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Can't install Hotmail account on Thunderbird

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  • Last reply by Matt

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I've been using Thunderbird for my hotmail.com and cox.net accounts for many years. Recently cox transitioned to yahoo.com with their email and users had to transition over. I was able to do this for 5 accounts - no problem. My hotmail.com was a bit more of a challenge but I was able to get it to work. Last week I started getting sign-in errors. Nothing worked and I deleted my hotmail.com address in Thunderbird figuring it would be better to just start over - wrong choice. Now I cannot even install my hotmail.com account on my Thunderbird.

I first tried the straightforward approach. Get an app password from my Microsoft account. Nest I it account actions, add email account. I added my name, email address and app password. When I hit ok a message quickly flashed saying configuration doesn't work. When I done I get a message that server already exists. I tried going to manual configuration and changed to normal password but got the message again that server exists. I went to the Outgoing server (SMTP) list but the outlook server doesn't show up.I tried using the hotmail password instead og the app password with same results. Finally I logged out of Thunderbird, turned off the two party requirement in Outlook and again tried to add the account to Thunderbird. Now I get the message 'could not get issuer fot oauth2 authentication'. I next went into manual configuration, turned authentication to 'normal password' the the hotmail account installed.

I closed Thunderbird and started again. sent a message to the hotmail account and had to reenter the password - works. Tried to send a message and was asked againgn for the app password - then it works. So all is good except when I check the server settings for smtp and IMAP, ot shows 'normal password' After strugglig for two hours I do not want to risk changing them to oauth2. Checked under 'saved logins' and the app password is shown. Is it likely that I have arrived at a stable solution? What am I risking by having the 'normal password' authentication?

I've been using Thunderbird for my hotmail.com and cox.net accounts for many years. Recently cox transitioned to yahoo.com with their email and users had to transition over. I was able to do this for 5 accounts - no problem. My hotmail.com was a bit more of a challenge but I was able to get it to work. Last week I started getting sign-in errors. Nothing worked and I deleted my hotmail.com address in Thunderbird figuring it would be better to just start over - wrong choice. Now I cannot even install my hotmail.com account on my Thunderbird. I first tried the straightforward approach. Get an app password from my Microsoft account. Nest I it account actions, add email account. I added my name, email address and app password. When I hit ok a message quickly flashed saying configuration doesn't work. When I done I get a message that server already exists. I tried going to manual configuration and changed to normal password but got the message again that server exists. I went to the Outgoing server (SMTP) list but the outlook server doesn't show up.I tried using the hotmail password instead og the app password with same results. Finally I logged out of Thunderbird, turned off the two party requirement in Outlook and again tried to add the account to Thunderbird. Now I get the message 'could not get issuer fot oauth2 authentication'. I next went into manual configuration, turned authentication to 'normal password' the the hotmail account installed. I closed Thunderbird and started again. sent a message to the hotmail account and had to reenter the password - works. Tried to send a message and was asked againgn for the app password - then it works. So all is good except when I check the server settings for smtp and IMAP, ot shows 'normal password' After strugglig for two hours I do not want to risk changing them to oauth2. Checked under 'saved logins' and the app password is shown. Is it likely that I have arrived at a stable solution? What am I risking by having the 'normal password' authentication?

Chosen solution

So you do not have any entry in the outgoing server (SMTP) or in the accounts list for that server/email address. Is that what you are now saying?

Perhaps post an image of what is showing in the outgoing server (SMTP) as well as undertake the following;

  1. Open the menu Fx57Menu > Help > Troubleshooting Information, then click Copy text to Clipboard.
  2. Go to https://pastebin.mozilla.org/, paste the clipboard by right clicking in the large text area, select paste from the menu, change the retention period to expire in 28 days, use the Paste Snippet button to create a page containing your info, then copy the resulting URL (address) of the page created.
  3. Open a reply to this post, and paste the URL to your troubleshooting information you just copied.
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Microsoft require the oauth authentication protocol. (They call it "modern" authentication because they can't be seen to actually offer a standards based solution to anything.) The option for app passwords is going away as well as normal passwords.

oAuth requires that the default of allowing cookies in Thunderbird is enabled and you may well encounter issues with more aggressive antivirus products blocking the initial authorization web page flow either through cookie management (blocking) or localhost blocking.

See the support article on the subject https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/microsoft-oauth-authentication-and-thunderbird-202

Note specifically the server names in the image and document. They are not what they used to be and your not using the correct server names will mean that the authentication has no issuer. in the case of all of the Micrisift/outlook/libe/msn/hotmail account the server name for incoming accounts is outlook.office365.com and for outgoing (SMTP) accounts smtp.office365.com use of anything else will fail.

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Matt

Thanks for the reply. What I really want to find out is why if I follow the process as it should be (with app passwords and OAuth2 Authentication, I get the error message that the server has already been installed and nothing I do gets me away from this message. I checked under outgoing server (SMTP) and there is nothing related to outlook or office365.

Marty

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Chosen Solution

So you do not have any entry in the outgoing server (SMTP) or in the accounts list for that server/email address. Is that what you are now saying?

Perhaps post an image of what is showing in the outgoing server (SMTP) as well as undertake the following;

  1. Open the menu Fx57Menu > Help > Troubleshooting Information, then click Copy text to Clipboard.
  2. Go to https://pastebin.mozilla.org/, paste the clipboard by right clicking in the large text area, select paste from the menu, change the retention period to expire in 28 days, use the Paste Snippet button to create a page containing your info, then copy the resulting URL (address) of the page created.
  3. Open a reply to this post, and paste the URL to your troubleshooting information you just copied.

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