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Server disconnected when starting Thunderbird SOLVED server must be outlook.office365.com for OAuth2 authentication, and for outgoing must be smtp.office365.com.

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  • 1 has this problem
  • Last reply by Colin b

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For the past couple of months, every time I boot up my computer and launch Thunderbird I get the attached error messages for each of my email accounts (2 Hotmail and one Outlook)

Repeatedly clicking "retry" often results in success but sometimes I get the second message indicating the server has disconnected. Usually, after a few minutes things settle down, the messages come through and all is well but it is a nuisance. I would switch to using Outlook but it cannot send multiple emails which I periodically need to do and I don't want to encourage Microsoft's near monopoly of computer technology.

I have tried accepting coookies as advised elsewhere in here and tried turning on O Oath as my authentication method but this just got me another error message saying this authentication "was not supported on this platform" (whatever that means??) Anyway, I reverted to using "simple password" which does eventually work.

I looked at 2 factor authentication but that proved to be impossible to understand and, in any case, I rarely carry a 'phone with me and do not want to clutter my 'phone up with more apps. I use 2 factor authentication on a lot of my confidential accounts and none of these were as complicated to set up as this one and certainly did not invole scanning QR codes and installing special apps.

Will this bug be fixed by more updates to Thunderbird or is there some other way of solving this problem.

For the past couple of months, every time I boot up my computer and launch Thunderbird I get the attached error messages for each of my email accounts (2 Hotmail and one Outlook) Repeatedly clicking "retry" often results in success but sometimes I get the second message indicating the server has disconnected. Usually, after a few minutes things settle down, the messages come through and all is well but it is a nuisance. I would switch to using Outlook but it cannot send multiple emails which I periodically need to do and I don't want to encourage Microsoft's near monopoly of computer technology. I have tried accepting coookies as advised elsewhere in here and tried turning on O Oath as my authentication method but this just got me another error message saying this authentication "was not supported on this platform" (whatever that means??) Anyway, I reverted to using "simple password" which does eventually work. I looked at 2 factor authentication but that proved to be impossible to understand and, in any case, I rarely carry a 'phone with me and do not want to clutter my 'phone up with more apps. I use 2 factor authentication on a lot of my confidential accounts and none of these were as complicated to set up as this one and certainly did not invole scanning QR codes and installing special apps. Will this bug be fixed by more updates to Thunderbird or is there some other way of solving this problem.
Attached screenshots

Modified by Wayne Mery

Chosen solution

The server must be outlook.office365.com in order to apply OAuth2 authentication. Similarly, for outgoing, it must be smtp.office365.com.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/microsoft-oauth-authentication-and-thunderbird-202

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Chosen Solution

The server must be outlook.office365.com in order to apply OAuth2 authentication. Similarly, for outgoing, it must be smtp.office365.com.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/microsoft-oauth-authentication-and-thunderbird-202

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nope - This is just too much for my limited computer skills.

Changing the authentication method to oAuth2 simply resulted in a notice that this was "not supported'

I could not change the outgoing server to OAuth 2 because this option was not available.

I was able to allow cookies for Outlook and Hotmail but this made no difference to the problem.

It appears Microsoft has tied everything in to Office 365 which I do not have so it looks as if they have finally succeeded in making Thunderbird impossible to use with Windows 11.

I am going to persist with Thunderbird despite the present problem and may get a guru to help as I use Thunderbird for mass emails which I cannot do with Outlook.

Thank you for your efforts.

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O.K. an apology is due.

Being a bit of an ignoramus with computers I did not realise that 0365 was the new name for Hotmail and Outlook. I thought it was a programmeI had to have on my computer to use these email accounts. When I applied the settings suggested in your article I was able to connect my email accounts and get rid of the annoying messages.

Thank you for your assistance.

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