Mail Account Setup Fails with Office365 account on Debian Linux 8/9
Mail account setup fails with Thunderbird 45.8.0 on Debian Linux 8.10 and 9.0.
I have been using IceDove on Debian Linux for about 9 months now with my Microsoft Office365 account on multiple PCs. I have also used Thunderbird on Windows successfully. My account is working fine on my existing installations but not when I try to create a new account on a blank Thunderbird installation on Linux.
The recent change of version / branding from IceDove to Thunderbird on Debian Linux 8 and above seems to have broken the Mail Setup Wizard when dealing with Microsoft Office365 accounts using outlook.office365.com as the incoming and outgoing IMAP / SMTP server with SSL/TLS and STARTTLS security. Something has changed in the update to Thunderbird from IceDove which causes this issue, and the Debian repositories no longer seem to contain the original IceDove version I was using so I cannot test that.
My E-mail account is on the kentforlife.net domain provided by the University of Kent in the UK.
I'm using the office365 settings shown here: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/POP-and-IMAP-settings-for-Outlook-Office-365-for-business-7fc677eb-2491-4cbc-8153-8e7113525f6c?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US and here: https://www.kent.ac.uk/itservices/email/student/imap.html
Account settings: Name: X E-mail Address: xx@kentforlife.net
Incoming server: IMAP outlook.office365.com Port 993 SSL/TLS Normal password. Outgoing server: SMTP outlook.office365.com Port 587 STARTTLS Normal password.
Username: Incoming / Outgoing xx@kent.ac.uk
The account I'm using is documented here: https://www.kent.ac.uk/itservices/email/student/index.html
The process I follow is:
1. Load Thunderbird. 2. Welcome to Thunderbird wizard launches. 3. I choose skip this and use my existing E-mail. 4. Mail account setup wizard launches. 5. I type my name, e-mail address and password. 6. I click continue. 7. Thunderbird says configuration found in Mozilla ISP database. 8. The configuration is correct but the server name and username are wrong. 9. I choose Manual Config and enter the correct servername and username. 10. I click re-test. 11. It says the following settings were found by probing the given server. 12. I click done. 13. It says Password ok! but the buttons on the wizard are now greyed out except for Get a new account and Cancel. 14. The status bar says: Mail for xx@kent.ac.uk@outlook.office365.com: Sending secure login information....
I wait several minutes but nothing happens so I click cancel and try again.
It still says Mail for xx@kent.ac.uk@outlook.office365.com: Sending secure login information.... on the status bar.
This time when I click done the Mail account setup wizard tells me Error Creating Account - Incoming Server already exists.
I click okay and then Cancel.
I close and re-open Thunderbird and the same thing happens again, it shows the Welcome to Thunderbird wizard and then the Mail account setup wizard.
If I uninstall and reinstall Thunderbird or delete my /home/username/.thunderbird directory and start again the same thing happens. I have tried several times and I have upgraded from Debian 8.10 to Debian 9.0 and still have the same problem after the upgrade.
I have no issues using IceDove on another PC running Debian 8.6 although the Office 365 account is already setup and working on that machine. I also have no issues with IceDove on my work PC, also running Debian 8.6.
The issue appears specific to new installs of Thunderbird after IceDove was re-branded to Thunderbird on Debian Linux 8.10 and 9.0
My IceDove install on Debian 8.6 on another PC was upgraded to Thunderbird and I did not have this issue with my existing accounts.
Here is the output of dpkg -s:
root@xxxpc1:~# dpkg -s thunderbird Package: thunderbird Status: install ok installed Priority: optional Section: mail Installed-Size: 83455 Maintainer: Christoph Goehre <chris@sigxcpu.org> Architecture: amd64 Source: icedove Version: 1:45.8.0-3 Replaces: icedove (<< 1:45.6.0-2.1~), icedove-gnome-support (<< 3.0-1~) Provides: icedove, mail-reader
Here's the output of cat /etc/debian_version:
root@xxxpc1:~# cat /etc/debian_version 9.0
Here's the output of uname -a:
root@xxxpc1:~# uname -a Linux xxxpc1 4.9.0-3-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.9.30-2 (2017-06-12) x86_64 GNU/Linux
Here are the files that seem to relate to my Office365 account in my .thunderbird folder:
root@xxxpc1:~# ls -lhR /home/xxx/.thunderbird/*.default/ImapMail /home/xxx/.thunderbird/3e6618x6.default/ImapMail: total 28K -rw-r--r-- 1 xxx xxx 1.3K Jul 1 23:27 imap-mail.outlook.com.msf drwxr-xr-x 2 xxx xxx 4.0K Jul 1 23:28 outlook.office365-1.com -rw-r--r-- 1 xxx xxx 1.2K Jul 1 23:27 outlook.office365-1.com.msf drwxr-xr-x 2 xxx xxx 4.0K Jul 1 23:41 outlook.office365-2.com -rw-r--r-- 1 xxx xxx 1.2K Jul 1 23:37 outlook.office365-2.com.msf drwxr-xr-x 2 xxx xxx 4.0K Jul 1 23:09 outlook.office365.com -rw-r--r-- 1 xxx xxx 1.2K Jul 1 23:05 outlook.office365.com.msf
/home/xxx/.thunderbird/3e6618x6.default/ImapMail/outlook.office365-1.com: total 4.0K -rw-r--r-- 1 xxx xxx 1.5K Jul 1 23:33 INBOX.msf
/home/xxx/.thunderbird/3e6618x6.default/ImapMail/outlook.office365-2.com: total 4.0K -rw-r--r-- 1 xxx xxx 1.5K Jul 1 23:41 INBOX.msf
/home/xxx/.thunderbird/3e6618x6.default/ImapMail/outlook.office365.com: total 4.0K -rw-r--r-- 1 xxx xxx 1.5K Jul 1 23:14 INBOX.msf
/home/xxx/.thunderbird/c45m8axr.default/ImapMail: total 8.0K -rw-r--r-- 1 xxx xxx 1.2K Jul 1 22:57 imap-mail.outlook.com.msf -rw-r--r-- 1 xxx xxx 1.1K Jul 1 23:01 outlook.office365-3.com.msf
I don't know why but there seem to be duplicate accounts in there, possibly due to me running the Mail account setup wizard multiple times, the first time when it stores the account details but doesn't display them in the Account Settings page and prompts me again to Welcome me to Thunderbird and create a new E-mail account and the two following times when it says Incoming server already exists.
The Account Settings panel contains no existing accounts.
When I close and open Thunderbird again it continues to display the Welcome to Thunderbird message pointing me to create a new E-mail account, and displays no accounts in Account Settings, even though it has obviously created some account files under /home/username/.thunderbird/3e6618x6.default/ and /home/username/.thunderbird/c45m8axr.default/ and attempts to create an E-mail account using the same details fail with the Incoming server already exists message.
Chosen solution
Many people are using outlook.office365.com on version 52, so the problem is probably something in your configuration.
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I do not see kentforlife.net isted as a known provider. see https://autoconfig.thunderbird.net/v1.1/ so I am sort of at a loss how it can be found.
However, you obviously have created an account to get the account already exists error. So there is no point fiddling with the new account wizard. What is needed is to correct the setting for the account you have created.
Please add the troubleshooting information to your post To find the Troubleshooting information:
- Open Help (or click on three-line-icon and select Help)
- Choose Troubleshooting Information
- Use the button Copy to clipboard to select all. Do not check box "Include account names"!
- Paste this in your post.
Here's the info you requested but as you can see Thunderbird does not identify any accounts, even though it says the incoming server already exists and there is data related to my accounts in my profile directory in the ImapMail folder.
I believe it's creating some data at the Mail account setup stage because it says Password ok! and says it's connecting to the server but it stops at that point and then from then on I cannot add the account again because it says the server already exists, even though no accounts are shown in the account settings panel or the report I have posted below.
Application Basics
Name: Thunderbird Version: 45.8.0 User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:45.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/45.8.0 Profile Directory: Open Directory
(Local drive) Application Build ID: 20170329232832 Enabled Plugins: about:plugins Build Configuration: about:buildconfig Memory Use: about:memory
Mail and News Accounts
Crash Reports
Extensions
Adblock Plus, 2.7.3, true, {d10d0bf8-f5b5-c8b4-a8b2-2b9879e08c5d}
GNOME Keyring integration, 0.12, true, gnome-keyring-integration@sebastianwick.net
Lightning, 4.7.8, true, {e2fda1a4-762b-4020-b5ad-a41df1933103}
Important Modified Preferences
Name: Value
browser.cache.disk.capacity: 358400
browser.cache.disk.filesystem_reported: 1
browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value: 358400
browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run: false
browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max: false
extensions.lastAppVersion: 45.8.0
gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.appVersion: 45.8.0
gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.deviceID: Gallium 0.4 on AMD CAICOS (DRM 2.48.0 / 4.9.0-3-amd64, LLVM 3.9.1)
gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.driverVersion: 3.0 Mesa 13.0.6
gfx.crash-guard.status.glcontext: 2
mail.openMessageBehavior.version: 1
mailnews.database.global.datastore.id: d2ef8372-709c-4f2a-9d13-94b212efd88
network.cookie.prefsMigrated: true
plugin.importedState: true
Graphics
Adapter Description: X.Org -- Gallium 0.4 on AMD CAICOS (DRM 2.48.0 / 4.9.0-3-amd64, LLVM 3.9.1) Vendor ID: X.Org Device ID: Gallium 0.4 on AMD CAICOS (DRM 2.48.0 / 4.9.0-3-amd64, LLVM 3.9.1) Driver Version: 3.0 Mesa 13.0.6 WebGL Renderer: X.Org -- Gallium 0.4 on AMD CAICOS (DRM 2.48.0 / 4.9.0-3-amd64, LLVM 3.9.1) -- 3.0 Mesa 13.0.6 GPU Accelerated Windows: 0
AzureCanvasBackend: cairo
AzureSkiaAccelerated: 0
AzureFallbackCanvasBackend: none
AzureContentBackend: cairo
CairoUseXRender: 1
JavaScript
Incremental GC: 1
Accessibility
Activated: 0 Prevent Accessibility: 0
Library Versions
Expected minimum version
Version in use
NSPR
4.12
4.12
NSS
3.26.2
3.26.2
NSS Util
3.26.2
3.26.2
NSS SSL
3.26.2
3.26.2
NSS S/MIME
3.26.2
3.26.2
Just as an FYI, I have just configured the same Thunderbird version on an OpenBSD 6.1 installation on the same machine.
It does not suffer from the above problem and the details show up as below:
Application Basics
Name Thunderbird Version 45.8.0 User Agent Mozilla/5.0 (X11; OpenBSD amd64; rv:45.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/45.8.0 Profile Directory (Local drive) Application Build ID 20170401191624 Enabled Plugins about:plugins Build Configuration about:buildconfig Memory Use about:memory Mail and News Accounts ID Incoming server Outgoing servers Name Connection security Authentication method Name Connection security Authentication method Default? account1 (imap) outlook.office365.com:993 SSL/TLS Normal password smtp.office365.com:587 STARTTLS Normal password true account2 (none) Local Folders None Normal password
Chosen Solution
Many people are using outlook.office365.com on version 52, so the problem is probably something in your configuration.
I'm not using version 52, i'm on 45.8.0. That seems to be the latest version on Debian unless I try to pull something from unstable? As the issue only affects Debian 8/9 and it worked before the icedove re-branding I imagine it's a packaging problem rather than a bug in the thunderbird release version of 45.8.0. Although I could download the source code to be sure.
Seems my issue is solved. Not sure what happened but I moved my hard drive from one PC to another and did a system update, then when I launched Thunderbird - same version 45.8.0 I was able to add the account. This time it didn't give the Password Ok! message on the Mail Setup Wizard, so maybe Microsoft changed something?