These Tips Also Pertain to Using the YouTube App and all Other Google Apps on ios Devices
Some things have changed with Apple’s processing of email account credentials in ios 8 and 8.1, and getting the mail app to work for Gmail Accounts is difficult. After a lot of trial and error, the only successful method for me involved setting up 2 Step Verification for my Google account. Once 2 Step is enabled, any Google App you use on an iPad or iPhone will need to use the 2 step process to sign into it.
There doesn’t seem to be a lot of consistency in how Google is using the new account security settings right now. The steps outlined below should apply to the YouTube app as well…but right now they don’t seem to. When signing on there I’m told to use my regular Google account password not the app specific one discussed below. Yet when trying to upload a video using Apple’s iMovie app, I was required to setup 2 Step Verification for that Google account too. And then needed to generate an app password for the iMovie app. For a little more information regarding that see my post about Fixing Uploading Problems Using iMovie on ios 8.
My Tips Were Originally Intended For:
Setting Up Gmail for the New iPhone 6 & 6+
& the iPad Air 2 & iPad Mini 3
A lot of people have found they just randomly lose their signin credentials for Gmail for no apparent reason.
If that occurs, & if you’re on ios 8, you’ll need to follow this method
too to reestablish you’re Gmail account.
This method will work for most ios devices.
Here’s the longer version with explanations for
how I setup a Gmail account for ios 8 on my new iPhone and iPad Air
To Skip the Long Version Scroll to the Quick Steps Immediately After This Section
First I went to the login page for my Gmail account in Safari and then to the Account Security Settings. I looked at the Account Permissions, and saw that permissions had been granted to quite a few apps and/or devices, but that there was no way to generate a new permission. So I went back to the account security settings page and clicked/tapped on the blue button saying ‘Get Started‘ in the ‘Secure Your Account‘ section .
This took me through a series of four steps where I was asked to review recent activity on my account and confirm some things. Then I arrived at a page suggesting I setup 2 Step Verification. I tapped on a few of the ‘Learn More’ things and then went through the steps to setup 2 Step Verification (which is Google’s method for 2 Factor Authentication).
My Second Step Choice for the 2 Step Verification Process
I setup my account so that Google would text me a code (to my cell phone) whenever I wanted to login to my Gmail account (from a new device). I’ll need to do that once on each device that I want to access my Gmail account from. But I also checked off a box saying that this device is a trusted one, so that I shouldn’t need to go through the 2 Step process again for that device.
After setting up the 2 Step Verification, I needed to delete my Gmail account from one ios device (my new iPhone 6+) and then I re-entered all the account details again, this time using a unique app password generated by Google under my account settings (using Safari.)
On the rest of my ios devices I didn’t need to delete the existing account. I just deleted the old password and pasted in a new unique app password in for each one. The password needs to be unique, so freshly generated on the Google account settings page.
QUICK STEPS
Step 1 Login to your Google account using Safari browser on your ios device.
Step 2 Go to your account security settings page and go through the series of steps for Security checkup. In the process you’ll be setting up 2 Step Verification.
Step 3 Go to your account settings details again, look for the Signing In Section, go there and find app passwords, tap on view and follow their steps for creating an app password for your Gmail account on your iPhone or iPad.
Step 4 When setting up your Gmail account in ios settings, enter the app password instead of your regular Gmail password.
YouTube ios 8 & 8.*
Using 2 Step Verification
Once 2 Step Verification was enabled for my Gmail account I also needed to replace the password for my Google account for each Google app on each device that I use. You don’t really need to do this though. I did it because I have several YouTube channels, therefore I switch from one channel to another within the app to manage my videos and playlists. YouTube works just fine without being signed into a Google account, therefore I’m not sure how many people actually use the YouTube app the way I do.
Oddly, 2 Step worked a little differently here. The YouTube app required me to log out of and then back into YouTube on each device (and each account that I had 2 Step setup on). Rather than entering an app password here, I found that the I needed to login using my regular password first, and then I was sent a text message with a new code to enter in the verification field when it displayed.
The main ios Google apps are:
YouTube
Google Drive
Google Maps
Google Earth
Google +
Google
From what I can gather, the Google app functions just like Google Now does on Android devices.
Which Google Apps Use 2 Step &
Which Require A Unique App Password
Some additional Google Apps include:
Inbox, Google Translate, Google Docs, Google Drive & Web Albums for Picasa
It’s not essential that you actually sign into a Google account for using some of these apps. However, if you use them a lot and save information within them then you will need to log into them at some point. I do use YouTube a lot and upload videos, so I decided to do that one and the Google Drive one right away.
App Passwords are Required in Only a Few Specific Instances
Apparently you only need to use Google generated app passwords for the following situations:
- Mail app on ios devices
- Outlook Mail application on desktop computers
- Mail application on Mac computers
How & When To Use Google’s 2 Step Verification on a normal day-to-day basis:
Whenever Google doesn’t give you the option to generate an app password, the normal 2 Step process occurs. Which, to reiterate, involves signing into your Google account as you normally would, and then entering a numeric code which in my case is texted to me. That code is the second form of verification.
TIP 1: Personally I Think It’s a Good Idea to Provide Google With Additional Ways to Grant Access to Your Account
After completing these steps I went back to my Account Security settings and added a backup telephone number which I then tested, using a land line phone number. After I entered my telephone number I checked off a box indicating I would like to test it. Within a minute I received a phone call from Washington DC with a recorded voice telling me the numeric code I needed to enter for logging in.
TIP 2: Generating Backup Codes
I also think it’s a good idea to generate a set of backup codes. These are used in the event that neither of your 2 initial methods of getting a verification code are available to you. So in my case, if I’m not anywhere near either my cell phone or my land line telephone, I could use one of my backup codes. Each code can only be used once. You should keep these codes with you, preferably in an encrypted format, so that if you ever need to log into your account and nothing else works, you still are able to.
Tip 2: If You Use Several Apps Created By Google You May Not Have To Go Through This For Each App
An example is if you use both Inbox (Google’s great new Gmail App which I wrote about here) and YouTube, I recently found that I didn’t need to re-enter each 2 step password for both apps. If it was entered and verified in one, the other was automatically linked to that.
Here are some links to take to to the correct places to setup 2 Step Verification for Gmail and Google Accounts
- Learn All About Google 2 Step Verification
- An Alternative Method to Learn About Google 2 Step Verification with Additional Menu Choices
- Google Account Security Settings
- View Google Account Permissions
- Learn about how to sign in using an App Password
- Start Setting Up 2 Step Verification for a Google Account
The link below takes you to a sort of Dashboard for managing your security after the 2 Step Process is complete. There are several tabs at the top of the page, and one of them is the one you use to generate app passwords for the Mail app on ios devices.
Main Settings Page for 2 Step Verification After You’ve Set It Up
A Few More Links I Added Later:
- Trouble shooting problems with App Passwords
- YouTube Video Explaining App Passwords
- Troubleshooting problems related to 2 Step Verification
Additional Tip or Work Around if You’re Having Problems
Entering the Code Sent by Text
While Using Google 2 Step Verification
I ran into a glitch getting the code to copy paste on my new iPhone 6+. Google’s instructions told me to just open the settings for Gmail and the verification code would be entered. But I had already opened the settings page for Gmail, and the instant I did that a text message popped with a verification code for me to enter. So I typed in that code, but it didn’t work.
When I went to generate a new code that didn’t happen again and I couldn’t copy it. So ultimately I typed the code into Notes on a different iPad and then synced notes (by tapping on Account in the top left corner of the screen within the note app and dragging down all the note accounts with my finger to refresh). Then I copied the code from there and pasted it into the Gmail settings and it worked!
vsatips 