Thunderbird POP email suddenly stopped working
I've had Thunderbird installed on my PC since 2013 with no issues. I had been downloading emails just fine until a week ago. Nothing changed, no updates, no passwords changes so not sure why the sudden stop.
Thunderbird kept popping up error messages about my password not being correct. I did confirm my password on my webmail and even changed my password just to rule out that my account hadn't been compromised. I updated to the new password and same errors occurred.
I tried uninstalling and reinstalling Thunderbird from Mozilla's website, same issues.
When I switch my account to use IMAP instead of POP, the email account comes through fine.
Why does it work on IMAP but not POP? I just find it odd that one way works and the other doesn't.
Chosen solution
Even if a gmail POP account has OAuth2 authentication in TB, it seems some users still have to enable access by 'less-secure' apps in the Google account settings, a setting which Google may reverse without notice. Also, try deleting the passwords or oauth tokens for the account in Options/Security/Passwords/Saved Passwords, restart TB, and enter the correct password when prompted in the OAuth browser window. If the authentication on the incoming and outgoing servers was 'normal password', change it to OAuth2 before the restart.
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Who is the mail provider? It could be that they changed the authentication method, e.g. a 'secure mail key' or OAuth is required. If, for example, it was a gmail or Yahoo POP account with 'normal password' authentication, and you added it as IMAP with default settings (OAuth2), it would then work.
It is a Gmail account that I'm trying to use.
Chosen Solution
Even if a gmail POP account has OAuth2 authentication in TB, it seems some users still have to enable access by 'less-secure' apps in the Google account settings, a setting which Google may reverse without notice. Also, try deleting the passwords or oauth tokens for the account in Options/Security/Passwords/Saved Passwords, restart TB, and enter the correct password when prompted in the OAuth browser window. If the authentication on the incoming and outgoing servers was 'normal password', change it to OAuth2 before the restart.
Changing to less secure apps on did the trick. Thanks so much!