Apple earlier this week released macOS Mojave 10.14.4, which has had the unfortunate side effect of rendering the Mail app unusable for some who use Gmail services for their email addresses.
After installing the macOS 10.14.4 update and opening the Mail app, Gmail users are asked to authenticate their email addresses using a Google web login form.
Unfortunately, the authentication process does not stick, and shortly after authenticating, the Mail app asks for authentication once again or refuses to work, listing all Gmail accounts as offline.
There are threads on the Apple support forums and the MacRumors forums from users who are experiencing this issue, and we here at MacRumors have also run into the problem firsthand. MacRumors reader dwfaust describes the bug:
I updated to Mojave 10.14.4 yesterday and all seemed good. This morning I woke up to most (5 of 7) Gmail accounts "offline" and prompting for login credentials "in Safari".
I went through the process of entering email addresses and passwords, and the accounts are still offline.
Whenever I try to take them online, I get prompted for the logins again, but they won't come back online.Rebooted twice, but no go.
Some users have had success setting up their email accounts using IMAP as a workaround. Those who have contacted Apple support have been told that a fix is in the works, so the bug could be addressed in the near future.
Top Rated Comments
Okay, so I've tried to make this as easy as possible. We're going to use Charles to rewrite a response from google to include the email address which is for some reason missing in google's own response. This is a one time setup only needed for verification.
[LIST=1]
* Download, install and run Charles ('https://www.charlesproxy.com/download/latest-release/').
* If this is your first time using Charles it should prompt you to authorize automatic proxy configuration. Do this. (Otherwise just make sure the macOS proxy is enabled and working)
* From the Help menu choose SSL Proxying > Install Charles Root Certificate.
* Once the certificate is installed, find it in your keychain (type Charles into the search), open it, expand the Trust section and set to Always Trust. You will be prompted for your password when closing it.
* Back in Charles, from the Proxy menu choose SSL Proxying Settings.
* Add a new location with Host: people.googleapis.com.
* From the Tools menu choose Rewrite and click the Add button.
* Add a new location with Host: people.googleapis.com.
* Add a new action with the following details...
* Type: Body
* Where: Response
* Replace Value: {"names":[{"metadata":{"primary":true},"displayName":"Your Name"}],"emailAddresses":[{"value":"your@email"}]}
* (Make sure you put in your name and email address)
* Once you save this, we're all set. Go to your system Internet Accounts or (Mail) and authorize your account.
* If everything thing is working, you can quit Charles and feel free to delete the certificate from Keychain.
Any patch needs to be QA'd, and that will take a cycle or two. I just wish there was a better way for Apple to get the word out to people that there are known issues to be aware of so people didn't update and get hit with this in the mean time.
Thanks to MR for posting it. [s]At least I know I'm not crazy.[/s] At least this can't be taken as further evidence that I'm crazy.