Updated: How to make Eudora 7 work with Gmail servers

Thanks to Hermes

 

Eudora is an old email client. Last updated in 2006, it does not do well on Windows 8/10. It is software that I have been using on my desktop computers since December, 1994, when I first got onto the Internet (from CompuServe). My 96-year-old dad uses it. Today many, who tend to get their email through a Web browser and with free clients like GMail and Outlook, see it as a dinosaur.

 

Eudora's Unique Functions

Except that Eudora does things no modern email client does, and I have tried a dozen alternatives over the years. Here are some of the functions that I cannot live without:

Display two or more mailbox windows at the same time, side by side. This is crucial for me, as my In and Out boxes act as my reminder lists.

• Emails in my Inbox are items I still need to deal with (I color emails that are crucial, like upcoming Webinars, in red)
• Emails in my Outbox are things I am expecting to hear from others, such as outstanding invoices (I color emails that involve income with green)
• All other email is carefully moved to the approximately 100 mail boxes that sort my stuff

With the In and Out boxes side by side, I see at a glance what needs to be done, as well as newly arrived emails. This function is so important that I dedicate one entire monitor to Eudora. (My desktop computer has three monitors.)

Resend Email. I use old emails as templates for new ones. For example, I lead a men's reading group and each week I send out a reminder to the guys. I use the Resend function, which makes an exact copy, which I then modify it as needed. A h-u-g-e productivity boost. (I color emails I tend to resend with brown.)

Queued Send. Some email systems now provide this: the ability to schedule when an email should be sent. I find it useful to write an email days in advance (when I have the time), then queue it to send later -- such as that men's reading group reminder.

 

Eudora's Drawbacks

Being old, Eudora is becoming less and less compatible as Windows changes and the Internet becomes more secure.

Windows Incompatibility. For instance, Eudora expects a 32-bit system, so it only works on 64-bit Windows 7 when you  move some of its files after installation.

It kind of works on Windows 8, and I have given up trying to make it work on Windows 10. Hence, my desktop computer still runs Windows 7 just to accommodate Eudora. (I have a spare Windows 7 machine under the desk should my workhorse give up one sad day.)

Eudora also struggles today with modern HTML code in emails, as well as Unicode extended characters. I can overcome these problems by right-clicking the email, and then choosing Show in Browser.

Internet Incompatibility. Eudora has been working fine with my ISP, Telus, who hadn't done anything over the decades to improve email security. For email access, Telus didn't even require a strong password. But a major lapse last year smartened up the company, when customers went without email for weeks, or, in the case of my dad, months. This month Telus moved the host email system of its business customers (like me) from Dell to Google.

Then Eudora no longer worked. In me, the panic was palpable.

 

The Telus Debacle

Telus shifted my email to Google without particularly informing me. I noticed something was wrong when I wasn't getting any emails throughout the day. I contacted tech support, and slowly it dawned on the techie what happened.

Telus had indeed sent me an email warning me of the switch, but I ignored it. Reason being that Telus allows so much spam through their servers that claim to come from "Telus" insisting I click a button to keep from "losing my account." An email telling me that I needed to take action because I was being "moved to Gmail" was just as worthy of being ignored.

The techie guy said he'd wait a day for the transfer to Gmail to complete and then call me to help me change my email settings. He never did.

In any case, the Gmail settings that Telus lists on its support page are incomplete. 

 

Fixing Eudora

So I was left on my own to fix Eudora. It took about two days. 

My first approach was download and try out a half-dozen email clients. None offered the three crucial features I list above. The "modern" Eudora 8 proved a disappointment, as it is merely a version of Thunderbird, and doesn't do the three crucial tasks.

Thunderbird was helpful in one regard: it does an excellent job of determining automatically the arcane settings for sending (smtp) and receiving (pop/imap) emails. It was thru Thunderbird that I found that Telus posted incomplete GMail settings; eventually I found the full set of settings on Google's support page:

• SMTP and IMAP https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7126229
• POP https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7104828

The problem is, you can't just fix one setting; everything has to be perfect. So here are the steps you need to take:

1. Weaken GMail's security
2. Open up Eudora's access to port numbers
3. Replace aging security DLLs in Eudora
4. Set up properties properly

 

Weaken GMail Security

You  need to weaken GMail's security to allow Eudora access your email stored on Google's severs. The Less secure app access setting is required to allow SMTP, POP, and IMAP access. Here's how to implement it:

1. Sign into your GMail account, and then click the Gear icon, and then choose See All Settings: 

2. Choose the Accounts and Import tab.

3. Next to Change account settings, click Google Account settings.

4. On the left, click Security.

5.   Scroll down to Less secure app access. Enable it. 

6. While in GMail Settings, click on the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab.

7. Turn on the Enable POP for all mail (even mail that's already been downloaded) setting.

(If you plan to use IMAP, them turn on Enable IMAP.)

8. Click Save Changes.

 

Editing Port Numbers

Regular Eudora does not allow you to change port numbers. To do this, you need to add an extension to Eudora, which fortunately is included in the install but hidden away. Here is how to access it:

1. Close Eudora.
2. Go to the C:\Program Files (x86)\Qualcomm\Eudora Mail 7\extrastuff folder
3. Copy the esoteric.epi to one folder higher (C:\Program Files (x86)\Qualcomm\Eudora Mail 7). EPI files are like extensions to Eudora. This one add more options to the end of the Options dialog box.
4. Start Eudora.
5. From the menu, open Tools | Options, then scroll to the end of the Options dialog box. Notice all the new items that the EPI file added.
6. Click on Ports, and then change the default values, which are meant for unsecure email access, to port numbers used for secure access. See figure below for the numbers to use:

Click OK to close the dialog box.

 

Updating Eudora's Security

Eudora is such an important email client that a few intrepid programmers are working on bringing it up to date. The Hermes Mail project has so far produced files that update the security in Eudora, as required by today's mail servers.  

(Do not confuse Hermes Mail with Hermes Web Mail; the latter is not what you want here.)

The following files solve the problem of Eudora 7.1 not accepting and validating Secure Sockets Layer
certificates -- specifically updating it from TLS 1.0 to TLS 1.2:

1. Close Eudora.
2. Go to sourceforge.net/projects/hermesmail/ and then click Download. This downloads the HermSSL.zip file.
3. Unzip the file.
4. Navigate to the lowermost HermSSL folder
5. First, run vcredist.ese. This is a just-in-case Windows support file that is needed by the new code; if the install returns an error, this means your computer already has the needed support file, so no worries.
6. Copy the following four files to the main Eudora folder, such as C:\Program Files (x86)\Qualcomm\Eudora Mail 7:
    libeay32.dll
   QCSSL.dll
   rootcerts.p7b
   ssleay32.dll
   
   Allow Windows to copy over existing files. 

 

Set Up Properties Properly

There are many options for setting up the Properties of a Personality (as Eudora calls an email account). I have pasted below a screen grab of the ones that work for me. Specifically, take note of these settings:

1. Start Eudora
2. From the menu, choose Tools | Personalities
3. Right-click your personality (email account name), and then choose Properties
4. Enter the settings shown below for Generic Properties and Incoming Mail.
   
   
5. When done changing the settings, click OK to close the Options dialog box.
6. Right-click your personality, and then choose Test. Eudora should report no errors. If it does, then the most likely problem is that you did not change Secure Sockets when Sending to "Required, Alternate Port" in the Options dialog box.
   
7. Now press Ctrl+M to download your waiting email. Life is good again!

 

Generic Properties

User name must be the one that you use to log into the Gmail account; in my case, it is [email protected]

SMTP server must be smtp.gmail.com

Secure Sockets when Sending must be "Required, Alternate Port". This forces Eudora to (a) use security and (b) use the port numbers you specified in Options | Ports. This is probably the most crucial setting to use in Eudora to make it work with Gmail!

 

Incoming Mail

Server must be pop.gmail.com for POP or else imap.gmail.com for IMAP; for a program like Eudora, you probably want POP service

Secure Sockets when Sending must be "Required, Alternate Port"

 

Dealing with Google's New Security Setting

It appears that Google has changed a security setting that may affect Eudora accessing GMail. The change is that Google is turning off the "Less Secure Apps" option if it unused. You can still keep it turned on.

From reader Evan Tigard:

In gmail settings: Only if you turn on 2-step verification for the account, you can choose to generate an app-specific password. I also noticed that once you change the account to 2-step verification, the setting of "less secure apps" is no longer available.

In Eudora: Then I told Eudora to "forget the password" for just that account. Then upon checking for mail, it asks for a password and I entered the generated password. After that, Eudora fetched and sent my gmail no problem.

 

Comments

[TonyT]

Could you run it in a virtual machine? For example, computer is running Windows 10 64-bit, while Eudora is running in a 32-bit Windows 7 VM?

(Also, it might be worth trying a Windows 10 32-bit VM, especially an older vintage. 32-bit Windows 10 seems to have better compatibility than 64-bit. We have a machine we just made, special order, that has to run Windows 10 32-bit 1909 - NOT the current 20H2 - because it uses 20-year old hardware and software designs that don't work with 64-bits, and finally won't work with the latest 32-bit Windows 10. OTOH, I have to give MS some credit - can you run 20-year old binary (not source) software on the latest Mac or Linux versions?)

[Ralph Grabowski]

I think I made it work on Windows 7 by setting the Compatibility property of Eudora.exe for Windows Vista, and then run it at the Administrator Level.

A friend tells me he got it work on Windows 10, and I've asked him for the details.

[Jason]

Ralph,

I believe eM Client provides all the features you're looking for. With version 8. they now also include an option to launch multiple windows. I like the ability to create template emails, and can send out as a mass email, such as a reminder to your reading group.

I would wouldn't recommend using google as your mail system. I see it as being geared towards general consumers rather than for professional use. They dictate too much over what you can and can't do with your own email account. i.e. You lose sovereignty over your communications. For example. it is impossible to send an AutoCAD script (.SCR) file as an attachment. If you try it doesn't provide any messaging to the fact it hasn't been sent, or why, it just disappears. Same happens with receiving. I had a printer company repeatedly try and send me some printer drivers for a printer that we were having trouble with. Never received the email, never received a message to say that it had been blocked either.

[Ralph Grabowski]

My solution to sending files that Google censors is to use a cloud service, pCloud in my case, to make the transfer.

Thanks for your tips on eM Client.

[Allen Lacy]

I also use Eudora 7 for basically the same features you do. I have been using it with gmail for many years. I was using Eudora with a non gmail server then I switched to gmail about 7 years ago. I found directions similar to yours on how to get it to work. Then in 2017 I got a new laptop with 64bit Windows 10 home version. I just copied the Eudora files to the Windows 10 system and it worked. Since it was so long ago that I configured Eudora to work with gmail I not sure what I did different from you.

Note the reason I found your page, is I remembered reading that Google is going to remove the "Less secure app access" and I was hunting information on how to get Eudora to work without that setting. Besides this page I also found

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833?hl=en

I don't know if this applies to you or me.

[Ralph Grabowski]

I think that Google will keep the less-secure option. Keep in mind that data-mining is the only thing Google is interested in. If a product or service returns user data to Google, then it holds on to it. Desktop software like Picasa had to be killed because we could use it under the radar.

By offering the less-secure option, Google gains access to many more email accounts, whose data it can harvest.

[Erwin Landsberger]

Dear Ralph:
I followed all your steps trying to get Eudora 7 work with gmail.com after Telus migrated my account. However Eudora still does not work and gives an error and goes nowhere. The error contains the phrase Connection closed by foreign host. Could I have missed something or do you have some new information. After using Eudora since email first came to being years ago I do not want to give it up. There is nothing out there that is as good. Am running Windows 7.

[Rob Abbott]

Hi Ralph,
I wanted to thank you for your time and effort in putting all of this together. It has enabled me to get my Eudora 7.1 up and running on Gmail after the Telus migration similiar to yourself. I was running Eudora 6.1 on my Win 7 machine prior to this but found that it will not cooperate with Gmail so I downloaded 7.1 from
http://www.oldversion.com/windows/eudora-7-1-0-9
Your instructions were very clear and allowed me to walk through what needed to be done. I could not have done this had I not found your website.
The only thing I found was that the SMTP Port number you show under ' Editing Port Numbers' should be 465 not 587.
587 is specified in 'Account Settings / Generic Properties / SMTP Server / Use submission port (587) - checked as yes.
Thanks once again for a job well done. Us old Eudora fans can keep on truckin'!

Best Regards,

Rob Abbott

[Ralph Grabowski]

Hmmm... SMTP Port 587 works for me and for my dad's Telus account.

OTOH, a reader has contacted me as he is unable to collect his email. I'll pass on your tip to him, to see if that is change he needs to make.

[Hans]

Hi everybody.
I have been running EUDORA 6.2 for some 20 years and am perfectly happy with it. My provider telus just forced me to migrate my telus account to gmail and now I am locked out. EU62 cannot send e-mail nor receive it, not with the pop and smtp and port settings provided to me. I have wasted 5 hours on this already, trying any angle with the settings. But I need access to all my past e-mails, stored in countless mailboxes going back some 20 years, and I love EUDORAs interface and options.
Following the explicit advice given above by RG for EU7, I installed v 7.1.0.9, in the hopes of getting this version to 'talk' to the gmail servers. But this failed as well. I cannot even set the ports because the sponsored and free modes do not have this option. I'd be happy to pay to get the 'full' version but that is longer possible. So now I am totally stuck.
My computers run on Win-10.
Can anyone help me to get EU62 to talk to the gmail servers? Alternatively, I need EU7 where I can set the ports. I can well imagine running on EU7, assuming that I can import all my past mail from EU62. Other?
Hans

[Ralph Grabowski]

It appears that you can download the final (newest) version of Eudora from here:

http://www.oldversion.com/windows/eudora-7-1-0-9

[Hans]

Ralph,
Thank you. This is the version I downloaded and installed. But it does not have the option of setting the ports, which likely is available only in the 'paid' version.
Hans

[Ralph Grabowski]

Be sure to install the software listed under "Editing Port Numbers," steps 1 thru 4.

[Hans]

Ralph,
Right you were: I missed to execute the 'Editing port numbers' correctly. Now done right. And now I have EUDORA 7-1-0-9 running just fine. Mind you, I still like the interface of v6.2 better. For one,: where in EU7 are the horizontal and vertical grid lines within the IN- and OUT-boxes of EU6, which I find useful? How to I get rid of the spit field in the IN- and OUT-boxes of EU7, which I find highly annoying? But I count my blessings that I came across your instructions. Otherwise I'd be in deep trouble having to give up using EUDORA altogether.
So please accept my deepest gratitude for providing all this advice, and so very clearly.
Just one more thing: Dec-17-2020 you wrote: "A friend tells me he got it work on Windows 10, and I've asked him for the details." No details necessary. I am running EUDORA 7-1-0-9 on Win-10 now, just as I have been running EUDORA 6.2 on Win-10, and 7, and XP, and NT. I never had any issues running EUDORA when upgrading/updating Windows going back to ~2005.
Hans

[Ralph Grabowski]

To get rid of the split fields, go to Tools > Options > Preview
Pane and then turn off Preview Pane.

[Michael R Dodds]

Interesting that there are still so many people using Eudora 7.1. I have been using it since early 1993 and having used several other email programs always come back to Eudora because it is much more sophisticated than most of the others including Outlook. I use it on Windows 10 but keep it directly in the C:/drive and do not allow it into Programs. I have two problems the most annoying is that, unlike Outlook, I cannot add multiple outging addresses to cc. The other problem is that the dates column for outgoing mail doesn't always keep the dates in the correct chronological order, possibly a corrupt part of the file, otherwise it handles my average 120 emails every day. The fact Gmail and Yahoo won't handle the mail directly means I have to use Earthlink but that just means I have two email addresses.

[Ralph Grabowski]

With Qualcomm having made Eudora open-source, it's a wonder no one has
taken it over to modernize it.

I can add multiple email addresses to the CC: field. Separate them with a
comma.

You can click the Date header to sort emails by date order.

[Ralph Grabowski]

With Qualcomm having made Eudora open-source, it's a wonder no one has
taken it over to modernize it.

I can add multiple email addresses to the CC: field. Separate them with a
comma.

You can click the Date header to sort emails by date order.

[Joe Blow]

THANK YOU for taking the time to post this. The instructions outlined on this page were enormously helpful in migrating my mother's account to Gmail's system and then remotely configuring her Eudora client over Teamviewer.

Everything went like clockwork except for step 6 of Set Up Properties. There was no 'Test' option in the pop up menu when right-clicking on the dominant personality (Eudora 7.1 paid mode). Instead I went to the Special menu, selected Forget password, and entered the new password after checking for incoming mail.

[Jim Kenzie]

Hello: I recently came across this forum. Glad to see others are still making the best email system ever designed function! I run 7.1.0.9 on a Windows 7 machine, and it works perfectly. At least until recently, when all of a sudden my Out Box was only showing two messages. I can drag the lower margin bar (the one with the statistics - 2101/11470K/289K; "Default (Compact)"; and the "less-than" sign < - in it) down to display more. But every time I close that window and re-open it, it goes back to show just two messages again. All other mail boxes stay showing whatever size I have established. Any one have any clues?

Thank you in advance!

Cheers,

Jim

[Ralph Grabowski]

Try maximizing the windows -- Out and Eurora itself -- then close Eudora, and open again. Let me know if this does -- or does not -- work.

[Bruce Katz]

I run paid version of the final Eudora published and I run it on Windows 10 Pro.
The only trick is that when I boot up I need to Run As Administrator.

[Todd Boyle]

I'd pay $100 for an updated version of Eudora with support. Like many of you, I've been using Eudora over 25 years and I'm not interested in re-training my entire mode of relating to my messages, content, hotkeys, and losing essential functions (detailed by Ralph).

I'm concerned to get it running, since Google is making two-factor authentication mandatory. Pop/ SMTP doesn't work anymore and my Eudora 7109 doesnt support the required settings (e.g. port 993).

I'm also concerned about vulnerabilities. In my dreams, some startup would just do the work, sell the updated version, and make money for themselves. I guess this has already been tried (the Thunderbird version Eudora 8) right?

I guess I'll try forwarding my email to my comcast account? willl that work?

[David Baker]

Hi All -

Does anyone have a solution to using Eudora (for Windows) with the newly forced Google authentication? I've tried everything I know to do, without success. Anyone have any ideas?

Fingers crossed!

DB

[Mark Ladenson]

This page is a masterpiece.

I've seen a number of places on the web which list how to set up properties properly. Nowhere else have I seen anything about weakening GMail's security, opening up Eudora's access to port numbers, and/or replacing aging security DLLs in Eudora. As regards the last item, at first I thought Windows 10 was not going to let me copy the newer DLLs to the main Eudora folder, but I was able to do so after a little fiddling around.

My principal e-mail server for 27 years has been my university's. A couple of years ago they switched from an inhouse server to that horrible MS Outlook 365. Microsoft is ending support for pop and imap in 2022, so I thought that was finally the end for my use of Eudora, a prospect I contemplated with dread. So glad to find this alternative.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

[John Miller]

I use Eudora on Windows 10. I guess I had to use the installer when moving to a new Eudora version (and I think I tried an installer version of the HermSSL when I had some problem or other), but my practice when moving to a new computer since at least Windows 95 has been to simply copy my Eudora file folder from the old computer to the new computer. I have an old style installation that has all the data and binaries in the same folder. (:We don’t need no stinkin’ Program Files and Documents. Well, at least not for Eudora.:)

Somewhere along the line -- I think it was Windows Vista with its whatsit, User Access Control? -- I started running into problems getting Eudora to run on a new machine. The solution turned out to be simply choosing “Run as Administrator” for the first time running Eudora. Doing this allowed Eudora to set itself as the default mail program in the registry. After that, Eudora could be run as a normal use program unless something else stole the default mail designation.

[John Miller]

Ralph Grabowski said
“You can click the Date header to sort emails by date order.”

Yes, but I find it is a good idea after sorting to then click on the Date header again to turn off sorting. That way, any new messages coming in will be displayed at the bottom. There is the rare misdated email, but the main benefit of turning off sorting is when the server decides to send you old email messages again, like gmail.com did when it took over each of my telus.net email addresses.

I also started toggling Date sorting on and then off again in all my filing mailboxes after I forgot to turn off the dummy filter action I use to copy the occasional email to two mailboxes and managed to copy my entire In box into another mailbox. (By the way, have I been missing something all these years? Is a filter action really the only way to make a copy of an email?)

[Ralph Grabowski]

Is a filter action really the
only way to make a copy of an email?)
Hold down the Ctrl key as you drag a message to another
folder.

[Mark Ladenson]

Following up on my comment of December 8, I started using my gmail account with Eudora at the start of the new year.
So far, sending from Eudora using the gmail server is going much more smoothly than with the Microsoft Outlook 365 server, which had really gotten finicky in the second half of December.

So again, I am so grateful for this page.

[Nick Zoa]

Thank you very much for posting these instructions. You've enabled me to continue to use Eudora -- an app that I would not want to live without. Bravo!

[Jacques Roux]

Just this morning I received this notice from google:

To help keep your account secure, starting May 30, 2022, Google will no longer support the
use of third-party apps or devices which ask you to sign in to your Google Account using only
your username and password.

I currently use Eudora 7.1.0.9 with the Hermes SSL patches, which works fine with gmail.

Could the 'Less secure apps' setting be going away?

- Jacques

[Ralph Grabowski]

It appears that the change means Google is turning off the "Less Secure Apps" option if it unused. You can still keep it turned on.

See https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6010255?hl=en-DK#zippy=%2Cif-less-secure-app-access-is-on-for-your-account

I have sometimes used this "app password" approach when your use a program does not work well logging into Google:
https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833

[Evan Tigard]

I too got that notification from Google, but I came across the following option and tried it out. It seems to do the trick and hopefully I'll be able to continue using Eudora past the deadline. I'm running Eudora 7.1.0.9 on Windows 10.

In gmail settings: Only if you turn on 2-step verification for the account, you can choose to generate an app-specific password. I also noticed that once you change the account to 2-step verification, the setting of "less secure apps" is no longer available.

In Eudora: Then I told Eudora to "forget the password" for just that account. Then upon checking for mail, it asks for a password and I entered the generated password. After that, Eudora fetched and sent my gmail no problem.

[m.g.]

Thank you so much for the excellent instructions. Very well written.
I have finally changed from windows 7 to windows 10 (improved some since it first was released . . . but not enough when it comes to configuring). Got Eudora transferred over but it wouldn't connect! Following the instructions, precisely it is now possible to connect again. whew!

I had already done most of what was suggested except, as instructed, selecting "download all e-mail". However, my problem was not having run vcredist.exe after installing in Win 10, (which I did before installing Hermes files in win7). That resolved the connection issue. What a relief after searching for days - same instructions everywhere but not as well organized and well presented anywhere else.

Now only a few days before the next Eudora crisis that is looming with the need for extra security. I do not want to change to a different e-mail program. Eudora does everything I need without a lot of extra nonsense. Surely, there is a market for an updated Eudora 7, with only updated security for double sign-in. I want nothing more, nothing less. lol

Reading through the comments, it is clear we all feel similarly appreciative. Thank you so much. Very grateful for the assistance.

[m.g.]

Thank you both - Ralph Grabowski and Evan Tigard for the links and comments about creating the app-specific password, and how it works! Looks like it is a solution. Awesome.

[Ralph Grabowski]

>
>Now only a few days before the next Eudora crisis that is looming >with the need for extra security.

See the end of this article on how to overcome the problem with Google's increased email security.

[J.M.P.(Hans) Urbanus]

Thanks to all advices now my Eudora is working. But I can't enter a family coat of arms in signatures. Only text is possible. Who can help me out
In advance thank you

[Howard Snell]

Great description and valuable thread of comments! Anyone running Eudora on Windows 11 pro?

[Ralph Grabowski]

> Anyone running Eudora on Windows 11 pro?

I got Eudora running on Windows 11 Pro using the copy subdir to subdir method, and it works well.

[Mark Ladenson]

I just discovered something strange about the new Eudora account I set up to work with gmail at the end of December.
Someone sent me a huge embedded image file. The way I had always dealt with this was to go to the Embedded folder in the Eudora folder, found the image file and used imaging software to reduce its size. When I went to the Embedded folder in the new Eudora folder, I was told that the Embedded folder is empty. Yet the image does display (too large to view in its entirely) when I open the email it's embedded in.

Could this be because when I created the new Qualcomm/Eudora account, following all the steps in the original post, I put it in Program Files (x86) rather than in App Data/Roaming? I can't think of anything else that can explain this anomaly.

[Steve W]

Thank you so much for this page, Ralph! You're a Eudora (and human sanity) "life saver" !!!

Been using Eudora for 20+ years, on all flavors of Windows (except haven't tried Win 11 yet) without problems. I'm heavily invested in Eudora as an email client with hundreds of mailboxes in several nested folder structures and hundreds of rules to handle the hundreds of emails I get daily. I have never found another email client that approaches all of the beneficial and thoughtful features of Eudora that are important to me.

I had most of the settings you listed, already, but enabling the manual specification of ports and updating Eudora to TLS 1.2 was the key to fixing this last week's Google mail application password security changes that became pervasive across all Gmail servers yesterday (at least for me). I also know that more changes are looming in the future.

I often get teased for hanging onto such an old email client, but nothing else I have found today does what I want / need from an email client. Sure, it could use some improving to be more modern (html rendering, modern auth, etc), but it was coded so well so long ago with so many useful features that IMO it has well-stood the test of time and beat out any competition for serious email users. Thanks for those (like Hermes) and yourself who continue to propagate new ways to keep it in play!

Has anyone been able to get Microsoft CAPICOM 2.1.0.2 SDK working on Windows 10 for digitally signed emails? It worked fine in windows 8.1 (+Eudora) but not Windows 10 (+Eudora). It doesn't work for me in Windows 10, so those email bodies show up blank in Eudora (headers only). Fortunately, I dont receive a lot of them and Eudora has the feature to edit an email and cut and paste from Gmail (or other mail) interface that does display them properly. Eudora. So versatile that there's bound to be a way to get done what is needed. ;-)

As someone else said, I would definitely pay for a modernized version with all of the old features and some new ones, too.

How can I buy you a "thank you" cup of coffee? :-)

[Mark Ladenson]

Ralph,

On March 31 you wrote:

> See the end of this article on how to overcome the problem with Google's increased email security.

But you didn't link to any article. Does it discuss an alternative to the app password you had suggested earlier?

[Ralph Grabowski]

THank you for pointing out I never add the solution to the end of the
article. I have done so now. Here is what is missing:

It appears that the security
change means Google is turning off the "Less Secure Apps"
option if it unused. You can still keep it turned on.
In gmail settings: Only if you turn on 2-step verification for the
account, you can choose to generate an app-specific password. I
also noticed that once you change the account to 2-step verification, the
setting of "less secure apps" is no longer available.

In Eudora: Then I told Eudora to "forget the password" for just
that account. Then upon checking for mail, it asks for a password and I
entered the generated password. After that, Eudora fetched and sent my
gmail no problem.

[David Baker]

Will these tweaks allow Eudora (for Windows) to function with the new (coming 5/30/22) Gmail change? Here's what Google says: "On May 30, you may lose access to apps that are using less secure sign-in technology." Does that mean Eudora is dead for good new?

[Ralph Grabowski]

It appears that the security change means Google is turning off the "Less Secure Apps" option if it is unused. You can still keep it turned on.

In gmail settings: Only if I turn on 2-step verification for the account, I can choose to generate an app-specific password. I also noticed that once I changed the account to 2-step verification, the setting of "less secure apps" is no longer available.

In Eudora: Then I told Eudora to "forget the password" for just that account. Then upon checking for mail, it asks for a password and I entered the generated password. After that, Eudora fetched and sent my gmail no problem.

[Pasquale]

Looks like Eudora stopped working :-'(

[Ralph Grabowski]

Should Eudora stop working, then follow these instructions:
https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7104828?authuser=2&hl=en&authuser=2&visit_id=637897803282010110-321829429&rd=1

The most important thing is that you use an App Password generated by Google in Eudora: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833?hl=en "Most of the time, you'll only have to enter an App Password once per app or device, so don't worry about memorizing it."

[Pasquale]

The App Password option worked like a charm
You just saved my life !!!! After 24 years ( being using Eudora since 1998 ) I was ready to jump off a cliff, LOL

[Pedro]

Currently trying (without success, only frustration) to get 7.1.0.9 functional under 64-bit Win7Pro.

Previous pooter was Win7Pro/32 and 7.1.0.9 purred along nicely. Having used it since WfWg3.11 days, like many others I was desperate to continue. When that pooter died, I extracted the HDD to retain info & settings, and attempted to reinstall Eudora on an IDENTICAL pooter which had a fresh Win7Pro/64 install.

Applied the "Hermes patch" but noted two of the files' names suggest they are for a 32-bit environment. Right now I can't get any joy with all the other SETTINGS replicated from the old HDD, and cross-matched against a Win7HU/64 laptop where Eudora works fine.

Using Personality->Properties->LastSSL errors with the "you haven't ...SSL ..." message. Catch22, tried sending/checking but fails and that same error is there.

Can't wait to get ot going and transfer all the old mailboxes across, but can't se a way forward.

[Ralph Grabowski]

Make sure you install Eudora as a 32-bit app in the Program Files
(x86) folder -- not the Program Files folder, which is for
64-bit programs,

[Pedro]

Yes, it's in x86. Issue is with Yahoo not Gmail, so O/T but so so parallel.

Yahoo seem to have a weird way of handling "less secure" email clients ...

[Jim]

Hi Ralph: you seem to be the successor to the late, great, John Meyers. Thank you for helping us all continue to use the best email client ever. Yesterday, Eudora 7.1.0.9 worked perfectly. This morning, it doesn't. I have two personalities on my Win 7 laptop. I messed around following various sets of suggestions, including the "Forget Passwords" option. When I click on "Check Mail" tab, it asks for passwords. I enter the respective ones that I use on the Gmail web interface for some time. It looks like it is logging in to both, but then I get "ERR [AUTH] Username and password not accepted" message on both. I entered the "support.google" address you posted June 2 at 9:24 a.m., but it returned, "Sorry, this page cannot be found." I checked my typing three times!! Not sure what to try next! Like many of your correspondents, I don't ever want to change!

[Max]

Hi Jim, I'm having the exact same problem that started literally overnight. Google must be messing again with their security settings. Hopefully someone figures this out.

[steve scatchard]

Ralph=== Thanks for posting up the BEST instruction set Ive seen to get Eudora running on gmail. I followed your instructions to a tee including the vcredist program and the 4 updates for the Eudora folder. One thing i noticed is requesting Less Secure App access is no longer offered by google. Instead I had to blunder my way thru the 16 digit App password procedure. Bottom line, however, Im still without Eudora. When sending I get:
smpt.gmail.com host not found.
When checking I get
IMAP command failed, password required #185833.
Ive chased these errors down mucho times yet nobody has been able to supply a fix.
steve scatchard,

[Ralph Grabowski]

I think you need to get a temporary Google-generated app password. I have written a blog tutorial describing how to do this: https://www.worldcadaccess.com/blog/2022/06/solving-eudoras-june-2022-problem-with-gmail.html

[Jim Kenzie]

Hello Ralph, Evan, Max and others: I THINK I have done everything various of you have suggested. But when I try to "Check mail" in Eudora, it still coughs up "ERR [AUTH] Username and password not accepted." When I access the Gmail web portal using this same username and password, they ARE accepted, and I can see my email there. I don't know how to set it up for the "App-specific password" that Evan refers to. Any help gratefully welcomed! Thanks again to all.

Jim K

[Ralph Grabowski]

Please see https://www.worldcadaccess.com/blog/2022/06/solving-eudoras-june-2022-problem-with-gmail.html for the latest updates on fixing this problem.

[David Dutkowski]

I had tried updating all of the Hermes files to allow Eudora to use TLS 1.2 but it still wasn't working.
The secret was to modify settings in eudora.ini (Thank you Pete!) The PDF, referenced below, contains the magic settings.

Per the URL: https://sourceforge.net/p/hermesmail/discussion/general/thread/a83512c78b/

Pete Maclean - 2022-06-03
Yes, please download the latest QCSSL package from:

https://www.maclean.com/downloads/QCSSL_Update.zip

[Dave W]

Yahoo mail has serious problems with Eudora 7.1.0.9. Gmail does not.

The problem is, sending email through my mail server, Yahoo may pend them for 24 hours then deliver, or pend them for 24 hours then reject them. I have the TLS 1.2 installed, and my domain hosting company says my SPF, DKIM and DMARC are all perfect. (That's all Greek to me!) And my hosting company says there isn't anything else they can do because I'm on a cPanel shared hosting server.

I suspect (or is that hope?) there might be a tweak I can make to the eudora.ini file but I have no idea where to look.

I'm not interested in using web based email, and I have not found an alternative to Eudora that gives me the options important to me. I did look at Thunderbird, but their notice of capturing data from my PC was too onerous to continue. (I looked at Thunderbird many years ago and rejected it because you could have only 1 mail box open at a time.)

What would be the ultimate solution would be to get several contacts off of Yahoo mail and Rocketmail. But that ain't gonna happen.

So Ralph, if you (or anyone) can solve this, it would be a TREMENDOUS help!

Regards,

Dave

[Ralph Grabowski]

Here is some documentation I found on eudora.ini:

http://unixwiz.net/tools/eudinfo.html

[Dave W]

Thanks. Nothing in there about how to edit the .ini file.

Research on SPF, DKIM and DMARC says headers should contain "mailed-by" and "signed-by" lines, which they don't. I remember hacking the .ini file many years ago to add something in the header, but had to remove it because of other problems.

Thanks again.

[Robert S]

Thanks for taking the time to write these instructions up - was on Eudora 6.1 (paid for) and tried patching that but it wasn't happy so first updated to 7.0.1.0.
Having done that, replaced the DLL's and root certificates and we're in business on TLSv1.2

[woody]

https://computerhistory.org/blogs/the-eudora-email-client-source-code-license-agreement/ you can download the last qualcomm version of the software, believe it or not.

[E.Hans Furnee]

But Woody, this comes across as a .zip file named Eudora_W_source.zip
The W for Windows. And produces a folder named Eudora_W_source.
The subfolder \Documents and particularly subsubsub \ What's New Guide suggest this is a product called MailSite.
While the only references to Eudora viz. Qualcomm are that Eudora and Eudora Pro are trademarks of Qualcomm.

Would be happy with your comment plus the venerable Ralph Grabowwski's opinion

Hans Furnee PhD
formerly Assoc.Prof at Delft University of Technology, Physics Dept, the Netherlands

[Ralph Grabowski]

This is the source for for Eudora, and is meant for programmers; it is not meant for end-users.

Programmers can modify the code to update it, improve it, or borrow pieces for their own programming projects.

[Mark Ladenson]

All of a sudden clicking on hypertext in Eudora is not opening the link. Nothing happens. Any ideas what caused this?

[Ralph Grabowski]

The Send to Browser command still works for me. (I right-click a
message and then choose that command from the shortcut menu.)

You may need to re-specify a default Web browser in Windows itself,
Control Panel\Programs\Default Programs\Set Default Programs.

[Jack Peacock]

Ralph,
Thanks so much for your invaluable research and help with Eudora!
I've been using Eudora since 1993 or so, and love it for many of the reasons described here.
One question I still have, and sorry if I missed the answer...
I've been using MindSpring/Earthlink servers since the beginning of time. I don't see any references to a Gmail account. Does Earthlink use similar settings, or is there any known differences in Earthlink's setup?
Earthlink changed my status today (7/10/23), instead of on 7/17/23 as they had previously published. And this was my week to research and fix proactively, not reactively. Anyway, any words of advice is greatly appreciated.
Jack

[Ralph Grabowski]

Here is a link to the settings that Earthlink uses:

https://help.earthlink.net/portal/en/kb/articles/email-server-settings

[Ben Williams]

I too miss Eudora, reluctantly have tried email clients however the issue I have running Eudora on Win 10 is that it re-indexes the mailboxes on each startup. This is a very time consuming process given the many ears of emails. Is there a solution and if so could someone share it.

[Ralph Grabowski]

Repeated indexing could be a sign that a previous indexing job was not
finished. Eurdora indexes all your email so that the search functions
instantly.

You could try turning off indexing: Tools | Settings | Find
Messages, and then turn off Use Fast Search.

[Sam Boote]

Ralph, many thanks for your efforts on behalf of Eudora users. I have been happily using Eudora at home for nearly 30 years, and it has become an integral part of my whole existence! I'm now using Eudora 7.1.0.9 on Windows 10. For the last 12 years I have been a customer of Zen Internet and using their email service, hence the "myzen" domain name. However, Zen have recently been making noises about possibly discontinuing their email service (I don't know why), and so I have been pre-emptively seeking alternatives in advance of this happening. I am determined to continue using Eudora if at all possible, and this is why I came across your instructions for connecting it to gmail (including the supplementary advice on the "June 2022" problem). I've managed to get it working without too much trouble - the Eudora and gmail menus sometimes differed slightly from what you instructed, but it was generally easy to figure out what was needed. So I should be set to continue OK even if Zen do the unthinkable, though the prospect of informing hundreds of people and organisations about my new email address is daunting. I'm just keeping fingers crossed that Google don't tinker with their system again.
Best wishes..............................Sam.

[Ralph Grabowski]

It increasingly will become a battle to keep Eudora working as the rest of the email world changes. I'm glad to hear my tips helped you out!

[Malcolm Spaven]

Ralph
Thanks so much for your blog - like you I have been using Eudora for 30+ years and it is my primary database for all the work I've done in that period.
Yesterday morning Eudora suddenly stopped connecting to my main business account and the host company was clearly struggling to provide any answers so I went through your suggested fixes, and it worked! I've always been aware that the end game for Eudora is always looming, but you have staved it off for another period - thank you so much!
Malcolm

[Ralph Grabowski]

I am glad to hear it worked for you. Most problems these days involving Eudora stem from the email provider upping the level of security.