I also encountered this problem. 

What's interesting is that when I add a password then Empathy (and Online Accounts in Gnome) requires that "Grant access". When I click that button it takes me to the 'Edit options' configuration and then after I click 'Done' it still prompts me to Grant access.

I end up in an infinite loop :/

Just to be clear that it's not due to the password I removed it and then NickServ indicates that I am not authenticated. I can then authenticate with NickServ properly.

I attached a log file also to help.

Created attachment 229859 [details]
Two attempts at Grant access

BTW after reproducing this test I ended up having to remove the IRC account and recreating it without any password. Even though I remove the password I somehow end up in this Grant access loop.

The password field is meant for the server password, not the NickServ one.  Freenode doesn't require any password so it's normal than trying to use one prevent you from connecting.

So even after removing this password you still can't connect?

Could you please display the output of 'mc-tool $account-id' after removing the password? Use 'mc-tool list' to see all your accounts.

Hmmm it seems strange that this is for the server password since in previous versions this is where (I thought) I put the password to log in with NickServ.

Regardless I tried your mc-tool but there is no command for what you requested??

Using 'mc-tool list' I get:

gabble/jabber/chat_2efacebook_2ecom0
gabble/jabber/goa_google_account_1351881163
gabble/jabber/messenger_2elive_2ecom0
gabble/jabber/shaneonabike_40jabber_2eorg0
idle/irc/ShaneOnaBike0
salut/local_xmpp/account1

But then trying mc-tool ShaneOnaBike0 I get the help display so I tried 'mc-tool show ShaneOnaBike0'

mc-tool show: Account path '/org/freedesktop/Telepathy/Account/ShaneOnaBike0' is malformed: should have 3 trailing components, not 1

Is that what you wanted?

Oops I figured it out here you go:

     Account: idle/irc/ShaneOnaBike0
Display Name: ShaneOnaBike on guerin.indymedia.org
  Normalized: shaneonabike
     Enabled: enabled
        Icon: irc
    Connects: only when requested
    Nickname: ShaneOnaBike
     Service: irc

Presences:
   Automatic: available (2) ""
     Current:  (0) ""
   Requested: xa (4) ""
    Changing: yes

Storage:
    Provider: im.telepathy.Account.Storage.UOA
  Identifier: uint32 12
Restrictions: Cannot_Set_Service

      (string) charset = UTF-8
      (string) fullname = Shane Bill
      (string) quit-message = salut tous le monde
        (uint) port = 6697
        (bool) use-ssl = true
      (string) username = ShaneOnaBike
      (string) account = ShaneOnaBike
      (string) server = guerin.indymedia.org

I reported this issue on launchpad and just wanted to add that while the server password is just that, on some servers it is also reused as a way to pass the registered password for the connecting nick directly to the nickserv process, thus speeding up login.

I infrequently use empathy for irc, but would be willing to help however I can to progress this issue.

(In reply to comment #7)
> Oops I figured it out here you go:
> 
>      Account: idle/irc/ShaneOnaBike0
> Display Name: ShaneOnaBike on guerin.indymedia.org
>   Normalized: shaneonabike
>      Enabled: enabled
>         Icon: irc
>     Connects: only when requested
>     Nickname: ShaneOnaBike
>      Service: irc
> 
> Presences:
>    Automatic: available (2) ""
>      Current:  (0) ""
>    Requested: xa (4) ""
>     Changing: yes
> 
> Storage:
>     Provider: im.telepathy.Account.Storage.UOA
>   Identifier: uint32 12
> Restrictions: Cannot_Set_Service
> 
>       (string) charset = UTF-8
>       (string) fullname = Shane Bill
>       (string) quit-message = salut tous le monde
>         (uint) port = 6697
>         (bool) use-ssl = true
>       (string) username = ShaneOnaBike
>       (string) account = ShaneOnaBike
>       (string) server = guerin.indymedia.org

This account seems to be connected. What's the problem exactly?

It's no longer using this password to pass along to NickServ as it did before. If that is the intended behaviour is it possible to create another dialog field to grab the NickServ authentication password as well.

It's not possible atm because telepathy-idle (the IRC backend) doesn't support such feature: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=16177

Strange since this did work in the last release of this before Ubuntu 12.10. So it's like you removed some functionality.