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Outgoing account sign-in disappears

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  • 2 have this problem
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  • Last reply by Matt

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Since the last TB update, which was 4 days ago, the credentials to send email for some accounts have vanished from the Passwords list.

That leads to the error in the attached photo. Editing or updating the SMTP settings has no effect.

Since the last TB update, which was 4 days ago, the credentials to send email for some accounts have vanished from the Passwords list. That leads to the error in the attached photo. Editing or updating the SMTP settings has no effect.
Attached screenshots

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Perhaps just use yahoo and not mess with ATT, clearly they have your money and don't care to provide the service that they claim to offer. ATT and Yahoo make their customers jump through hoops for no reason other than ATT do not apparently understand the requirements of their oAuth requirement is not all that relevant. Just because they collect payments does not make them competent. But that is another story entirely.

All I can tell you is the mailkey (A Yahoo invention) needs to be used in both the SMTP server account and pressing cancel in the password request also removes the entry as it now officially has no password as you did not provide one.

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All Replies (20)

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What are the account settings? They are listed in Help/Troubleshooting. If the authentication method is OAuth2, there is a single oauth:// entry in Saved Passwords for the incoming and outgoing, as long as both servers apply OAuth2 authentication, e.g. gmail, Yahoo.

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The email addresses at issue are @att.net, which uses Yahoo's email servers. They do not appear to use OAuth2, but not using AT&T's secure mail keys wasn't working as of a couple of years ago.

Here are images of the saved addresses (passwords hidden) from Preferences, and of the Mail and News accounts listed on the Troubleshooting page.

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Use a secure mail key with AT&T accounts and normal password authentication.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1335090

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That's how the connection to the SMTP server is set up.

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In your picture, I don't see an smtp entry for the rsb95 account, which suggests it's set to send through the mx5bob account (and probably causes the error). Select the rsb95 account in the left pane of Account Settings, then note the Outgoing Server (SMTP) menu in the right pane. It should be pointing to an smtp server with the rsb95 User Name. Click Edit SMTP server to check the User Name. If the smtp assignment is incorrect, add an smtp server for the rsb95 account in Outgoing Server (SMTP) (bottom left of Account Settings) and set the rsb95 account to send on that server.

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I set up outbound servers for the other 2 addresses. Those addresses still do not show outbound passwords in the Preferences list, and I still can't send email from either of them.

All these issues came up after the last TB update. I've turned auto updates off.

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The passwords won't appear in Saved Passwords until you send a message, but the password should not be needed if the sending account (with stored password/secure mail key) is sending on the correct smtp. If it is asked for, the password/key will be stored if the appropriate box is checked in the password prompt window.

I would also recommend using inbound.att.net for the incoming POP server instead of pop.mail.att.net.

https://www.att.com/support/article/dsl-high-speed/KM1010523/

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OK, first off, before these issues, all email accounts except GMail, which uses IMAP, displayed inbound and outbound with the same passwords for a given account in the Preferences settings.

Despite what is displayed either in prefs or troubleshooting, the main account, MX5bob, is set to use the inbound.att.net server, and not the old POP server.

When I try to send a message from the other accounts that do not have server/username/password in prefs, either the connection times out, or I get the error from the my first post.

I think my best bet at this point is to go back to through my Time Machine backups to before the last update and copy that version of TB into the current system.

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I would suggest you do not touch time machine. Instead post the accounts section of the troubleshooting information on the help menu again.

But several things apply. 1. Use of mail keys on att mail accounts in Thunderbird is mandatory. This is an att/Yahoo requirement. So going backwards will not help anything. 2. oAuth can be used is you use yahoo server names to access ATT mail account instead of those specified by ATT. This is not supported by ATT, but can be made to work. 3. Despite the ATT thing about primary and secondary addresses, they physically do not exist any longer. Since Yahoo have been providing mail addresses, they are all just mail addresses.

Please copy to clipboard with the troubleshooting information and paste it into a reply. There is nothing to be gained with images and a lot of other useful information may be messed.

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Thanks Matt,

But you are late to the party. I've been using ATT email keys for more than 3 years for all non-GMail accounts.

My email addresses are @att.net. If there's some magic way to access those through Yahoo servers instead of att.net servers, then please explain.

As I said before, NONE of this was happening before the latest TB update. All I want is for TB to work the way it did 10 days ago, which is EXACTLY how it worked for the several years before.

You want that opus, here goes.

WARNING: This contains sensitive information which shouldn't be forwarded or published without permission. Application Basics Name Thunderbird Version 78.10.1 Build ID 20210503211912 Distribution ID Update Channel release User Agent Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.15; rv:78.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/78.10.1 OS Darwin 19.6.0 Multiprocess Windows 0/0 Disabled Remote Processes 0 Enterprise Policies Inactive Google Location Service Key Missing Google Safebrowsing Key Missing Mozilla Location Service Key Missing Safe Mode false Mail and News Accounts ID Name Incoming server Outgoing servers Name Connection security Authentication method Identity Name Connection security Authentication method Default? account1 mx5bob@att.net (pop3) inbound.att.net:995 SSL passwordCleartext Bob Beamesderfer <mx5bob@att.net> outbound.att.net:465 SSL passwordCleartext true account2 Local Folders (none) Local Folders plain passwordCleartext account3 rsb.95@att.net (pop3) inbound.att.net:995 SSL passwordCleartext Bob Beamesderfer <rsb.95@att.net> outbound.att.net:465 SSL passwordCleartext true account4 mx5bob@gmail.com (imap) imap.googlemail.com:993 SSL passwordCleartext Bob Beamesderfer <mx5bob@gmail.com> smtp.googlemail.com:465 SSL passwordCleartext true account5 rsb95@att.net (pop3) inbound.att.net:995 SSL passwordCleartext Bob Beamesderfer <rsb95@att.net> outbound.att.net:465 SSL passwordCleartext true Crash Reports for the Last 3 Days Report ID Submitted Remote Processes Type Count Extensions Name Version Enabled ID Amazon.com 1.1 true amazondotcom@search.mozilla.org Bing 1.0 true bing@search.mozilla.org DuckDuckGo 1.0 true ddg@search.mozilla.org Google 1.0 true google@search.mozilla.org Wikipedia (en) 1.0 true wikipedia@search.mozilla.org ImportExportTools NG 10.0.4 false ImportExportToolsNG@cleidigh.kokkini.net Graphics Features Compositing OpenGL Asynchronous Pan/Zoom none WebGL 1 Driver WSI Info CGL WebGL 1 Driver Renderer Intel Inc. -- Intel HD Graphics 4000 OpenGL Engine WebGL 1 Driver Version 4.1 INTEL-14.7.13 WebGL 1 Driver Extensions GL_ARB_blend_func_extended 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I too am using ATT email (sbcglobal,net domain) but it is Thunderbird that KEEPS FORGETTING the password despite its many prompts for password and its many correct entry of password.

I too am using ATT secure email key.

This persistent popup for password is annoying (of which I paste in the ATT secure email ke each and everytimne).

Everything else works, once the password is entered.

Release update channel: 78.10.1 (64-bit)

Modified by egbertst1

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So, there's no solution to this issue. Nobody has an actual answer.

I do not look forward to switching to Apple Mail, but that's the only alternative.

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Can you check the following for me and confirm results because if this is not correct then it all fails.

In 'Account Settings' Left pane: Scroll to bottom and click on 'Outgoing Server (SMTP)' This should list your outgoing servers. You should have four, one of which is gmail.

The other three will have the same server settings with the exception of the username which should be the same as the mail account name/email address.

UPDATE: IF incoming is using pop.att.yahoo.com then SMTP should be smtp.att.yahoo.com

If incoming is using inbound.att.net then smtp is outbound.att.net

  • Select the first outbound.att smtp in list
  • click on 'Edit'
  • for the Description: please type in the same name as the 'User name' or first part of email address.
  • set server name: outbound.att.net
  • click on ok
  • Select second outbound.att smtp
  • click on 'Edit'
  • for the Description : as before - type in first part of email address which is the same as user name, but note: if it is the one with a punctuation mark then write the word dot instead of the actual full stop punctuation. So it is easy to tell the difference.
  • set server name: outbound.att.net
  • click on OK

and repeat for last outgoing smtp server.

Now check the ATT accounts are actually using the correct outgoing smtp server. If they are using the wrong one then you can get the type of error you mentioned and there is no way that would get saved.

In left pane select the mail account name. On the right at the bottom - Outgoing Server (SMTP) You will now see how the 'Description' field can help - does it say the first part of the email address which is the same as the mail account you selected. If no, then click on dropdown to select correct one - do not click on the 'Edit SMTP' option. Repeat for all the ATT mail accounts. Make sure the account with the dot in the email address is using the smtp with dot in name.

I've attached a couple of images as an example to show what I'm talking about. When all is correct as described above, then restart Thunderbird. When you want to send email and get prompted for password, make sure you enter the correct one for that account and select checkbox to remember it. I expect you are using an app specific password, then each account will use a different app specific password which you would have created in the respective webmail accounts. So make sure you are using the correct one for that account.

Modified by Toad-Hall

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Toad-Hall,

I have TB setup exactly as said. Nothing has changed. When I try to send an email from rsb-dot, it asks for a password. I paste the ATT secure mail key into the field, check box to have it be saved in the password manager, hit OK. The same error returns.

The mx5bob account works without a hitch.

Here is are screen shots of the Passwords window and the SMTP window:

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re TB setup exactly as said. Nothing has changed.

Everytime you post information something has changed.

Passwords image 1 - Initally for the dot email address: the incoming server was pop.att.yahoo.com - saved in passwords - so using yahoo option no smtp saved - it was somehow removed - perhaps you deleted it.

In between the posted passwords saved images, you posted Troubleshooting information info which said: incoming using inbound.att.net - so I presume you changed the incoming server name now using ATT advised server. smtp using outbound.att.net

Latest Passwords stored image - for the dot email address no incoming server - so not sure if this has changed or why it has been deleted. Did you delete it? So currently do not know what this is smtp is now saved as using outbound.att.net - so it has been saved which was not occuring in first image.

The password for incoming which I'm presuming works ok - should be the same as used for outgoing - this can be edited/checked by clicking on 'Show Passwords' and using right click on smtp line 'Edit Password' - then completely clear everything and enter exactly the same as you see for the incoming for dot email address.

But at this point in time you have not posted a Passwords window showing both incoming and smtp stored for the dot email address using the same set of server data - not a mix of both. ATT advise via their website to use the inbound/outbound data. So, suggest we stick with that.

Please note: I'm presuming after you had changed Account Settings incoming server name, you restarted Thunderbird. So i'm not sure why it is not stored in Thunderbird.

Can we have an image of each of the following that confirm current data and do not change anything. 1. In 'Account Settings', select the 'dot' account name - post image so we can clearly see that account is selected and the right side data showing what smtp selected. 2. In Account Settings - bottom left pane - select Outgoing Server (SMTP) select the dot smtp server (which looks like it is the one at the bottom of the list. ) 3. Image of Passwords window that shows both incoming and smtp for the dot email address. Do not show the actual password ......But... please confim that in the 'Show Passwords' window, the stored passwords are identical - no hidden spaces before or after password - You said : "I paste the ATT secure mail key into the field," - accidental hidden spaces can occur if copy pasting a password - so type the password. No typos or accidentally added full stop at the end etc.

Modified by Toad-Hall

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LOOK! I followed your instructions. I DID NOT delete ANYTHING. TB is doing this.

Second, I know to carefully copy and paste the mail keys. Simply double clicking in the field copies ONLY what's there.

Under the account settings for mx5bob, the incoming server is set to inbound.att.net. Why in passwords it shows pop.att.net I have no idea.

"But at this point in time you have not posted a Passwords window showing both incoming and smtp stored for the dot email address using the same set of server data - not a mix of both."

Because THIS IS THE problem. Those outbound addresses disappeared from Passwords. I DID NOT delete them. After TB updated on May 4, the problems started. Even though I backdated to Mojave via Time Machine and have an earlier version of TB running, the problem persists. (The backdate was needed because Apple's latest update made hash out of my music library.)

The Troubleshooting info does NOT match what's in Passwords.

Modified by MX5Bob

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I have a better idea. I don't use the sub accounts for much of anything, so I disabled those and changed TB settings to not try to fetch emails.

That solves most of this.

Modified by MX5Bob

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Toad-Hall,

I guess calling you out on your condescending response to my issues, not reading the original post and doubling down on condescending is all you've got.

I uninstalled TB using CleanMyMac; I reinstalled. Same problem. Using the updated servers, which are IMAP and SMTP, the old inbound/outbound. Using a secure mail key.

TB still cannot get or send mail. ATT says it is not their problem.

If you want to be helpful with a real solution, I'm all ears. But don't come back with shit as if I just started using a computer. I've been using them for 35+ years over several iterations and operating systems.

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RS-EVANSTON said

Toad-Hall, I guess being condescending in response to my issues, not reading the original post and doubling down on condescension is all you've got. Sorry if calling you out hurt your feelings, but I don't need a lengthy lecture on the basics, and the fact that TB kept deleting things from the Password list was the original issue. I uninstalled TB using CleanMyMac; I reinstalled. Same problem. Using the updated servers, which are IMAP and SMTP, not the old inbound/outbound. Using a secure mail key, of course. TB still cannot get or send mail. ATT says it is not their problem. If you want to be helpful with a real solution, I'm all ears. But don't come back with shit as if I just started using a computer. I've been using them for 35+ years over several iterations and operating systems.
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Seçilmiş Həll

Perhaps just use yahoo and not mess with ATT, clearly they have your money and don't care to provide the service that they claim to offer. ATT and Yahoo make their customers jump through hoops for no reason other than ATT do not apparently understand the requirements of their oAuth requirement is not all that relevant. Just because they collect payments does not make them competent. But that is another story entirely.

All I can tell you is the mailkey (A Yahoo invention) needs to be used in both the SMTP server account and pressing cancel in the password request also removes the entry as it now officially has no password as you did not provide one.

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