Yahoo require oath authentication now so I suggest you change it from normal password. So I guess the update to Thunderbird was only coincidental.

Matt,

Thanks for the attempt, but I tried it and got "The server does not support the selected authentication method".

And I have a friend also with ATT who I set up with Thunderbird. So as soon as this happened to me, I called and warned her not to do the update and hers is still working. If the change came from yahoo, she'd be in the same boat.

I've also tried the 'security.tls.version.min' change from 3 to 1, and changing SSL/TLS to None, as suggested in the 'T78 fails to activate POP3' question linked from here. Neither of them fared any better.

But if you get any more ideas, I'll be happy to try them.

Thanx again, Woody

If the secure mail key works for outgoing, use the same key for the incoming. Open Saved Passwords in Options/Privacy & Security/Passwords, copy the smtp password (key), delete the existing password for the incoming server, restart TB, enter the key when prompted.

I thought merged ATT and Yahoo accounts got unmerged in 2017 and you could no longer use your att.net address to sign in to Yahoo, or use a Yahoo ID to sign in to ATT, and that Yahoo and ATT became separate mailboxes like before.

What if you use ATT servers instead of Yahoo servers? For example: POP server name = inbound.att.net Port 995 SSL/TLS connection security Normal Password authentication method Username = @att.net address Password = Secure Mail Key.

To sfhowes, First, thank you for your response. It appears to make sense and that's the first thing I'll try if the problem should come back. But shortly after you sent it, Thunderbird appears to have suddenly healed itself and downloaded the last 6 hours worth of new mail. I even hit 'get messages' and it went back on-line to check for more with no problems at all. So I have no idea what happened, but I'm just thrilled to have Thunderbird back like it was before. And unless it should reoccur, I have no intentions of messing with it any further But thanx again, Woody

To Stans, I'm as baffled as you are about the ATT/Yahoo connection. I thought that Yahoo was now part of (Verizon?) which hardly makes them a team player with ATT so it really doesn't make sense. And my logon page is provided by ATT. I cannot use the Yahoo logon. But once I get there, it's still Yahoo (see attached image).

But I will also keep your suggestion in my notes, and just hope that I won't need either of these any more. So thanx again to you also, Woody

Very mind boggling! On Wednesday 28th, I couldn't access Yahoo and AOL all day and I wasn't alone. Neither Tbird 68, 78, all browsers or Yahoo's own android app could load any content. Tbird timed out while browsers said the sites weren't responding. Not even their homepages would load! Tried switching to different ISPs (mobile data), still no go. It fixed itself by yesterday morning. There was no report of Yahoo services being down anywhere, except for a single reminder from Yahoo about the end of Yahoo Groups and how it doesn't mean the end of other Yahoo services. In short, there was an outage of Yahoo services, perhaps in specific regions, but they do happen unannounced. Gmail and Google services also suffered the same some weeks ago. This could have been the case too, and Thunderbird upgrading to 78 was just an unrelated coincidence. It's a good thing I no longer use Yahoo as my main provider.

Stans,

That really is bizarre, and must have something to do with my experience today, although my symptoms were very different. Thunderbird stopped downloading email but I kept it open and used it to send messages with no problem. I was still receiving mail, but could only view it by logging onto the ATT/Yahoo site with Firefox.

And as soon as I discovered the problem, I called up a friend who also has ATT for her provider and uses Thunderbird, and warned her against downloading the upgrade since I was sure that was the problem. So we've stayed in touch all afternoon and her Thunderbird hasn't skipped a beat all day. So assuming that it was internet related, it was also geographical and must have to do with where you're connected.

But I'm just glad it's over (I hope), although I don't know now what I'm going to tell Elizabeth. I think I may just have her stop doing downloads altogether, just to be on the safe side. I don't think she does them often anyway, and is probably still using Thunderbird 12 or something left over from the stone age.

It's been great chatting with you, and I do appreciate the attempts to help, even if just for the moral support.

Blue skies, Woody

PS If you don't mind my being nosy, what have you gone to for email. I've been thinking about looking elsewhere, but hadn't actually committed myself to anything yet. I know there are commercial email services out there, and I wouldn't have a problem with spending a few bucks a month to get away from Yahoo. Free is nice, but you get what you pay for.

It's best to warn her not to take the upgrade offer just yet, until she's had a good look at what's new in v78, but she won't be getting an offer for v78 if she's still on an antiquated version. There's an official Thunderbird blog post about these new features here https://blog.thunderbird.net/2020/07/whats-new-in-thunderbird-78/ so she could have a mini-tour of what to expect if she chooses to upgrade. Also, if she chooses to upgrade, it won't be a straight shot to v78. She'll have to upgrade progressively, in stages going through intermediate major release versions until she gets up-to-date. More importantly, she should be making a regular backup copy of her Thunderbird profile folder, whether she's downloading updates or not. Things can and do go wrong for many reasons, and there's really no reason why a computer user shouldn't have a backup of their valuable data. Unfortunately, some people never know/learn until it's too late. Those that have experienced the terror of losing irreplaceable data don't have to be told twice.

I don't mind. I moved to Gmail as my main provider with Outlook as a backup. For my main Gmail account, there is an Outlook account connected to it and mirroring its contents. The Outlook account is also configured to send "as the Gmail address" so that I can respond to my Gmail messages via the Outlook account if I can't do so via Gmail for whatever reason. The old Yahoo account gets its few messages pulled into another Gmail account, so that I rarely have to use Yahoo's servers. That Gmail account is also configured to send "as the Yahoo address" for the extremely few messages that need responding to. I ain't paying for email just yet.

Stans

I played with Gmail for a bit when it first came out, but was disappointed in it's limitations on attachments. But that's been a while ago now and maybe I'll give them another try. I think I will tell Elizabeth to hold off a while longer, but I am going to have to get her up to date one of these days.

But I do have one more strange question for you. I'm sure this is just due to some fluke in how Mozilla routes messages, but the time stamp on the notifications of your last two replies showed as 1:57 and 4:21 'AM' on Oct 30 in my Thunderbird inbox. I'm in Miami and these are correct in eastern daylight time. But when I open the emails I see a time stamp from Mozilla stating they were sent at 3:57 and 6:21 'PM' on Oct 29? (see attached image). That's a ten hour shift. You can't really be in China or India, can you? Regrettably I'd already deleted the notifications from two other responders so I was unable to see if theirs also came from the other side of the planet.

Well again, thanx for all the tips, as well as the conversation.

Blue skies, Woody

It's a 7 hour time shift between you (GMT -4) and I (GMT +3). Yeah, you should at least get her up to 68.12.1 with a plan to eventually get her up to 78. Let's see the timestamp you get for this reply.

Stans,

For some unknown reason, I'm still seeing a 10 hour shift (1:39A to 11:39A). But if you're GMT +3 then it's 5:30 in the morning and it would appear that you've been up all night. Go get some sleep bro.

Blue skies, Woody

It's actually evening here (I'm seven hours ahead of you) 19:50 as at the time of this reply. The previous reply was 18:39.

The email notification says you posted the last reply at 12:47:23 PM, but Thunderbird clocks the message at 19:47. This checks out for me, hence the 7-hr shift ahead of you (behind me).

Stans,

You're right. I was counting backwards and ought to know better.

Blue skies, Woody