Well, Gmail really wants me to use my phone it seems. Every single time that I try to log into Gmail with one of my specific accounts, it (doesn’t happen for everything) no matter how carefully I type the password and no matter if I check the little box to see the password before I send it The password will be always wrong. The second time it won’t be wrong, it will be right. But after typing it for the second time, it will ask me to go fetch my phone and check the security feature there. Has this happened to anybody else?
There are multiple Gmail 2fa options that don’t require a phone.
Do you have 2fa turned on? In my experience if it’s off Google decides by itself to prompt you for a random second factor like your phone. If the account is not connected to anything else it may decide to not let you log in at all. If 2fa is turned on the behavior is a bit more consistent.