Gmail: how to create an app password, step by step
Google doesn’t let email programs and moving services into your mailbox with your normal password. Instead there are app passwords: a separate 16-letter password that only works for one program. You can delete it at any time without changing your actual password.
Requirement: “2-Step Verification” must be turned on in your Google Account. Without it there are no app passwords.
Step by step
- Open myaccount.google.com and sign in.
- Choose Security. Turn on 2-Step Verification there if it is still off. Google guides you through the setup, usually with your smartphone.
- Open the App passwords page. It is well hidden in the menu, so the direct link is easiest.
- Enter a name you will recognise later, for example “Mailovo”, and click Create.
- Google shows a 16-letter password in four groups. Copy it now, it is only shown this once.
- Paste it into the password field at Mailovo. The spaces can stay, we remove them ourselves.
After the move: delete the app password
Open the App passwords page again and click the bin icon next to “Mailovo”. Mailovo deletes the password after the move and forwarding anyway, but this closes access on Google’s side too.
If it doesn’t work
- “The setting you are looking for is not available for your account”: Usually 2-Step Verification isn’t turned on yet. Accounts from work, school or a club (Google Workspace) and accounts in the Advanced Protection Program don’t have app passwords either. For Workspace accounts, ask your administrator.
- Mailovo says Gmail needs an app password: You entered your normal Google password. Create an app password as shown above and use that.
- The move takes longer than expected: Gmail limits how much data a program may read and write per day. For very large mailboxes, Mailovo spreads the move over several days and continues automatically each time.
By the way, you no longer need to turn on IMAP access, which is used to copy emails, separately in Gmail.