Observer
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17 Messages
Using Mozilla Thunderbird with ATT E-mail
I have two different e-mail addresses running with a Thunderbird client. Both have worked fine for literally years. Both continued to work even after ATT updated to requiring OAuth compatibility. About eleven days ago one of the two addresses quit working and now only returns a failed connection "Sending password for user XXXXXX failed. Server responded error - please try again later. I have verified that the password is correct. Thunderbird has been OAuth compatible since version 28. I'm running version 78.7.1 which is the most recent version for my hardware/OS. Interestingly when I go into the server settings and set the authentication to OAuth2; I get a message that says the server does not support this authentication type and I need to adjust my server settings. So, what gives? Why does one e-mail work and the other doesn't? The settings are the same other than the name/pass info. What do I need to check to get this working correctly?
sandblaster
ACE - Expert
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64.6K Messages
2 years ago
My thunderbird client also continued to work for a long time after the OAuth requirement when it suddenly quit. I did have an old version and thinking that thunderbird is supposed to be OAuth compliant, I upgraded to the latest version. That didn’t help. I have no idea why OAuth doesn’t work with thunderbird but setting up a secure mail key got mine working again.
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sparky102869
Observer
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17 Messages
2 years ago
Odd thing is that I updated another computer for someone else in the house to use a secure mail key and it has been working fine for a while (months). Today it has started acting flaky and is showing server errors or requesting passwords. Makes me miss the days when I was on Earthlink and the e-mail settings and requirements were what they said and it simply worked consistently.
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ATTHelp
Community Support
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221.2K Messages
2 years ago
Hi, @sparky102869!
Did you try creating the secure mail key on your email as well?
If you haven't done so yet, try troubleshooting Thunderbird with the 3rd Party Mailbox section of our email solutions article.
Let us know if you still need assistance!
Aminah, AT&T Community Specialist
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acauthon
New Member
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2 Messages
2 years ago
I am using Thunderbird as well and did not find a solution in the article you recommended. I have switched between IMAP and POP and nothing works. Other suggestions?
(edited)
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sparky102869
Observer
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17 Messages
2 years ago
The article that is linked is pretty useless. It's four years old and the link in it to set up third party clients ends up dumping you into a set up for Windows based mail products. Not exactly useful information for folks running Linux and Thunderbird.
As to suggestions - set up a secure mail key by logging into your ATT.com account (not e-mail) where you pay bills etc. You should see a link to manage your e-mail account. After clicking there you should see something about managing "secure mail keys". Click there and set one up on the following page. Be sure to make note of the key as there is no way to actually recover the key should you need it later on to set up a second client or what have you. Please note that my instructions may not be perfect as I'm writing them from memory - but they should at least get you in the right area.
Further notes on the secure key - they do work most of the time. But, I would expect some flakiness as there are still some occasions where I have gotten failed connections and the same "Please try again later" message that I was getting before I created the key.
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MrFair
New Member
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1 Message
2 years ago
This won't help some of the people above, but for those of you who just found this thread, do as sparky102869 said. You need to create the secure key and use that as your password.
https://www.att.com/support/article/email-support/KM1240308
(edited)
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