PHPMailer error: SMTP Error: Could not authenticate. Error: SMTP Error: Could not authenticate

PHP
1

I use the following function for sending e-mail using PHPMailer:

	public function test_emailAction()
	{
		require_once         	(APP_PATH.'/lib/PHPMailer/src/PHPMailer.php');				
		require_once         	(APP_PATH.'/lib/PHPMailer/src/Exception.php');
		require_once         	(APP_PATH.'/lib/PHPMailer/src/SMTP.php');
		
		$account=		"email@gmail.com";
		$password=		"**********";
		
		$from_email=	"from_email@gmail.com";
		$from_name=		"from_name";
		$to_email=		"to_email@gmail.com";
		$to_name=		"to_name";
		
		$subject="Test subject";
		$msg="Test message"; 
				
		$mail = new PHPMailer(true);
		
		$mail->IsSMTP();
		$mail->SMTPDebug = 0;
		$mail->CharSet = 'UTF-8';
		$mail->Host = "smtp.gmail.com";
		$mail->SMTPAuth= true;
		$mail->Port = 465;
		$mail->Username= $account;
		$mail->Password= $password;
		$mail->SMTPSecure = 'ssl';
		
		//Recipients
		$mail->setFrom($from_email, $from_name);
		$mail->addAddress($to_email, $to_name);	
		
		//Content
		$mail->isHTML(true);
		$mail->Subject = $subject;
		$mail->Body = $msg;		
		
		if(!$mail->send()){
			echo "Mailer Error: " . $mail->ErrorInfo;
		}else{
			echo "E-Mail has been sent";
		}
		
	}

The function is within a class. Above/outside of the class I have:

use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\PHPMailer;
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\SMTP;
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\Exception;

but I get the following error message:

Fatal error: Uncaught PHPMailer\PHPMailer\Exception: SMTP Error: Could not authenticate. in

When I use Port 587 instead of Port 465 the error message is:

Fatal error: Uncaught PHPMailer\PHPMailer\Exception: SMTP connect() failed.

What am I doing wrong? Thank you in advance