Thunderbird not working, yet I can get to my emails with webmail.

[Thunderbird2]

I'm getting the message 'Login to server mail.talktalk.net with username xxxxxxxx@talktalk.net failed.

[nomfezeko-TT]

Hi there, @RigaMortice, thank you for sharing your experience with us! It sounds like you went through quite a journey to resolve the issue with your mailbox, and I appreciate your detailed explanation. I'm glad to hear that you were able to fix the problem by deactivating and reactivating your main mailbox. It's always a relief when a solution presents itself, especially after going through the usual troubleshooting steps.
 

I completely understand your frustration with the support process. It can be disheartening to feel like you're not being heard, especially when you've already demonstrated your capability with the settings. Your insights about the limitations of support visibility into mailbox states are valuable, and I will certainly pass along your feedback regarding the need for more proactive solutions for customers experiencing similar issues.
 

If you have any further questions or need assistance with anything else, please don't hesitate to reach out. Your input is important to us, and we're here to help!

[RigaMortice]

Sorry for the slow reply - I'm a bit of a part-timer here now since I fixed this issue for my own email.

In short, I fixed this for myself. I was just in the mailbox manager setting up a 3rd test mailbox when I saw the deactivate option and  wondered what use it could be. After verifying that I could deactivate and reactivate a test account without losing mail I tried that with my failing main mailbox. And the rest is history.

Like you I've had all the conversations about TT not supporting 3rd-party mail clients, which I do understand btw. But my case for actual help grew stronger when I'd created a second mailbox that was accessible using Thunderbird etc so it showed that the 3rd-party program did work and also that I'm capable of using the right settings. However I found that I was still stuck in the same doom-loop as you, going through the same questions and suggestions with a new first-line analyst who would tell me that there was no problem with my account settings, implying that it was just me being useless. Which is usually a good assumption 🙂 - but not this time.

As I said before the take-aways for TT support should be that (1) whatever they think, they can't see the full state of any mailbox - or they don't know how, and (2) other customers reporting the same symptoms should either have this suggested as a possible solution or have it done on their behalf.

Apologies for my extended waffling. I'm not big on brevity!

[nameunknown_]

There is a distinction here between issues caused by a third party application and issues with using a correctly functioning third party application. Whilst you cannot expect TalkTalk to resolve the former, TalkTalk should be providing ssupport for resolving the latter, and to an extent does e.g. TalkTalk support advise customers what server settings to use.

In @Thunderbird2's case there was no fault with the application or with the settings. For some unknown reason, server access via a third party application had been disabled for Thunderbird2's email account, and deactivating and reactivating the account via the Mailbox Manager resolved that issue.

The solution here was not one put forward by TalkTalk support, but something that @RigaMortice discovered for himself, and shared with the Community.

I believe the expectation here is not that TalkTalk should provide full support for any issue arising from using a third party application, but that when there are other customers in the same situation as Thunderbird2 and RigaMortice, TalkTalk support suggest account deactivation and reactivation via the Mailbox Manager as a possible solution, in addition to suggesting that server settings are checked. I think that is reasonable, and it appears that @Philile-TT has taken it up.

[fr8ys]

@Thunderbird2 why to you think it totally unacceptable that TalkTalk don't support another company's product?

There are so many third party emails clients available, and talkthace no control over how they work, not do they have access to any coding of the product to fix an issue.

Staff, and other customers do try to help as far as possible, when it's not a talktalk product but ultimately you may well be asked to contact the supplier of the product at issue.

We see this, for example, with the apps on the TV Hub. The Hub is only the delivery method of getting those apps into customers homes. Each app owner owns their own product.

As mentioned, customers do try to help where possible and it's a credit to the community that @nameunknown_ and @RigaMortice were able to help you.

[Thunderbird2]

Hi @RigaMortice , I totally agree, I have had this problem since January and put up with webmail, which I hate. I have contacted TalkTalk telephone support numerous times over that period to re-instate my account, telling them to unlock it, Each time I have been asked to 'jump through hoops' to try various options which I knew would not fix the fault, only to be told 'we don't support email clients'. This is totally unacceptable and if a customer has a problem they can't fix, they should pass through to higher level of support.

As an aside how did you know of the fix you supplied?

[Philile-TT]

@RigaMortice I understand where you are coming from, we appreciate that your solution has been able to assist others. I will also flag this so that it can be looked into. Once again thank you for sharing your knowledge it has helped others and still going to help many. 🙂

[RigaMortice]

I have to admit that my main interest was fixing my own Thunderbird (and Outlook) mail access problem. Shame it took me nearly 3 months! Glad this was a bit quicker for you - thanks to @nameunknown_ , who also helped me.

One thing that still bothers me is that TalkTalk support are unable to see (or recognise?) some settings/conditions affecting mail access. They should at least be aware that this can be the case otherwise they'll assume it's simply a user error after exhausting their standard support checklist. They should expand their support checklist to include this symptom & possible resolution.

[Thunderbird2]

In that case many thanks @RigaMortice  and @nameunknown_ , you are both stars!! 🙂

[Philile-TT]

@Thunderbird2 thank you for the confirmation @nameunknown_ thank you for sharing the information. 

[nameunknown_]

@Thunderbird2 

I'm glad that has worked. It's @RigaMortice that deserves most of the credit, because he identified the solution, and I just passed it on.

I should have explained that updating your password to meet the current criteria would not resolve access via an application being blocked, but it might prevent it being blocked again, if it was the cause in the first instance.

[Thunderbird2]

Hello nameunknown,

You are a star!!!!!!! 

I first tried changing my password as it was less than 12 characters long, that didn't help I then tried adding the new email account and followed your advice.. I can now for the first time in months send and receive my emails via Thunderbird.

Many thanks. 

Kind regards

Thunderbird2.

[nameunknown_]

@Thunderbird2 

No, emails are not deleted when the account is deactivated, and the account continues to receive any emails that are sent to it.  Deactivating prevents the user from signing in on webmail and the Mailbox Manager, and you cannot send emails from the account using an email application (which is irrelevnt to you , because you cannot send or receive). 

After signing in to the Mailbox Manager using your existing email account  address and password, create the additional email account with admin user rights, then sign out, and sign back in using the email address and password for the new account. That way you avoid getting logged out of the Mailbox Manager, which is what would happen if you simply logged in using  the email address and password for your existing account,  and then deactivated it.

Also, before deactivating and reactivating the email account, it is worth checking that the password meets the current criteria, to rule out whether that was the cause of you being prevented from accessing the account via an application. The password requirements are minimum 12 characters, including a symbol, a number, a lowercase character, and an uppercase character.

[Thunderbird2]

Thanks nameunknown,

I haven't tried your solution yet, will it delete the emails I can still get to via webmail?

regards.

[nameunknown_]

@Thunderbird2 

Okay, so that' saying you cannot deactivate the account, because then there would no longer be an email account that is an admin user (which is required in order to access Mailbox Manager).

You can workaround that issue by adding a new mailbox with admin user rights. 

With an additional mailbox that has admin user rights,  you should be able to go ahead with deactivating the email account that has the login issue, and then reactivating it again.

After doing that, you could delete the additional mailbox if you so wish.

[Thunderbird2]

Hi Phili,

I've already tried that with no success. I've just tried 'nameunknown' suggestion,(thanks) and actually managed to get to my mailbox by trying another browser, problem is when I tried deactivating the account I get this message.

Please re-instate my account.

Thanks.

[nameunknown_]

@Thunderbird2 

The Mailbox Manager page loads quite quickly for me. I have only ever seen the rotating circle for the webmail page, which is sometimes slow to load.

If there is no issue with your settings, I recommend you try the Mailbox Manager link (https://apps.talktalk.co.uk/myaccount/#/login) again. If it still doesn't load, try clearing the cache first, or try a different browser.

[Philile-TT]

Please refer to the below link, see the settings for thunderbird. Try those and let me know please.

Email settings to access TalkTalk emails

[Thunderbird2]

Hi,

Yes I can send and receive email using web browser.

[Philile-TT]

@Thunderbird2 so just get clarity, your emails are not functioning when using thunderbird however they are functioning when using webmail?  

[Thunderbird2]

Hi Phili,

I can't even get to my mailbox manager, see my comments below.

Thanks