How to setup Hotmail with step 2 authentication?
Hi,
I've recently turned on step 2 authentication on my Hotmail account and I'm struggling to setup Thunderbird to send and receive emails properly.
When i did this with my Google account, Thunderbird opened a small window, where i re-logged in to my Google account and everything now works perfectly.
With my Hotmail account, nothing happened. I did a little Googling and found that i should create a second authentication app code to use with Thunderbird. I placed the app code in place of my regular password in Thunderbird, but i am only able to receive my emails. If i attempt to send an email, Thunderbird times out and tells me the following error message.
"Sending of the message failed. The message could not be sent because the connection to Outgoing server (SMTP) smtp-mail.outlook.com timed out. Try again."
What is the proper way to set up a Hotmail account in Thunderbird that has step two authentication?
Thanks in advance. :)
Ilungisiwe ngu Shocker_33
All Replies (7)
You should use the app password, but also the SMTP settings given here:
I have those SMTP settings. The email address worked before. All i've done is setup step 2 auth. So things like SMTP settings, i've already got. I did click the link but it shows exactly the same info.
I've tried it with my normal password and the app password.
Ilungisiwe ngu Shocker_33
The error message in your first post says you're trying to connect to smtp-mail.outlook.com, not the recommended smtp.office365.com. Make sure you don't have any obsolete passwords in Tools/Options/Security/Passwords/Saved Passwords.
Sending of the message failed. The message could not be sent because the connection to Outgoing server (SMTP) smtp.office365.com timed out. Try again.
I fully expected to get the same results since smtp-mail.outlook.com works perfectly when 2FA isn't turned on.
To me, this appears to be a 2FA issue with Thunderbird. Since my mobile device synced its settings to work with 2FA within seconds.
What can i try next?
Does the app password have 16 characters or less? There was an issue some time ago when outlook passwords had more than 16. Otherwise, I would try it in Windows safe mode (Shift+Restart) just to rule out any interference from 3rd-party security programs.
The Windows installation is only about 2 weeks old. So any junk programs aren't on my system. Doesn't safe mode disable network hardware?
The app password is exactly 16 characters long.
See the section 'Login error' here regarding password length.
You can start Windows in safe mode with networking.