Zoho CRM Error message #2 : Fixing [Invalid Credentials] and [Authentication Fail] while configuring IMAP

Zoho CRM Error message #2 : Fixing [Invalid Credentials] and [Authentication Fail] while configuring IMAP



Hi Everyone!

As a part of our Zoho CRM Error messages series, we're going to focus on couple of error messages that you might encounter while configuring IMAP and ways to resolve them. These are:

  • [Invalid Credentials]

  • [Authentication Fail]

 

The annoying part is that sometimes you get these error messages despite entering the correct credentials. Troubleshooting these errors start with understanding the root cause of these errors. You get these errors when:

  • TFA (two factor authentication) is enabled for your account

  • An previously saved password gets auto filled while configuring but you changed the account password recently.

  • When an incorrect server name is entered. For e.g., the user might be in zoho.eu domain but entered the domain name as zoho.com.

 

How can you resolve these errors?

  • If TFA is enabled: Generate app specific password for your email account from the "Two Factor Authentication" section in your Zoho Accounts page and use the same for IMAP configuration. More on that here.

       

       

 

 

  • Password auto fill: If a previously saved password gets auto filled and you have changed the password since then, ensure you retype the password manually while configuring.

  • Ensure you use the correct hosted server name while configuring IMAP.

  • Ensure you are logged in to web mail while configuring the IMAP.

 

Hope this helps resolve the error messages encountered while configuring IMAP. If the issue persists, do post in our community or contact our support team for the fix. 

We will continue to add more fixes to other prominent error messages in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

Check the steps for resolving connection errors while configuring IMAP here.


    • Sticky Posts

    • Q3 USA ZUG Meetups - Build AI Agents with Zoho

      Hi everyone! What if you could build your own AI agent from scratch in just one session? That's exactly what we're going to do at the upcoming ZUG Meetups across the United States, where you'll get hands-on experience with Zia Agents and explore how AI

    • Zoho CRM Community Digest - May 2026 | Part 1

      Hello Everyone! This edition introduces the new centralized Zoho Announcements Hub, a single dashboard designed to let you track and filter live product roll-outs from across the Zoho ecosystem. Alongside the Announcements Hub, this month also features

    • Zoho CRM Community Digest - April 2026 | Part 2

      Hello Everyone! We're back with Part 2 of the April Zoho CRM Community Digest to wrap up our monthly roundup. This week, the spotlight is on smart database connections, proactive error tracking, and optimizing subform line items without breaking your

    • Zoho CRM Community Digest - April 2026 | Part 1

      Hello Everyone! April brought a lot to unpack! From a long-awaited field renaming update to MCP (Model Context Protocol) support that lets AI tools talk directly to your CRM, the first half of the month was packed with updates. The community had some

    • Zoho CRM Community Digest - March 2026 | Part 1

      Hello Everyone! March kicked off with a strong mix of AI-driven enhancements, smarter data handling, and practical workflow improvements across Zoho CRM. From leveraging Zia for automated communication to optimizing cross-platform data retrieval, this

    • Recent Topics

    • Create Flexible Layouts with Layout Rules

      In a project, when a work moves from planning to execution, the information teams need can change at every stage. A project can need one set of details, a phase can need another, and a custom process may require an entirely different set of information.

    • Zoho Community Digest - August 2026 | Part 4

      Hi everyone, and welcome back! We're closing out August with a strong final week, from Incentives for Zoho CRM bringing commission management inside the platform to Sequences in Bigin automating customer follow-ups end to end. There's also an IP allowlist

    • Related Lists: Consolidate cross-module data

      A new and efficient way to connect your project data across the boundaries of modules, entities, and applications. Introducing related lists to incorporate related records from any module, entity, or external source directly into the detail view of a

    • Zoho Workshops in Frankfurt a.M. | 07. & 08. Oktober 2026 | Nur noch 1 Monat

      Liebe deutschsprachige Zoho Community, Nur noch einen Monat bis zu den Zoho Workshops in Frankfurt! Am 7. und 8. Oktober ist es so weit: Die Zoho Workshops kehren zurück und finden dieses Mal im Radisson Blu Hotel, Frankfurt am Main, statt. Wenn Sie Ihre

    • Billing Status and WO Status Field Colors -

      Hello Team, I noticed that the colors of the Billing Status and WO Status fields in the WO module have been changed. (Org ID:170000078905) This is not urgent to correct, but I wanted to bring it to your attention so you can check whether this is a system

    • Need to set workflow or journey wait time (time delay) in minutes, not hours

      Minimum wait time for both Campaigns workflows and Marketing Automation journeys is one hour. I need one or the other to be set to several minutes (fraction of the hour). I tried to solve this by entering a fraction but the wait time data type is an integer

    • Zoho Forms Submission URL

      Hi Zoho, It would be great to have a URL which can take us to specific form entries. For example: https://forms.zoho.eu/ACCOUNTNAME/report/FORMNAME/records/UNIQUE-REF I currently have a use case where I want to use Zoho Flow to create a module entry in

    • Zoho Assist Remote Desktop on Android grey screen

      With Zoho Assist Remote Desktop for Android when I connect to an unattended device I see only a Grey Screen. It worked fine before. This is a recently issue. I tried to clean data and cache, reinstall app, try and old version... but nothing. Always grey

    • Integration Multiple WooCommerce Stores

      Currently, Zoho Marketing Automation supports connecting only one WooCommerce store per account. For businesses managing multiple brands or stores, this creates operational challenges, as they are forced to maintain separate accounts for each store. Suggested

    • Map My Client Locations for Zoho CRM Extension: Turn CRM Addresses Into Action

      Hello everyone, Your CRM knows who your customers are. Now, see where they are on the interactive map directly from Zoho CRM. Introducing Map My Client Locations for Zoho CRM, an extension built for businesses that rely on sales visits, field service,

    • Introducing Smart Fields in Zoho Forms

      Hello form builders! We are excited to introduce Smart Fields in Zoho Forms - a faster way to add calculations to your forms without writing formulas. Instead of creating multiple fields and configuring complex calculations yourself, you can now drag

    • Feature Request: Add Sort by Cell Color and Text Color functionality

      Hello Zoho Sheet Development Team, I am writing to suggest a feature enhancement for Zoho Sheet. Currently, the platform supports "Filter by Color," which is incredibly useful. However, there is no native option to "Sort by Color" (by cell fill or text

    • MCP for Zoho Sign is not working

      I'm using the mcp builder at mcp.zoho.com and selected Zoho Sign. I have created it 4 different times but my other mcp servers are working. However, mcp for zoho sign WILL NOT WORK. It throws a 400 error. I've checked everything. I tried with both Grok

    • Automating CRM backup storage?

      Hi there, We've recently set up automatic backups for our Zoho CRM account. We were hoping that the backup functionality would not require any manual work on our end, but it seems that we are always required to download the backups ourselves, store them,

    • Zoho ERP | Product updates | July 2026

      Hello users, We're back with another round of updates to help you streamline your operations. This month's release brings new features and enhancements designed to help you work more efficiently. Read on to discover everything that's new in Zoho ERP this

    • Android screen dissapeared

      While running assist on an android tablet, screen poofs out of existence, have to restart sharing.

    • Kaizen #229: Email-Deal Associations in Zoho CRM

      Hi All, Welcome back to another week of Kaizen! Emails are a core channel for customer communication in any CRM system. In Zoho CRM, emails can be associated with records across multiple modules. In this post, we will focus on email associations with

    • Introducing Incentives for Zoho CRM: Build, automate, and track sales commissions

      Dear Customers, We are here with an amazing news! We built a direct solution to help manage your commission provisioning activity in your business. From creating commission plans to issuing payouts, this application leverages your sales reps’ performance

    • 📣 Ask the team behind Zoho SalesIQ: Summer '26 Q&A

      Hi everyone! Following our recent webinars, Summer '26 Release: What's New in Zoho SalesIQ—where we walked you through all the new features, what they do, and how they work—and Driving the AI Evolution: Building Smarter Customer Experiences with Zoho

    • Zoho Sites after login page blank

      after i login to zoho sites, it stalls at a blank screen please help

    • Cross-application Deluge calls fail when application link name starts with a number

      I encountered an issue when calling a custom function in another Zoho Creator application within the same account. The target application’s URL/application link name began with a number, similar to: 27_example_application The following cross-application

    • Bank charges

      Hello, team zoho I have a difficulty, in the form to register the payment of the customer has a field "bank charges" more when registering an expense or payment to the supplier that field does not appear. And I think that's a mistake because in my account

    • Bank Feeds - Multiple Orgs / Multiple LLCs

      Hi, We are migrating our books over from another service, and trying to connect our bank feeds. We have 3 separate LLCs, and 3 separate orgs in Zoho Books. We want to connect the bank feeds for each entity to each org. However, when we connect the 2nd

    • Go Multilingual with Instant Bot Auto-Translation

      Imagine you run a travel company with customers across different regions. Your website chatbot helps visitors discover travel packages, answers questions, and makes bookings. As your business expands into new markets, you want to offer the same experience

    • WhatsApp Coexistence

      Hello, please implement WhatsApp Coexistence, we need to track staff whatsapp chats on their PC and they need to be able to use WhatsApp on their mobile in around the office and warehouse, as we video call customers and send them product pictures. Thank

    • WORK DRIVE CUSTOMIZATION

      WORK DRIVE CUSTOMIZATION Create folder for every Case by “Contact Name “in Work Drive under Associate Deals Folder Directory: User Work Drive Accounts: Route Directory Associate Cases Case Name, Case Number Client Upload- Shared with contact (for collaboration)

    • All new Address Field in Zoho CRM: maintain structured and accurate address inputs

      Availability Update: 29 September 2025: It's currently available for all new sign-ups and for existing Zoho CRM orgs which are in the Professional edition exclusively for IN DC users. 2 March 2026: Available to users in all DCs except US and EU DC. 24

    • Vendor payment unexpectedly routed through Prepaid Expenses instead of Accounts Payable

      Hello, We are investigating an unexpected accounting behavior in Zoho Books. We created vendor bills and vendor payments for two suppliers using what appears to be the same workflow, but the journal entries are different. Vendor 1 – UZ Store (works correctly)

    • CRM wants to access other apps and services on this device (Documents area)

      Did anyone else see this today? It only seemed to popup in the Documents area. Blocking it did not stop the ability to upload files there... Why is this coming up and what apps/services is it requesting in the background? Also, is it applicable elsewhere

    • BANK CHARGES

      When paying a supplier via credit card we are charged a fee. I process the payment through payments made and then enter the fees in bank charge. However i get this message :  Bank charges are applied. Please select a bank account. And it will not let

    • Programmatic Itemized Expenses?

      It does not appear that it is possible to create itemized expenses programmatically (via the API)? Is this correct, or am I misunderstanding the situation?

    • JOIN with Select and TOP not returning data to results

      hi when I add TOP to yellow it does not return cl."Id", cl."Date",cl."Outcome", cl."Membership" from the join. Remove it and they appear. The TOP and the ON seem to work as in the number of rows returned. Doing the classic join log table and return only

    • Zoho CRM Multi-select values not translated

      Hello! I have some issue with translate custom multi-select fields in zoho CRM in other language. I download export file, but it has all my custom fields and picklist values exept multi-select fields picklist values.  Please, help me to undestand, is

    • [Free webinar] Blueprint as a business process engine - Creator Tech Connect

      Hello everyone, We are excited to invite you to another edition of the Creator Tech Connect webinar. About Creator Tech Connect The Creator Tech Connect series is a free monthly webinar comprised of pure technical sessions, where we dive deep into the

    • Allow Email Attachments to Be Opened Directly in Zoho CRM

      Hi all, It would be very helpful if attachments linked to an email in Zoho CRM could be clicked and opened directly from the email preview. Currently, the attachment names are displayed, but the experience of viewing them is unnecessarily limited. Users

    • Dashboard Metric Drill-Down Shows Stale Data

      Summary: When clicking between different metric components on a custom dashboard, the drill-down list shows data from the previously opened metric instead of the one just clicked. Steps to Reproduce: Create a custom dashboard with multiple pre-defined/templatized

    • Zoho email suddenly stopped working - any ideas to fix this ?

      Zoho email suddenly stopped working. although got this sent to me Reporting-MTA: dns; mx.zohomail.eu Arrival-Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2026 12:48:05 +0100 Original-Recipient: rfc822; Final-Recipient: rfc822; Status: 421 Action: delayed Last-Attempt-Date: 26 Aug

    • GCLID and Zoho Bookings

      Is there anyway to embed a Zoho Bookings signup on a landing page and pass the GCLID information? More specifically, can this be done using auto-tagging and not manual tagging the GCLID? I know Zappier has an integration to do this but is there a better

    • Calendar Booking - Rescheduled and cancelled appointments not deleting in G Suite calendar

      We started using the built in calendar booking feature and are really liking it! However, we are having one issue.  If a client reschedules an appointment using the reschedule feature the original appointment doesn't get deleted out of our g suite calendar

    • Automate pushing Zoho CRM backups into Zoho WorkDrive

      Through our Zoho One subscription we have both Zoho CRM and Zoho WorkDrive. We have regular backups setup in Zoho CRM. Once the backup is created, we are notified. Since we want to keep these backups for more than 7 days, we manually download them. They

    • Next Page