle off the Calendar in the Search section of the system settings.

[mat (drmtiede-k)]

On this page

https://askubuntu.com/questions/967137/calendar-constantly-requiring-google-authentication-on-17-10

a solution is suggested:

"I was having the same problem and resolve it by deleting the configuration files of Evolution. Do this:

rm -rf ./.config/goa-1.0/accounts.conf
rm -rf ./.config/evolution
rm -rf ./.local/share/evolution"

Worked for me

[Emiliano (emisan420)]

I solved it by deleting the calendar. It's on my mobile phone, enough.

[paulwill (phwillis)]

Thank you Mat, deleting the config files seems to have worked for me too.

[Simon Shapiro (sheemon-lists)]

Deleting files in ~/.config is suboptimail in my case;
I have very few applications installed and already have 122 objects in .config.
It would be nice if someone [who knows] told us what variable we are to look for.
that Google seems to be the culprit in virtually all cases here, and that the applicationdoes not report itself whrn invoking this obscurity measure, fails to amaze me.