Apple Mail Won't Authenticate GMail

The Apple Mail Gmail Problem

You have problems with Apple Mail authenticating and downloading new mail from your Gmail account. A window pops up asking for your user name and password. You enter the correct password, but it doesn't work. It's obviously broke, what's wrong?

The Solution

Go to https://mail.google.com/ in your browser (Firefox, Safari, etc) and log in with your user name and password. If I'm correct, you will have to fill out a "CAPTCHA" which is the picture with one or two words that you need to enter. Once you have completed the captcha and logged in, you can log out if you wish and go back to Apple Mail. You may have to authenticate one more time, but this time it will work!

The Explanation

Somehow an authentication failed, meaning you or someone else tried to log in and used the wrong number. Possibly a network error occured while Apple Mail was trying to authenticate. The result is that Google will then require you to prove that you are not a robot trying to crack intoCHAthat email. They do this with a CAPTCHA. Since Apple Mail doesn't know about the CAPTCHA, it will continue to fail until you log into your account through your browser (firefox, safari, etc.)