Geary/Gmail no longer compatible?

Software
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I’m a new Librem 5 user and am attempting to move some basic services over from my previous phone (an iPhone). I’ve managed to move my contacts but have been unable to add my Gmail to Geary (it seems Google stopped allowing “less secure apps” in January of 2025) and am wondering if there’s a workaround or if Geary just isn’t workable? Also, is there any current known method to access proton apps through PureOs?

Very new to the system here and my Linux familiarity is limited to steam deck so any point in the right direction would be great.

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Maybe you can get it to work if you create an “app password” for geary.

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It doesn’t appear so. Following that link takes me to a page saying my Google account doesn’t permit that. I also see that as of January 2025 Google is no longer supporting apps that don’t use OAuth. So the librem’s mail client is incompatible with the most common email user. Which is a pretty big problem? I’m also unable to sync calendars and haven’t been able to find a process to enable any of the proton stuff I use for Security/passkeys etc. I was probably naively assuming the setups of the basic functionalities would be relatively painless.

I think this may be a quick path to a return, although I just noticed they charge a restocking fee so wow what a mistake I’ve made.

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I used my ex gmails in geary till december 2025.

2 ways:

  1. login throw browser
  2. on geary throw bridge: Arena | Benchmark & Compare the Best AI Models
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You can always leave gmail. Setup another email account (anything that is not Microsoft or Google) and let your old gmail autoforward to the other account for a while, before you delete the google account.

(In my opinion anyone who has a google or microsoft account should delete it. That has nothing to do with Purism or Librem 5, it’s just a matter of decency. Having an account there means that you are helping those huge companies. Don’t help them cause even more harm to the world.)

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I’m in the process of switching everything to protonmail, but failing to find a way to effectively get that into Librem 5 yet, I was setting up my Gmail to have email communication functioning with my old account in the meantime. Geary claims to work with Gmail and that was one of the reasons I was ok making the switch having not figured out how to use proton yet. I should have and did anticipate a major learning curve but finding out support hasn’t been available for Gmail for over a year and it’s not mentioned was a surprising hurdle. At this point I’ve just swapped my mobile service back to my iPhone until I figure out a workable solution. The 20% restocking fee and paying for shipping both ways doesn’t exactly make a return convenient or affordable.

I’ll keep trying to figure things out but I’m generally disappointed with the phone and it’s my own fault for not paying attention to it essentially not upgrading it’s specs since 2018. I think I was just excited to finally find a phone that wasn’t Google or Apple or Samsung that I could feasibly use and didn’t catch the red flags.

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Your personal data is the property of these other companies. If you try to escape, unless you do it totally alone and uniquely in a way that other people would laugh at because of how much you go to – as long as its a trend their data processing can follow – then they will discuss the trend of people like you leaving in their meetings at the office, and formulate a plan to have your technology hurt you and infuriate you until you go back to them.

I have been using my Librem 5 almost exclusively as my phone for 3 years. The problem with it has almost never been that it physically did not work. The problem is that our social technology landscape in society is locked up in proprietary stuff. Because of this, if nothing else I the Librem 5 gives proof that you cannot escape, and will never escape.

Even if I were to ask Claude Code to construct an email client right now which downloads and browses your Gmails, which actually might be pretty easy to do for a Librem 5 in the year 2026, and then assuming that would be a GTK python script we could add it to the home screen of your Librem 5 with a standard Linux desktop entry, and then now you have the solution to that one problem, as the days go by and you use your Librem 5 you’re going to get hit over the head over and over and over with the fact that our modern oligarchs do not share power.

Some friends invited me to eat with them at Chick-fil-A. They ordered food at the table with their phones. I tried to do that and it said I must use the app to order. I launched my dual boot to Android and I downloaded Chick-Fil-A app on the dual boot, but my dual boot configuration is sub ideal and very slow, and Google’s been making it run slower with time since in my opinion Google Play Store is attacking the Librem 5 in a hostile way and draining the battery. (That part is my opinion not proven fact.)

After fighting with it for 15 minutes while my friends were already eating, I decided to walk up to the counter and order food from a human. After I put in my order the human said, “Oh, do you have the app? If you had the app you can get free points on this order.”

The ladder for an alternative solution to Android or iOS to be created is quickly being pulled up.

I do not know for certain but I think a lot of people who order this device are doing what you are doing. It is probably so many that Purism’s only option is to try to mitigate hemorrhaging money with a policy like this, much to the delight of Apple and Google, I’m sure. Because the alternative solution would be to go through our society to places like Chick-Fil-A and countless other restaurants and to force them to build their interaction with handsets in a different way – which they will refuse to do.

So, if you leave this up to the duopoly, not only will this be a quick path to the return but all other options that you can try to buy to use to escape will also be a quick path to a return, because your escape is simply not permitted.

My friends, family, coworkers, and other people tell me that I must change phone. Last weekend a friends kid was asking if I would play some Roblox with them, and I told them Roblox doesn’t work on my phone. I told them my phone mostly only plays games I wrote. They said my phone is boring and I should get a phone that isn’t boring.

I know the future. I know what will happen. After using my Librem 5 for three years, I know that in the end they will make it illegal for me to use a Librem 5. “They” could be anyone, any level of society, but I know they will. It’s only a matter of time.

Unlike you, I’m going to enjoy this time where I was allowed to use an alternative, at huge financial and emotional cost to myself, to the fullest… Because I can. And so I decided I will.

When I want to read gmail, I log in using a browser, get whatever I so desperately needed, and then exit and log back out. Works fine on desktop and it works on the Librem 5 but is a little slow. Google will probably make it even more slow as time goes on. Yes, running JavaScript on the Librem 5 would be moral compromise if I were Richard Stallman, but I guess I’m not. I’m someone who decided that Librem 5 is my phone, and so it shall be.

Edit: Here’s a screenshot of me browsing a spam email on my Gmail while on my Librem 5 in bed:

2026-02-21-160605B
2026-02-21-160605B1440×720 84.3 KB

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You may be able to add it if you mostly follow these instructions: https://support.system76.com/articles/using-geary/.

I don’t use Gmail so I don’t know how compatible the OAuth is within Byzantium. You may need to upgrade to Crimson with the pureos-upgrade GUI app (In the Terminal app, sudo apt install pureos-upgrade, then open the app and follow the instructions).

Restocking fees are more common among smaller companies because returned products cannot be resold as new even if they are barely used. The smaller product movement means they must recoup these losses in some way to have a sustainable business.

Here are some examples of companies that impose a fee from returning products:

Pine64:

Items that are returned for a refund are subject to a 15% restocking fee (per unit).

Shipping charges, custom duties and taxes are non-refundable.

Commission fee charged by financial institute (PayPal, Stripe, and etc) are non-refundable and typical is 5%.

Products that are shipped on a freight collect basis will not be accepted.

Customers will be responsible for any shipping costs to the RMA center.

ThinkPenguin:

If you are unsatisfied with your product for any reason you may return it within 14 days for a refund minus any payment processing costs associated with said payment method. As of May 6, 2019 this will usually be around 3% for credit cards and PayPal. Crypto currencies are 0%. Shipping and handling fees are not refundable. A $40 replacement fee will be assessed if scratches or damage are present on laptop or desktop panel(s).

Slimbook:

If the reason for the return is your choice, the management costs will be borne by you, being the amount of the product and not shipping costs or financing fees (if you had them), which will be returned.

Vikings:

If you revoke this contract, we shall reimburse you all payments we have received from you, including delivery costs (except for additional costs resulting from the fact that you have chosen a type of delivery other than the most favorable standard delivery offered by us), without undue delay and no later than within fourteen days from the day on which we received the notification of your revocation of this contract.

You shall bear the direct costs of returning the goods.
You only have to pay for a loss in value of goods if this loss in value is due to handling of the goods that are not necessary for testing the quality, characteristics, and functionality of the goods.

Ubuntushop.biz:

The nature of the selling customized products can not be returned so you pursuant to Art. 80 §4, 2 ° Act does not have a right of withdrawal on trade practices and consumer information. (Supply of products that are made to the consumer’s specifications or that have a clearly personal character or that cannot be returned due to their nature) Each sale-purchase is from the conclusion of the agreement final and not subject to any reflection period.

Juno Computers:

Once your return is received and inspected, we will send you an email to notify you that we have received your returned item. At this time we will notify you of the approval or rejection of your refund.

Juno Computers USA, LLC will deduct 10% off the original value excluding shipping, then your refund will be processed and a credit will automatically be applied to your credit card or original method of payment, within a certain amount of days.

Transactions made by bank transfer will be refunded excluding shipping cost. Processing times vary from 3-7 working days.

Shipping costs are non-refundable on all orders.

Schiit.com:

When we receive your product in its original box, with any accessories intact, in like-new condition, we’ll refund the full purchase price of your product or products, minus a 5%-15% restocking fee (actual amount noted on each product page.) Of course, shipping is not included in the refund—you will pay full shipping to and from your location. Orders returned with damage or in non-stock packaging may be assessed an additional fee for reconditioning.

Covert Instruments:

Returns

Most unused items can be returned within 7 days. Used items cannot be returned.

25% restock fee applies to returns of: Covert Companion Pro, Covert Companion & SSF Parts, Genesis Sets, Echelon, Arbiter, CI Practice Locks, Tubular Pick, Impressioning Kit, Learn Lock Picking Bundle, Lock Sport Trainer, Grav Pick, Butterfly Comb, Reaper Set, APEX Sets, Lishi Tools, Specialty/Bump Keys.

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In Crimson, there is now a package that switches user agent in Firefox for Google services. Therefore you get this message that your device is not supported. I solved it by temporary installing chromium, making it default browser, logging in to google and deleting chromium. Surely one can do it by manipulating user agent, which I did not want to do

After deleting chromium geary, calendar, google disk etc remained working

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:clap: :clap: :clap:
Same here, Dlonk :handshake:
It isn’t Librem 5 itself, it’s this society-cage!
But masses want easylife = loose freedom, like your friends at restaurant! So populations are the most guilty!!
World never change and we, small free-island, we’ll keep our freedom in anyway (Librem 5, no thechy restaurants,…)

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I have Fetchmail working with two Gmail accounts using app passwords and it’s worked for years. I don’t know if they still allow creating an app password for IMAP access but if you have it working they haven’t stopped it. I have had it retrieve new email today.

The email retrieved by fetchmail is stored in my own IMAP server running Dovecot which works well with Geary and every other FOSS MUA I’ve tried.

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The limitation that you are highlighting is purely a software issue. So it can get resolved over time if you are patient.

I am reasonably certain that crimson has a slightly later version of Geary than byzantium has. So it may be help to see what version of Geary, if any, has OAuth support.

As an alternative you might try using Thunderbird.

Indeed. I can’t see how using gmail is at all compatible with caring about privacy.

I understand of course that it can be painful to change email address in order to ditch gmail. It’s a one-off exercise but it can be time-consuming and messy.

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You can use thunderbird and thunderbird-mobile-config to access gmail via oauth. It also brings support for PGP end to end encryption. It is more reliable and stable than geary. I have been using it for a long time already without any issues.

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You’re 100% right in all of this and my frustration is certainly less with purism and more with the fact that technology has become such a cage. I can’t really blame a company for doing what they’ve needed to do to try to offer a solution in a political/economic structure that truly doesn’t want to permit one.

I appreciate your post, it definitely echoes and affirms the experience I’ve been having trying to reclaim some control and privacy - can’t just wait for the revolution at this point I expect.

As it stands I’m going to hold onto the Librem and get it to a place where it functions as well as it can while I try to make a break out of some of the more insidious closed loop.

The suggestions here are much appreciated, from everyone - I’m over my head tech-wise but I can spend some time learning. I’m a geriatric millennial so I still have DOS in my blood somewhere.

thanks,

Charlie

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Understood, and the thoughtful response to my frustration is appreciated. I’m going to spend some more time learning how to make the best use of the Librem and see if I can make the transition over time while using the learning period to untangle myself as much as possible from the beautiful capitalist panopticon that makes it so difficult for us to make our own choices.