Bug: Cannot sign in to mail through Thunderbird, but can through internet [Yahoo / AT&T / sbcglobal.net][SOLVED]
Status: RESOLVED
Priority: --
Resolution: INVALID
Created: 2021-04-30 16:21:18+00:00
Resolved: 2021-09-01 20:03:56+00:00

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/52.0

Steps to reproduce:

I have a sbcglobal.net email address which has changed managers over the years.  It was a Yahoo account at one time, then later picked up by AT&T.  I have already tried to work through AT&T to resolve this, without success.  

What happens is I can't log in to my mail through Thunderbird.  It gives me an error.  However, if I use the web browser to log in online, it accepts my UN and PW and I can view my mail.  My understanding is that the mail server won't accept Thunderbird's hand shaking and refuses the permission to sign on.


Actual results:

My last contact with my mail through Thunderbird last occurred on March 7, 2021.  It went out and never came back.   I have tried a number of things to try and get it to work.  

First, I changed my password to something strong thinking AT&T implemented some enhanced security.  That had no effect.  I then tried loading Thunderbird on 3 different computers here, using XP, Win7, and finally Win10.  They all acted the same and could not connect.  Thunderbird revisions (52 and the latest) nor operating systems have any effect.

I next contacted AT&T and tried to have them look into the problem, and that turned out to be a lost cause.  All you can do there is talk to clerks who can barely understand the problem.  They say they will look into it but nothing ever happens.  They say they will call back, then don't.  I have given up hope they will be of any help.

My thought was that other people with critical interest in their mail would call and complain and get things fixed.  So every day I try to log into my mail thinking it would someday come back, but every day it fails to connect.  Apparently, no one cares about fixing the issue or something would have happened by now that would have fixed this problem already.  

I have searched online for other people who have had the problem and what they did to fix it.  I found a lot of chatter but in my opinion, these people also failed.  There are a lot of hacks out there that says try this or that, like try rebooting your computer.  All of this is well intended but I have tried everything possible that I can on my end.  I am 100% convinced the problem is not on my end.  

I am not saying that a remedy on my end won't abate the problem.  One suggestion was to use mail keys.  I tried to figure out how to get a mail key for my SBC mail address and I could not find out how to get into my account at that level to get a key.  I found it for AT&T mail but not for SBC mail.  

I am at a dead end, but I don't want to give up on my email address yet.  I love Thunderbird and have been using it for decades.  It is the best and I really miss using it.  I really want to fix this.


Expected results:

My guess is the problem I am experiencing has to do with the handshaking that takes place when Thunderbird tries to login to the SBC server.  Something changed with the server software and Thunderbird doesn't have the new process to get it to work.  I am willing to try anything.  I have several email addresses for SBC and I am willing to give you my UN and PW so you can have a real time example to work with.  I really am desperate as I don't want to lose my email address which is linked into so many things, and I really want the utility of Thunderbird back.   I am willing to do anything to get this fixed.

Please contact me using my email address : harkey1@sbcglobal.net
I am viewing only this one online at the moment.  I can give you my UN and PW for my glittergirl974@sbcglobal.net email address if you would like it to work on this.  I will try and change my profile here to direct it there.  Thank you very much for anything you can do.