When changing password on an email account TB requires a change to smtp and imap separately

Xfinity email service required me to change my password (security issue?). I went through the process but when I attempted to change my password in TB, it required me to change both the imap and smtp servers separately. Apparently this is normal for TB. But this is radically different from other email systems. Most allow me to change the password once and it propagates to both the imap and smtp servers. Am I missing something. If not, why does TB do it this way? This is extremely frustrating and unexpected for many people, I would think. Oh, this is especially frustrating because I'm in a situation where two of my three Xfinity email accounts are repeatedly requiring a password change. I'm still trying to get to the bottom of that with Comcast.

Yeah, You are asking essentially why Netscape, sometime in the 2990s decided to expose both the incoming server and outgoing servers separately and support identities for incoming accounts so a single incoming account can have many outgoing servers configured and Microsoft did not. I do not know.

I do feel the Thunderbird approach is superior as I have no issue setting up the collection of mail from one server and the replies for that domain to go out through the Gmail service. The aggregation of mail from multiple providers or addresses with a provider in a single web mail account does not mean I struggle with getting the right sender for each when I click reply. I just set up an identity and an SMTP server for each incoming account that is aggregated in the one I have in Thunderbird. So when the mail server drops all the mail to Abuse@ and Complaints@ and Sales@ all into the Matt@ account on the domain it is automatic when I click reply that the correct from address is used.

Some folks get their mail from a somewhat poor provider, some get mail from providers that struggle to get their mail delivered because of a a poor spam reputation. They do not send their mail from the same provider. They elect to use Google or a mailing house to manage their outgoing or bulk mail so it actually gets delivered. They would not be happy if they changed their password and suddenly their outgoing server did not work because Thunderbird decided you changed one they should all change.

Having said all of that I see nothing wrong with an option to have the same password used for both, but I really do not think it will fly and a single incoming mail acocunt can have an unlimited number of identities associated with it and each can have it's own SMTP server. That is a fundamentally different approach to a one on one incoming and outgoing you are thinking of to even suggest that they should propagate somehow.

Xfinity is migrating to Yahoo for mail and the Yahoo service use oAuth authentication and that does not use a password, only a token issued by the provider when you complete the initial authentication flow, so I guess it is all somewhat moot anyway as Thunderbird does not hold xfinity mail account passwords at all for those accounts. There is nothing to change in Thunderbird when you change your password with xfinity.

How are you notified of the need to change your password on these accounts? Are you getting messages about the username or password being wrong from Thunderbird? Generally we see these sorts of issue here when folk use a VPN or have an problem with their antivirus product of choice. A VPN can cause rejection by mail providers as they do not accept that your phone is in Austin and you internet is coming from Botswana. Likewise, antivirus mostly hacks encrypted mail connections to scan email and that is not really a reliable method of access. It has a habit of leading to issues periodically.

I appreciate your thorough response. It has taken me several read through to digest the contents. I'm replying a little late at night so I may come back and modify my thoughts.

The system of incoming email consolidation and aggregation of outgoing mail you describe is, in my perception, not the way the vast majority of average and even above average users are using the email ecosystem. Even if there are using multiple email address from multiple providers the expectation is that if the user is required to change their password it is done on a per email address so that internally the incoming and outgoing credential are changed together and they are done.

If users are experiencing poor email service they don't consider it's the incoming or outgoing server that is causing the issue. It's just this service is poor, I need to move to a better provider. Users treat the incoming and outgoing services as inseparable. If you have a specific need for configuring a separate imap and smtp service, you should have that option, but most users will never need or want to understand that.

As far as Xfinity's migration to Yahoo is a concerned, that is a completely separate issue that I will need to address. Actually, the password issue may be moot for me because of the upcoming service change. I'm sure I missed many notices of that service change and I haven't been notified that it's my turn to endure it.

The research I've done points to a change in Xfinity's security or I may have triggered by my setup. I recently went on a trip and used my iPad for email communication much more than I have before. Most of the time I use it to read email and I rarely use the iPad to send email, While on the trip I did send email a fair amount. I notice the password issue around the time I return home. I have discovered that my iPad was configured so that all outgoing email was directed to the one smtp.comcast.net server even though some of the email was sent from another comcast.net email address and others were using a *@gmail.com address.

Comcast may be considering email to their servers with a non-matching comcast email address to be spoofed or violate some other security protocol. And that flagged my comcast.net address with a possible security issue. I'm still waiting to hear from Comcast about this.

So, in summary, Thunderbird makes the smtp and imap configurations more visible to users and I may have unknowingly configured it so that it prompted me twice for the smtp and imap credential separately instead of changing both with one prompt. But it is odd that I have had this configured this way for many years and never had an issue until now.