I wonder if that " ridiculous pop-up promotion" was a web page asking you to authenticate using oauth. I am guessing it was and hopefully still is. We had folk here a year or so ago making similar noise about Yahoo oAuth authentication because they chose the option of putting adds on their log in page. Comcast I think are using Yahoo now, so perhaps it is exactly the same basic page.

I think Thunderbird doesn't always choose the correct settings for Comcast during setup. One thing it gets consistently wrong is choosing OAuth2 as the Authentication Method, which is wrong - should be "normal password."

Here are my working Comcast settings:

My Comcast settings

IMAP (Incoming): Incoming Server Type: IMAP Mail Server Incoming Server Name: imap.comcast.net Port: 993 User Name: <my email address> Connection Security: SSL/TLS Authentication method: Normal Password

POP3 (Incoming): Incoming Server Type: POP Mail Server Incoming Server Name: pop3.comcast.net Port: 995 User Name: <my email address> Connection Security: SSL/TLS Authentication method: Normal Password

SMTP (Outgoing): SMTP Server Name: smtp.comcast.net Port: 465 Connection Security: SSL/TLS Authentication method: Normal password User Name: <my email address>

As for as the pop-up promos, I know of no way Comcast could make Thunderbird do that. I'm sure that they are caused by something else on your computer. But if you can post a screen shot of the pop-up, we can confirm that for sure.

I think Thunderbird doesn't always choose the correct settings for Comcast during setup. One thing it gets consistently wrong is choosing OAuth2 as the Authentication Method, which is wrong - should be "normal password."

if you think it is wrong please file a bug requesting that the ISPDB be updated with your preferred setting,

For reference it was changed 2 years ago in this bug https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1844810

I have no idea who the guy, Alex Brotman, doing the updates was but Google indicates that he is a senior engineer with Comcast, despite the Yahoo address in Bugzilla from 2006. All of his bug reports are technical and related to Comcast except the first one in 2006. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/buglist.cgi?query_format=advanced&emailtype1=exact&emailreporter1=1&email1=atbrotman%40yahoo.com&list_id=17967464

The change was approved without much fanfare, but I do think raising a bug is a good idea if you think the situation is wrong. Comcast have made a hash of it making the migration optional and I have no idea how you fix something like that. Personally I think it should have been compulsory, but lets not upset the punters was probably the board room discussion. Regardless the issue needs a bug and I have no ability to test anything Comcast related, so I am not raising the issue

So I'm going to go back through and redo my TB settings as Lin had purposed and see if that works. Matt, I believe you have helped me before and I once again appreciate your help and input. Lets see what happens. As far as that dang pop-up, it is still popping up and has gone way beyond a small bother!

Lin said

I think Thunderbird doesn't always choose the correct settings for Comcast during setup. One thing it gets consistently wrong is choosing OAuth2 as the Authentication Method, which is wrong - should be "normal password."

if you think it is wrong please file a bug requesting that the ISPDB be updated with your preferred setting,

For reference it was changed 2 years ago in this bug https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1844810

I have no idea who the guy, Alex Brotman, doing the updates was but Google indicates that he is a senior engineer with Comcast, despite the Yahoo address in Bugzilla from 2006. All of his bug reports are technical and related to Comcast except the first one in 2006. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/buglist.cgi?query_format=advanced&emailtype1=exact&emailreporter1=1&email1=atbrotman%40yahoo.com&list_id=17967464

The change was approved without much fanfare, but I do think raising a bug is a good idea if you think the situation is wrong. Comcast have made a hash of it making the migration optional and I have no idea how you fix something like that. Personally I think it should have been compulsory, but lets not upset the punters was probably the board room discussion. Regardless the issue needs a bug and I have no ability to test anything Comcast related, so I am not raising the issue

Well... now I think I may have been wrong. I just set up a second Comcast account in Thunderbird, and the regular Setup wizard (not Account Hub) suggested OAuth2... and it worked! I'm sure I had tried this in the past without success, and my main Comcast account is currently NOT using OAuth, and I have advised people here to use Normal Password, which seemed to fix their problem! Plus, Comcast's own settings recommendation page says to use the normal password and mentions nothing about OAuth.

https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/email-client-programs-with-xfinity-email

It appears that you submitted bug reports for this a few hours ago, but they were closed as duplicates! Maybe something in the authentication process has changed recently, either on the Comcast side or Thunderbird's.

I will be interested to see how @MKS1 fares.

Nothing is working!! I'm putting in the info exactly as it is given, each and every time. My password is correct yet that is where the error now occurs each time. Once it looked as though it would go through, however, once again I put in the correct password and if gives me an error. This goes beyond maddening. And it seems that every year or so I go through this with TB! I can change my password with Comcast, but I can't be sure that will do the trick. And of course that dang Comcast pop-up keeps doing its thing!

Wow! I'm either the dumbest man on the planet, or the most brilliant because I can fix things and don't even know I'm doing it. I'm so fed up with TB and the stress is causes me each year, I'm beside myself. I have my inbox back, and it would appear emails are coming in the way they should. I have no idea what happened. It would no take my password no matter what I tried. Lin....I did exactly as you said, and all of the information looked correct to me, as I had used this info in the past and it always worked. Yet this time nothing. Now this. Although all of my local folders don't show up unless I click on the very top now with >local folders. Then I lose my email address and all I show are the local folders. I have to switch back on my email address which is >my email adddress to get back all of my incoming emails.

I'm sure the way I've shown this makes no sense to you. It wouldn't to me. But I want to thank all who have helped me, although I have no idea how I even got my inbox to start working again! Now if I can just figure out how to get my local folders to display under my email address I'd be happy. This has been one of the most frustrating things with TB. I rely heavily on those local folders, as I keep records of bills and other important information stored in those folders. When I lose them, I feel like I've lost a lot of things I need record of! I have a back up external hard drive, but I think I messed that up also, and it doesn't seem to record my emails and local folders. Maybe one day I'll stumble on a way to do that correctly!

Thanks again to all. Oh yeah....that stinking Comcast pop-up seems to have mysteriously disappeared! I wonder what happened there?

Is this the pop-up you were seeing (see attached picture)? That's the OAuth prompt. It has an ad on it, but it's not an ad per se. It would keep keep coming up until Xfinity was able to successfully negotiate the authorization.

As a test just now, I changed the authorization type for both my IMAP (incoming) and SMTP (outgoing) Comcast servers from Normal Password to OAuth2, and re-started Thunderbird. I got the attached prompt window, but it wouldn't take my credentials. So then, I went to Settings | Privacy & Security | Web Content | Show Cookies and removed all Xfinity cookies. Then I re-started Thunderbird and everything works now using OAuth2. I didn't even get the OAuth prompt. So, that seems to be the formula now.

MKS1, I'm sorry you had to go through that inconvenience and my misdirection, but it's been educational for me, and I hope I can pass that on to others here who have similar problems.

Yes Lin....that's the exact pop-up I kept getting, although it is now gone thankfully! And please don't apologize, you helped more than you know. Because of your instructions, which I believed to be correct as I had used those inputs in the past worked. The only difference now is my local folders don't line up at the bottom as they once did. I have to click on >local folders to get them to show up, then I have to click back on inbox to get my current emails. And I seem to have 2 inboxes with one of them showing my current emails.

Everything is kinda back to the way things were. At least I have a working email and no longer have that ridiculous Comcast pop-up. So thank you once again Lin!

Michael...