Invalid SASL Argument Errors

Problem

While troubleshooting email importing issues involving Google® email accounts, you see the following error:

last request failed: invalid SASL argument

The Mail Import test failed: Oauth2 auth failed, BAD Invalid SASL argument.

Cause

Some of the required information for POP3 email importing via the Google OAuth2 authentication method is missing.

Workaround

This troubleshooting information only applies to self-hosted WHMCS installations.

Execute the following MySQL® query against your WHMCS database. You can do this using the SQL tab in phpMyAdmin:

UPDATE tblticketdepartments SET login = '[email protected]' WHERE name = 'Name of Department';
  • Replace [email protected] with the email address of the Google mailbox.
  • Replace Name of Department with the name of the support department.
troubleshooting troubleshooting-article google-importing

Last modified: 2025 October 17