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Thunderbird & OAuth2

  • 3 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 35 views
  • Last reply by david

annoherm
annoherm
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Hi: I use Thunderbird 38.7.2 on a MacBook Pro with MacOS 10.11.6. Thunderbird tells me that it is up to date, and that I am on the release update channel.

As of today, 9 June 2022, Gmail rejects my password, and re-entering it does not help.

I went into Preferences/Account Settings/<account_name>/Server Settings/Security Settings, Options are 

    Normal Password
    Encrypted Password
    Kerberos/GSSAPI
    NTLM
    TLS Certificate.

Nothing about OAuth2.

Read that version 38 of Thunderbird is supposed to be OAuth2 compatible, so I'm stuck. As Thunderbird thinks it is up to the latest and greatest, I cannot update it to something newer. And I do not see a way to enable OAuth2.

The answer is probably obvious. just not to me.

Hi: I use Thunderbird 38.7.2 on a MacBook Pro with MacOS 10.11.6. Thunderbird tells me that it is up to date, and that I am on the release update channel. As of today, 9 June 2022, Gmail rejects my password, and re-entering it does not help. I went into Preferences/Account Settings/<account_name>/Server Settings/Security Settings, Options are Normal Password Encrypted Password Kerberos/GSSAPI NTLM TLS Certificate. Nothing about OAuth2. Read that version 38 of Thunderbird is supposed to be OAuth2 compatible, so I'm stuck. As Thunderbird thinks it is up to the latest and greatest, I cannot update it to something newer. And I do not see a way to enable OAuth2. The answer is probably obvious. just not to me.

All Replies (3)

david
david
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Although I can't explain Thunderbird's rollout strategy, when a release hits a plateau, it is marked as being up to date, even though newer releases exist. So, I can't explain that, but you do need to upgrade.

annoherm
annoherm Question owner
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Hi David:

thank you for your prompt reply. So you are saying that contrary to posts elsewhere, Thunderbird version 38 does not actually support OAuth2.

So then, on to upgrading to the latest version compatible with my OS... Is there a tutorial how to do this without risking losing all existing email (inbox & outbox)?

Many thanks

Anno

david
david
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Well, I am not saying rel 38 is not compliant. It's been years since I used that release. It may be that people are assuming it is compliant because it states that it is up to date. My understanding is that Oauth2 as not an authentication option. That would be how to verify. Assuming you need to upgrade, here are steps:

- install new version of TB - change your security authorization to Oauth2 (do this for the server settings and also for the Outgoing (SMTP) server - remove the password entries for the account (remove the entire entries for incoming and outgoing) - check to ensure that TB is set to accept cookies - Google will then step you through the authentication process.