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imap authentication failure

  • 3 replies
  • 4 have this problem
  • 75 views
  • Last reply by Wayne Mery

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As of today, I can neither send nor receive email for my imap accounts - imap.gmail.com and imap.mail.yahoo.com. I have Thunderbird 128.9.1esr(64 bit). They both work outside of Thunderbird. Notification reads: Authentication failure while connecting to server ... where ... is each url above.

As of today, I can neither send nor receive email for my imap accounts - imap.gmail.com and imap.mail.yahoo.com. I have Thunderbird 128.9.1esr(64 bit). They both work outside of Thunderbird. Notification reads: Authentication failure while connecting to server ... where ... is each url above.

Chosen solution

Is the authentication method for both accounts, incoming and outgoing, set to OAuth2? Using a VPN?

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Chosen Solution

Is the authentication method for both accounts, incoming and outgoing, set to OAuth2? Using a VPN?

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This problem has arisen for me as well.

For a wee while, I've had the occasional "authentication failure" notice pop up, but then the collection of email has picked up again, so it appeared to be just a passing glitch. Now, suddenly, it has turned into a complete stop on email pickups from Thunderbird, and I don't know if I can send emails on Thunderbird or not.

Since it seemed initially to be a Microsoft-initiated problem, I ran through a help process with Microsoft, during which we confirmed that OAuth2 is properly set, incoming and outgoing. I am not using a VPN, but may wish to do so. The upshot of the Microsoft help process was (surprise, surprise) to get a free version of Outlook installed, which allows me to pick up (and presumably send) email again, but that doesn't solve the problem of why my chosen email client, Thunderbird, has suddenly become unable to communicate with the email server.

I have email addresses on outlook.com and gmail.com, since our local email service provider suddenly pulled the plug on all its email services a few years ago. I'm still picking up and sending email on my Android phone, so it looks as though there's a recently created problem with Thunderbird. I'm on version 128.10.1esr (64-bit), which was updated on 14 May, and my total block problem cut in after one incoming email dated 15 May, so it looks suspiciously like a bug in that update, but one that built on an on-off glitch from some previous update. I'm in New Zealand, so it may have been 15 May here by the time version 128.10.1 came down the fibre optic.

Modified by Wayne Mery

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guy_james said

This problem has arisen for me as well. .... I have email addresses on outlook.com and gmail.com, ...

Sorry you are having trouble.

The original poster's issue is (apparently) solved, but yours is not. In such cases, for best service (which should have been instructed in your posting process) you really should post your own question. You can do so at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/new/thunderbird