Thunderbird changes hotmail password?
I've appreciated using Thunderbird for an ad-free Hotmail experience for quite some time. I've changed my Hotmail password every few weeks lately and Thunderbird worked fine when I entered the new password at the prompt when Thunderbird started.
Just now however, I needed to get into my Microsoft account that uses the same password as my Hotmail account. My login to Microsoft failed. Trying to understand why, I looked in Thunderbird at the saved password for Hotmail's server:
oauth://login.microsoftonline.com (https://outlook.office.com/IMAP.AccessAsUser.All
https://outlook.office.com/POP.AccessAsUser.All https://outlook.office.com/SMTP.Send offline_access)
The saved password was a 464 character long ASCII string totally irrelevant to the password I'd selected for Hotmail and Microsoft.
I went through the password change process for Hotmail, was then able to get into my Microsoft account and restarted Thunderbird. As usual, Thunderbird asked for the new password. I entered it and was then able to receive new mail from the Hotmail server in Thunderbird. However, again, the saved password in Thunderbird for Hotmail was not the password I'd entered.
Next, I deleted the saved passwords in Thunderbird, restarted it and this time it prompted me to be sure I'd downloaded it from a reliable source. I've never seen that prompt before. It came with my Linux Mint installation, so I thought it would be safe, but again there's an irrelevant password saved for my Hotmail account.
It's like it eventually changes my password for Hotmail and Microsoft since I can get mail through Thunderbird with the odd password it saves, but if I use what should be my password for Hotmail or my Microsoft account via a web page interface, the password doesn't work.
I'll have to stop using Thunderbird if this continues.
Modified by change2peace+firefox
Chosen solution
That "464" character long "password" that is saved by Thunderbird is NOT your Microsoft/Hotmail account password. It's an access token that's issued to Thunderbird as a result of the Oauth2 authentication process. If you try to use this token to sign in to your Hotmail account via a browser, it won't work. Likewise, your Hotmail password won't work with OAuth2 authentication in Thunderbird, or any other email client that supports OAuth2 (modern) authentication. Thunderbird has no facility or capability to change your Microsoft account password. All major email service providers are moving to modern authentication methods (e.g OAuth2) away from the old legacy basic authentication methods that used to insecurely transmit your account password.
So, let Thunderbird save that token in its password vault and leave it be.
Skaityti atsakymą kartu su kontekstu 👍 1All Replies (2)
Chosen Solution
That "464" character long "password" that is saved by Thunderbird is NOT your Microsoft/Hotmail account password. It's an access token that's issued to Thunderbird as a result of the Oauth2 authentication process. If you try to use this token to sign in to your Hotmail account via a browser, it won't work. Likewise, your Hotmail password won't work with OAuth2 authentication in Thunderbird, or any other email client that supports OAuth2 (modern) authentication. Thunderbird has no facility or capability to change your Microsoft account password. All major email service providers are moving to modern authentication methods (e.g OAuth2) away from the old legacy basic authentication methods that used to insecurely transmit your account password.
So, let Thunderbird save that token in its password vault and leave it be.
I suspect you nailed it, Stans. We have to assume, then, it was mistyping my usual password that locked me out of my Microsoft account last night. I'll continue to use Thunderbird for Hotmail. I'll access my Microsoft account via the Web over the next few days with my usual password to be sure, then mark this solved. Thank you in advance!
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