Internet Accounts - Authentication Failed

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castamina Author

Level 1

4 points

Internet Accounts - Authentication Failed

Not sure why, I cannot add a Google account to Internet Accounts in System Preferences.

When trying to add a Google account, I am prompted to Open Browser. When I click, I get the message:

"Failed to authenticate with Google, please try again later"

I think it's because I am using a mid-2012 Macbook Pro, running on Catalina 10.15.7.

My feeling is that somehow this somwhat outdated OS has a bug and can't connect to the internet. Not sure why, but for some reason the connection is blocked only with regard to System Preferences, other than that, the internet works well.

This is the message that appears when trying to add a Google account:

This is the message that follows:

And this is another example of System Preferences unable to update software, any internet-related issues appear to be blocked.

Any help would be greatly appreciated :)

MacBook Pro

Posted on Jun 2, 2022 3:46 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Sharhari

Level 5

6,293 points

Jun 3, 2022 2:12 AM in response to castamina

Have you tried to add/authenticate in safe mode?

Safe Mode: How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support (Takes longer to boot compared to normal boot)

Note: Safe mode prevents your Mac from loading certain software as it starts up, including login items, system extensions not required by macOS, and fonts not installed by macOS. It also does a basic check of your startup disk, similar to using First Aid in Disk Utility. And it deletes some system caches, including font caches and the kernel cache, which are automatically created again as needed.

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Answer 2

castamina Author

Level 1

4 points

Jun 3, 2022 5:33 AM in response to Sharhari

Dear Sharhari

hi

Thanks for reaching out.

After many failed attempts and various tests, I did manage to somehow get everything to work.

I did not solve the core issue of System Preferences not connecting to the internet, that's still a mystery.

What I did was to connect the through Internet Accounts > Add Other Account... > Mail Account.

I still could not connect directly to a Google account, but this workaround somehow works, so things are working fine.

Of course to achieve that, I had to log in several times to Gmail via a web browser, confirm I trust the device, add extra verification layers and mess around with the account info details.

I think I had to to a 2-layer verification of that Google account, which means giving a phone number, and then add an App Password, and that seemed to do the trick.

Very exhausting and time-consuming process.

To your question, I did not try Safe Mode, from previous times, I remember it didn't help. I did try to log out and create another user and see if it helped, but the problem persisted.

I don't think I have a Startup Disk set up via Disk Utility and didn't want to complicate things over an email account.

I wish some official Apple expert would read this, do the research and explain why Mid-2012 Macbook Pro, running on Catalina doesn't connect to the internet via System Preferences. Probably a case of outdated software designed to phase out old Hardware and replace with the new, but that's just my guess...

Thank You :)

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Internet Accounts - Authentication Failed

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