Cannot get Thunderbird to connect to outlook.com e-mail accounts
I've been reading for two days now but still no solution. Background, have been wanting to try a linux desktop for some time. WinXP going away provided the opportunity. Recently installed Mint 16 Cinnamon on an IBM Thinkpad x41 laptop (overwriting WinXP) with no problems. System connected to the internet fine via Firefox. Also Mint performed all updates as expected.
Next moved on to configuring e-mail using Thunderbird. Entered account info and TB found servers and settings (below) for that particular e-mail address (which I have verified on many sites as being the correct settings):
Incoming IMAP Server:imap-mail.outlook.com Port: 993 SSL: SSL/TLS Authentication: Normal Password
Outgoing: smtp Server:smtp-mail.outlook.com Port: 587 SSL: STARTSSL Authentication: Normal Password
However, when TB attempts to authenticate the account I get "Configuration could not be verified - is the username and password correct?"
I have logged into the account via MS Outlook as well as via the outlook.com web app and verified the user ID and password are correct. I have telnet'd to the individual imap and smtp servers and established a connection so I know I can see the servers via the listed ports.
Thinking it might be a Linux Mint issue - I downloaded TB on a windows7 machine. Same issue. I then tried creating a TB account using my g-mail address figuring I'd try some other servers. All worked fine, found the servers, authenticated and downloaded my mail. I was also able to send messages from this account. Back to the Linux Machine, I did the same thing with the g-mail account and had similar success.
So I think I have isolated it to TB authentication issues with outlook.com but I have no idea how to fix it.
Would greatly appreciate any help you can offer. Being a good Linux N00B, I've read until my eyeballs are ready to fall out but haven't found the solution.
Thank you
TC
Chosen solution
Update and closure ...
Having tried from Mint and Windows I decided to look at how my android phone's e-mail client was connecting to this account (has worked for years). I found it is using different server names. Instead of the auto discovered, Microsoft specified: IMAP-mail.outlook.com and smtp-mail.outlook.com it is using pod51015.outlook.com for both incoming and outgoing mail. Back onto the Mint box and on TB account setup, I went to "manual config", replaced the auto-discovered servers with pod5105.outlook.com and everything worked.
A possible explanation as to why my servers names are different goes back to a decision I made to use Microsoft's Office Live Small Business (yes that was the product name) to manage my company's web site, e-mail admin, sharepoint, etc. Microsoft decided to discontinue the Office Live Small Business platform and migrated users from that and other web products (hotmail, others) to their Office365 platform. Maybe in that transition they maintained server names. WHo knows...
While I would like a more definitive answer I will move along at least knowing what the problem was and how to fix it.
Skaityti atsakymą kartu su kontekstu 👍 2All Replies (4)
Did you turn on 2-step verification and create an App password? See the 2nd item here:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows/two-step-verification-faq
You may have to delete a previous password in TB under Tools(or AppMenu/Options)/Options/Security/Passwords/Saved Passwords. You will be prompted to enter the new password the next time you connect to the account.
Chosen Solution
Update and closure ...
Having tried from Mint and Windows I decided to look at how my android phone's e-mail client was connecting to this account (has worked for years). I found it is using different server names. Instead of the auto discovered, Microsoft specified: IMAP-mail.outlook.com and smtp-mail.outlook.com it is using pod51015.outlook.com for both incoming and outgoing mail. Back onto the Mint box and on TB account setup, I went to "manual config", replaced the auto-discovered servers with pod5105.outlook.com and everything worked.
A possible explanation as to why my servers names are different goes back to a decision I made to use Microsoft's Office Live Small Business (yes that was the product name) to manage my company's web site, e-mail admin, sharepoint, etc. Microsoft decided to discontinue the Office Live Small Business platform and migrated users from that and other web products (hotmail, others) to their Office365 platform. Maybe in that transition they maintained server names. WHo knows...
While I would like a more definitive answer I will move along at least knowing what the problem was and how to fix it.
I tried this http://pod51015.outlook.com/ but still having this same error message. Is this http://pod51015.outlook.com/ only for IMAP or for POP too? Because I use pop.
That URL directs the browser to the live.com login page; it's not a server address you would enter in TB to access a live/hotmail/outlook account.
To access an outlook account in TB with POP, use the settings provided here: