Hotmail & Outlook Email accounts can no longer send emails
I am running Thunderbird 115.5.0 (64-bit) on Ubuntu 22.04.
I have two accounts with email MS - one with Hotmail, and the other with Outlook.
Both continue to receive emails without issue.
Recently, neither can send emails - having been able to send emails for years.
They had different SMTP servers, so I checked to see if I was using the correct server, and both appear as being correct.
I tried adding one account (again) to ensure TB would select the correct server, ... and it still cannot send emails, but still receives emails.
I have tried both with oAuth for the password, but that has stopped working.
I can find nothing online, and feel like I have exhausted the internet for solutions, so if anyone can help, it would be most appreciated, as I am sure others will be as frustrated.
Many thanks,
All Replies (7)
Hi, What is the error you receive when you try to send an e-mail? Also could you ensure that the SMTP server is authenticated.
To check that: - Settings - Click on the e-mail address to open the account settings - Scroll down to the Outgoing Server (SMTP) - Click on edit and see the status
Many thanks for your message. The error I receive is:- Sending of the message failed. The message could not be sent because connecting to Outgoing server (SMTP) smtp.office365.com failed. The server may be unavailable or is refusing SMTP connections. Please verify that your Outgoing server (SMTP) settings are correct and try again.
I looked in the Outgoing (SMTP) Server settings, and there was no information about the status - just information replicating the server name, port, authentication method, ...
I have tried with oAuth2, and both "Normal" and "Encrypted" Passwords, with STARTTLS and SSL/TLS just in case (where the different options are available).
Nothing seems to be working :-(
Sorry!
Many thanks for the help. I checked against the email settings, and because there was no mention of the password encryption, I tried both "Normal" and "oAuth", and ensured the server, port, ... were all consistent, but none worked. Any more ideas would be appreciated.
Email settings are not supposed to be some guessing game. Microsoft publish the settings here https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/pop-imap-and-smtp-settings-for-outlook-com-d088b986-291d-42b8-9564-9c414e2aa040 If you are using those then the issue is not your settings.
If you have two factor authentication enabled with the provider you will need an application password for Thunderbird.
See also this page. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/microsoft-oauth-authentication-and-thunderbird-202
Matt,
Many thanks for your help.
I have set the server etc correctly, sadly, the link doesn't say about the password encryption, but I tried both "Normal" and oAuth to no effect.
I have also tried setting up a new "account", which Thunderbird reckons works, yet that won't allow me to send emails either, so there seems to be something else.
The next thing I tried was to remove the VPN I have been using, and allows me to receive emails, and when I removed the VPN, I could send emails, so it seems having a VPN prevents sending Outlook/ Hotmail emails!
I don't know if there is a work around that allows the retention of the VPN to send emails.
Many thanks,
trevortmanson said
I don't know if there is a work around that allows the retention of the VPN to send emails.
Have you tried asking the VPN provider. They should have a lot more experience with their product than anyone else.
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