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Help configure outlook.com email

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  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by Zenos

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I have been using successfully Thunderbird as a POP3 email client to my outlook.com account....until last week. I like POP and want to continue to use POP (as opposed to IMAP or Microsoft Exchange.

The folk at Microsoft have "upgraded" my account to an "OWA" (Outlook Web Account). As a result, the Thunderbird client no longer works to SEND mail. Receiving (POP server) mail works fine, just as before, but I'm caught in an endless loop when attempting send mail (SMTP server) asking to "verify" my password. It's the same as password as receiving which works fine but Microsoft has done something that prevents the SMTP server from accepting my login credentials.

When I login to my account through a web browser, it now appears to go to "outlook.live.com/owa/xxxxxx" whereas before is was "blue181mail.live.com/xxxx" and at the bottom of the webpage it states that I am connected to Microsoft Exchange.

The Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 app auto-configures the account as an "exchange" account at which time it works fine. However, 1) I want to use Thunderbird and 2) I have reasons to want to continue to use POP/SMTP. Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2007 as a POP/SMTP account also exhibits the same behavior as Thunderbird (endless loop asking for password verification to the SMTP server)

Is there a workaround so I can continue to use POP/SMTP with Thunderbird?

I have been using successfully Thunderbird as a POP3 email client to my outlook.com account....until last week. I like POP and want to continue to use POP (as opposed to IMAP or Microsoft Exchange. The folk at Microsoft have "upgraded" my account to an "OWA" (Outlook Web Account). As a result, the Thunderbird client no longer works to SEND mail. Receiving (POP server) mail works fine, just as before, but I'm caught in an endless loop when attempting send mail (SMTP server) asking to "verify" my password. It's the same as password as receiving which works fine but Microsoft has done something that prevents the SMTP server from accepting my login credentials. When I login to my account through a web browser, it now appears to go to "outlook.live.com/owa/xxxxxx" whereas before is was "blue181mail.live.com/xxxx" and at the bottom of the webpage it states that I am connected to Microsoft Exchange. The Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 app auto-configures the account as an "exchange" account at which time it works fine. However, 1) I want to use Thunderbird and 2) I have reasons to want to continue to use POP/SMTP. Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2007 as a POP/SMTP account also exhibits the same behavior as Thunderbird (endless loop asking for password verification to the SMTP server) Is there a workaround so I can continue to use POP/SMTP with Thunderbird?

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You can only use POP, IMAP and SMTP if the server supports them, and quite a few Exchange operators don't appear to see a need to enable these protocols. And if they were enabled, Thunderbird should work with no problems.

I know of three add-ons that might help. All of them sit "between" Thunderbird and Exchange, offering a POP/IMAP/SMTP interface to Thunderbird, and mimicking an Exchange client to Exchange.

DavMail: http://davmail.sourceforge.net/ Exquilla: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/thunderbird/addon/exquilla-exchange-web-services/ Mail-ews: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/mail-ews/