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Thunderbird will not login to email server

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  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by svlad2009

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A PC of mine crashed a couple months ago. I now have a new Windows 10 box, and I need to connect to an email server that has accumulated a lot of email since the crash.

I installed Thunderbird v78.3.1 - it says 32-bit - is there a 64-bit version?

Anyway, on creating the account, I always get the following error:

"Unable to login at server. Probably wrong configuration, username or password."

I can readily connect via telnet, login and read a message - so, clearly, I know my username and password.

Please, advise. Thank you.

~ Mike

A PC of mine crashed a couple months ago. I now have a new Windows 10 box, and I need to connect to an email server that has accumulated a lot of email since the crash. I installed Thunderbird v78.3.1 - it says 32-bit - is there a 64-bit version? Anyway, on creating the account, I always get the following error: "Unable to login at server. Probably wrong configuration, username or password." I can readily connect via telnet, login and read a message - so, clearly, I know my username and password. Please, advise. Thank you. ~ Mike

Chosen solution

I had to set it to: 1 - which works.

This is not my main email host, so I'll go along with this for now

Thank you

~ Mike

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On TB v78 the minimum requirement for SSL has increased and probably your email service provider still uses deprecated security for the mail server. Can you try to set lowest security by following the below steps and let us know how it works?

From the menu at the top right, go to Options. Scroll all the way to the bottom and click on Config Editor -> Skip past the warning. Scroll down until you find security.tls.version.min (or paste security.tls.version.min to upper frame) Change the value 3 to 2. Restart TB. If it's still not working then change the same option again but this time to 1. Restart TB.

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Chosen Solution

I had to set it to: 1 - which works.

This is not my main email host, so I'll go along with this for now

Thank you

~ Mike

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What are your settings? Do not change any TLS setting until the correct server settings are confirmed.

incoming server, port, security, authentication method, User Name format; same for outgoing server

There is a 64-bit version, but it offers no significant performance benefits.

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MDS said

I had to set it to: 1 - which works.

This means they use an old and deprecated security for the mail servers and you should contact them on this regards. After they will update their security don't forget to change that value back to 3

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I have this problem as well, however the TLS version change did not fix it. I use Thuderbird on one PC (Win 10) no problem, with min TLS version of 3. I'm trying to set up Thunderbird on another PC (also Win 10), to use the same email account, but it comes up with this "Unable to login at server..." error. As far as I can tell - every single setting on the two PC's is identical.

I checked firewall and don't believe it's an issue (was using Windows Defender; turned off firewall but it didn't help; don't have McAfee or Norton installed yet).

I tried doing a wireshark trace, but really hard to see anything obvious. It's talking with the POP server (pop.aol.com) fine, but never attempts to contact the login server (api.login.aol.com) for some reason - not sure why.

Any help is appreciated.

EDIT: I figured it out. I had forgotten that AOL requires a one-time "app password" when setting up email for the first time on a device. When I did this, now it works.

E.g. here's a thread on the subject:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-other_settings/windows-mail-setup-for-verizon-now-aol-account/a641af1b-c970-40e1-8a1a-8102b8eb13b5?tm=1577852218156&page=2

Modified by jasgstock