outlook.com-mail-account + Thunderbird 115.2.0 and 115.2.1 + OAuth2 => authorization error messages
Hello,
since Saturday, 9th Sept. 2023, ca. 14:00 GMT my Thunderbirds are producing error messages.
I have added four different outlook.com email-accounts, each with IMAP+TLS+OAuth2 as incoming server and SMTP+STARTTLS+OAuth2 as outgoing server configuration. The error messages are only regarding these outlook.com-accounts. A gmail.com-account with the same settings is not affected.
I encounter constantly popups with the following error messages: - "...user ist authenticated but not connected" - "the server is offline" - something like "authentification error while connecting to server outlook.office365.com"
Also the Page where i should enter the password to create the OAuth-Token keeps opening and closing before it could load completely.
The most astounding thing is, the synchroniziation seems to work nonetheless. It's just the messages that annoy me.
Here is an entry from the Thunderbird error-log: "mailnews.oauth: Error response from the authorization server: invalid_grant; AADSTS50196: The server terminated an operation because it encountered a client request loop. Please contact your app vendor. (...) https://login.microsoftonline.com/error?code=50196"
The problem occured more or less suddenly on 3 different PCs: - Two Windows 10 Pro 22H2 machines with the Thunderbird versions 115.2.0 and 115.2.1 - A Fedora Linux machine where Thunderbird 115.2.0 is installed via Flatpak
What I already tried with no success: - De- and reinstalling Thunderbird with deleting _all_ user Data - Upgrading Thunderbird from 115.2.0 to 115.2.1 - Revoking the access for the Thunderbird-app in the Microsoft.com account OAuth-Settings and granting it again when creating a new token by logging in with Thunderbird
What my inquiry has delivered yet: - Thunderbird seems to have problems to remember the OAuth-Tokens. When I look in the privacy settings at the saved passwords I can see that the passwort seems to change constantly. In contrast, the Google-gmail.com-account keeps the same passwort. - It seems to be especially triggered by closing thunderbird and opening it again shortly afterwards, though it does happen without doing so too. - The error messages pop up and the password-page opens mostly when I click on a folder (presumably because Thunderbird is trying to sync it then)
My accounts seem to be fine. I have no problems accessing them with OAuth2 via K-9 Mail on my Android 13 phone. I can also log in via the Web Interface.
Thank You for your Time!
Isisombululo esikhethiwe
Ultimately it was K9-Mail's fault. I set up K9-Mail on my Android devices to receive pushes for all folders and to poll all folders frequently. This lead to too many active connections to the microsoft-server.
Then I tried to decrease the "Maximum Number of server connections to cache" from 5 to 1 and it got slightly better, less error-pop-ups, but they weren't gone at all yet.
Since I deactivated the pushing/polling on K9-Mail the problem is completely gone.
Funda le mpendulo ngokuhambisana nalesi sihloko 👍 2All Replies (8)
Thanks for this really useful information.
There is a bug on sending issues with outlook and office365. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1839787
One user posted info that they get access when using an app specific password. You would need to change : Authentication Method: Normal Password When asked for password, you would enter the app generated password and select checkbox for Thunderbird to remember it.
Some info at link: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/account-billing/manage-app-passwords-for-two-step-verification-d6dc8c6d-4bf7-4851-ad95-6d07799387e9
Please try this and report back on results. It may get you up and running whilst they work out whats going on.
Meanwhile I was able to overcome the issue by using "Password, normal" as authentication method instead of OAuth2, but this should be only a temporal workaround as OAuth2 is the future.
I tend to suspect there is an issue with Tunderbird AND the Microsoft server at the same time.
Thunderbird seems to delete cookies whenever there is a connection issue detected, as user Isaac Ribeiro writes at bugzilla (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1848370#c3). This leads to a constant need for creating a new OAuth token which in turn floods the Microsoft server with authentication requests that it denies because it thinks it's a loop.
The connection issue in the first place seems to be caused by troubles with the Microsoft server (i.e. reacting a bit slow so that Thunderbird thinks there's a connection issue), though I can't rule out this connection issue is also caused by a problem with Thunderbird instead with the server.
When Thunderbird had this same bug with the last major release I chose to downgrade to the previous working version before the upgrade and wait to upgrade until the bug is reported fixed. You may want to consider that. As I understand it the basic steps are:
- Turn off automatic updates.
- Uninstall the current Thunderbird version.
- Download your earlier version. See https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.o.../releases/
- Install the older version
Hope this gives you ideas,
Okulungisiwe ngu Michael
I have no problems sending or receiving with an outlook.com account, with OAuth2 authentication. But I created a new profile with TB 115 and added the account. I deliberately did not re-use the 102 profile in 115, as every year users encounter multiple issues when doing the upgrade on the previous profile. It shouldn't be necessary to do this, and the standard upgrade might work in some cases, but experience has taught me that major releases work best with new profiles.
sfhowes said
(...) but experience has taught me that major releases work best with new profiles. </blockquote>
I deleted all user data before I reinstalled Thunderbird, this included my profile. Unfortunately it didn't help. ___ A user over at the answers.microsoft-forum - where I crossposted my problem - said, 2 step verification would be necessary for outlook.com to use OAuth2. (https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook_com/forum/all/outlookcom-mail-account-thunderbird-11520-and/fae8fbd6-65d0-4e6b-91ad-0101af9a51d4) Is this true? When did this came into effect? ___ Also I must add, about 12 hours ago I suddenly had problems to sync my outlook.com accounts with K9-Mail on my Android phone. K9-Mail was configured to use OAuth too. When I changed it to "normal password" even then I got some error messages ("user authenticated but not connected" I think). After some tries it worked though. Is the culprit Microsoft after all?
I just added a Hotmail account to a new profile in 115/W11, with OAuth2, and it worked without any problems, sending or receiving. This account does not have two-step verification. I can't explain why others have issues, but it's possible they employ external security apps or VPNs that interfere with the authentication process. Perhaps doing a test with Windows running in safe mode would produce different results.
Isisombululo Esikhethiwe
Ultimately it was K9-Mail's fault. I set up K9-Mail on my Android devices to receive pushes for all folders and to poll all folders frequently. This lead to too many active connections to the microsoft-server.
Then I tried to decrease the "Maximum Number of server connections to cache" from 5 to 1 and it got slightly better, less error-pop-ups, but they weren't gone at all yet.
Since I deactivated the pushing/polling on K9-Mail the problem is completely gone.
I had this problem too, but update to 115.3.0 (64-bit) fixed it. I am using Windows 64-bit. It seems the OAUTH2 URL was not being constructed well, so the window kept opening and closing. You may have to manually update. Go to "Thunderbird menu - Help - About Thunderbird" to check. Give it another try, and good luck!