Application Specific Passwords | MFA - Zoho Accounts

Application Specific Passwords

What are Application-Specific Passwords?

Application-specific passwords are 12 character passcodes that give an app permission to access your Zoho Mail from various email clients (such as Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, etc.), Jabber clients, and standalone applications.
If you have enabled multi-factor authentication (MFA):
  1. You cannot use your Zoho Account password directly to access POP/IMAP email clients.
  2. You must use an application-specific password to access those applications. This means that, even if the email client is compromised, you can still protect your Zoho account by revoking the application-specific password you generated for the email client.
We recommend using application-specific passwords for your email clients even if you haven't enabled MFA for your Zoho Account.

How to generate an application-specific password

  1. Sign in to your Zoho Account.
  2. In the accounts panel, click Security.
  3. Click Application Specific Passwords, then click Generate New Password.
  4. Enter a name for the application you want to create a password for, then click Generate.
  5. Make a note of the generated password, as for security purposes it won't be displayed again.