Thunderbird and Outlook SMTP

[thesamim]

Version: 115.1.0 (64-bit) (tried with 114 as well.)

Set up an account that's based in outlook.live.com. Receiving emails just fine. Getting all folders.

Note: it's annoying AF that you have to restart TBird every time you make a smtp change!

Can't send emails. Authentication methods tried:

normal password	Login to server smtp.office365.com with username sami@... failed
Encryption password	The Outgoing server (SMTP) smtp.office365.com does not seem to support encrypted passwords. If you just set up the account, try changing the 'Authentication method' in 'Account settings | Outgoing server (SMTP)' to 'Normal password'.
Kerberos	ditto
NTLM	ditto
oAuth2	Login to server smtp.office365.com with username sami@... failed. NOTE: I see no evidence that it tried to get a token.

[termite728]

in my case,

Thunderbird A migrated to current upgrade with some hassles with Microsoft concerning access. In that instance Tools-AccoutSettings SMTP Oauth2

Thunderbird B migrated to current upgrade with persistent failures. I removed saved login/password entries. No success. I then modified Tools-AccoutSettings SMTP Normal Password Success was had.

Both A & B function with the different setting between them. The specific accounts are all @outlook.com

Termite728

[termite728]

Termite728; Over a 6-week interval, the problem diminished and ceased on the problem machine. All is well at this point with Thunderbird across my units servicing multiple outlook accounts on each. In my opinion the mail provider is the primary suspect.

[thesamim]

Tried all that.  No success.

In debugger, looking at the network traffic:

When I use oAuth2, I can see the request for the token being made, a valid response is received. Then nothing.

When I use normal password: I see no requests going out.

[startherese]

WHEN will TBIRD catch up with the rest of the industry and create a permanent fix for authentication using exchange server settings? This needs to be solved - period. I'm a small business owner and my web/email hosting has completely stopped using pop and smtp server settings. So after using Tbird for 25 years, I'm scre*ed. TBIRD needs to be the one to change - stop passing the buck. Using the browser and microsoft email programs is a time-wasting nightmare. PLEASE FIX THIS!!

[rolandog]

Thunderbird can't issue a fix for something that Microsoft broke disabled by default:

• Microsoft OAuth Authentication and Thunderbird in 2023 
• (tangentially related) Enable or disable authenticated client SMTP submission (SMTP AUTH) in Exchange Online 

[pettys]

After much trouble, I found I had to enable SMTP AUTH at both the domain level AND the mailbox level. I used the instructions here:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/clients-and-mobile-in-exchange-online/authenticated-clien...

I did both the `Set-TransportConfig` and the `Set-CASMailbox` in order to get it to work.

[blued]

Too many hoops and barrels to jump through to resolve this. Started using Windows Live Mail and works right out of the box. Goodbye thunderbird, been nice knowing you.

[Flaco74]

Had troubles with Thunderbird Nebula. I deleted all SMTP settings. And then, sending emails worked fine for me. Went to Tools> Account settings > SMTP Settings (bottom of accounts), and then deleted all SMTP accounts associated with a hotmail/outlook account. Not sure how this did it, but I can send emails out now. Hope this helps.

[ET122]

I like Thunderbird's ability to connect to multiple email accounts as I have such multiple accounts for different purposes.

However, fiddling with the outlook.com SMTP server settings was a nightmare even if I usually managed to find something that eventually worked (until the next time). Today, based on your instruction of deleting all SMTP accounts associated with my outlook account, I managed to get send-mail to "work with outlook.com" by selecting "Use Default Server" as the SMTP server.  For me, this default SMTP server defined by Thunderbird seems to be the Gmail SMTP server. Seems to work. The sent email ends up in the Sent folder of my outlook.com account and it has my outlook.com email address in the headers.

[ET122]

Correction: That workaround using the Gmail SMTP server causes the email to be sent from my Gmail account.

I did find that Thunderbird does seem to set up the correct outlook.com settings (IMAP and SMTP) if, after deleting the outlook.com mail account from Thunderbird, I reboot Windows before adding the account back in.

[Flaco74]

I am using an app password from Outlook, and 2F Authentication to log in to IMAP server.

[Flaco74]

I was having issues with password apps again. I cleared all password apps from my outlook account, and generated a new one and entered it into Thunderbird. Now things are working as desired. I may have had more than 40 app passwords, and that was creating an issue.

[Stelzi79]

So basically my somewhat silly and persistent issues of Firefox not properly working with Outlook stems from the fact that the Firefox team "forgot" to properly migrate or properly inform everybody that Firefox refuses to do ALL (receiving and sending) necessary migration steps. 

Considering that this thread was started about ONE YEAR AGO ...

At this point I wish for the times back when somebody could purchase an email client for the desktop! At least at these times there was a small chance the coders of that client cared just a little more for their customers.

But who am I - just an old man that is angry at the clouds!

[user9]

I had switched to MS Outlook client because SMTP via OAuth2 was not working for a while on my personal Outlook account. However, today I was able to fix the issue and get back to Thunderbird. I don't know if it will work for others, but here is the solution I used:

1. Configured my Outlook account with OAuth2 in Thunderbird as usual.
2. Tried to send an email, but it didn't work.
3. Created a second email address in my Microsoft account settings.
4. Replaced my existing email address in Thunderbird's SMTP settings with the second email address in the user name.
5. Tried to send an email again, and a new authentication window popped up. Then I authenticated again.
6. Now I can send emails as before.