Server has disconnected

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missghostie
Posts: 2
Joined: September 26th, 2017, 6:53 am

Server has disconnected

Post by missghostie »

I have two computers both running Thunderbird.
On my computer, I have one hotmail account which is working fine.
On the other computer, there are two hotmail accounts (one for mum, one for dad). Recently, my mum's account has been throwing up this error message: 'Server *email address* has disconnected. The server may have gone down or there may be a network problem.'

However, my dad's hotmail account is fine. They both have exactly the same settings so I can't work out why one is working and the other is not on the same computer. I tried removing my mum's account and re-adding it but after doing this, it just shows 'Inbox' with no folders or emails and throws the error message up. I tried adding her account onto my computer instead but it still shows the error.

Please can someone help, thanks.

EDIT: I have no problem logging in & sending/receiving emails on the hotmail website with my mum's account.
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DanRaisch
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Joined: September 23rd, 2004, 8:57 pm
Location: Somewhere on the right coast

Re: Server has disconnected

Post by DanRaisch »

EDIT: I have no problem logging in & sending/receiving emails on the hotmail website with my mum's account.
That's not a valid test as you are not accessing the same servers as Thunderbird does.
What settings are you using for the Hotmail accounts on that second computer?
How is the account set up in Thunderbird, as POP or IMAP? Find out using menu path Tools->Account Settings->Server Settings->Server Type at the top right of the dialogue.
missghostie
Posts: 2
Joined: September 26th, 2017, 6:53 am

Re: Server has disconnected

Post by missghostie »

Hi, both IMAP.
Not sure which bits are relevant, sorry if I've missed something important. Both have the settings below.

Settings
Server name: imap-mail.outlook.com
Port: 993
Connection security: SSL/TLS
Authentication method: Normal password

Outgoing server: smtp-mail.outlook.com
Port: 587
Authentication method: Normal password
Connection security: STARTTLS


I've just been reading the 'IMAP Issues with Thunderbird and Outlook.com? ' thread that has just appeared. I've just tried changing the servers to 'outlook.office365.com' and 'smtp.office365.com' but these don't work either.
GavinW_Eggy
Posts: 3
Joined: September 26th, 2017, 8:04 am

Re: Server has disconnected

Post by GavinW_Eggy »

Hi. I would just like to add some further info to this issue.

I have for a long time been using thunderbird on my desktop to manage 2 hotmail accounts (1 very old and 1 only a few years old).
Within the last few hours I have started to see the exact same problems seen in this thread.

The old account will not connect at all in any way shape or form using ANY of the connection details in the other thread, yet it connects fine using the standard email client on my Ipad.
The new account is all fine and dandy.

As with the OP I have deleted the account from thunderbird and re tried, also I have added a special application password and tried that. Still no luck.

I did spot a thunderbird update I think, so maybe something has changed under the hood.
gugarci
Posts: 21
Joined: August 1st, 2003, 10:30 am

Re: Server has disconnected

Post by gugarci »

I'm having this issue also using the office 365 server. Also changing the server temporarily to the suggest MS IMAP server didn't fix the issue. Using Thunderbird I can't access my primary email account without getting a server has disconnected message while my other outlook.com accounts are working well. The only way to access the email for that account as of this morning was using the browser.
GavinW_Eggy
Posts: 3
Joined: September 26th, 2017, 8:04 am

Re: Server has disconnected

Post by GavinW_Eggy »

I have found this thread on the microsoft site.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/out ... 2e6dad34fc

It seems we are not alone, and its not limited to thunderbird. Lots of email clients are struggling with accessing older MS email acounts.
I gues they route older acounts through different servers maybe?
bigbri
Posts: 2
Joined: September 27th, 2017, 4:06 pm

Re: Server has disconnected

Post by bigbri »

I am getting the same problem. In desperation I have installed Opera. That works perfect with the one account that Thunderbird cannot access! What's happening?

Bri
GavinW_Eggy
Posts: 3
Joined: September 26th, 2017, 8:04 am

Re: Server has disconnected

Post by GavinW_Eggy »

I have an update on this issue.

It took a couple of days, but eventualy this just started working again.
There was no offical reports from MS about there being a problem but lots of people reported it.

I did have a weird issue where it seems my account had rolled back or something. Messages that were over 10 years old, 2 generations of PCs back and deleted a long time ago started to re-apear.

Also today when I went to send an email (for the first time since this problem started). It failed and displayed a password prompt. Then I got a an SMS from MS informing me I needed to setup some new app passwords (again). Which I did and everything works fine now. TBH it seems much quicker to sync, send and recieve than its ever been.
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DanRaisch
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Joined: September 23rd, 2004, 8:57 pm
Location: Somewhere on the right coast

Re: Server has disconnected

Post by DanRaisch »

I did have a weird issue where it seems my account had rolled back or something. Messages that were over 10 years old, 2 generations of PCs back and deleted a long time ago started to re-apear.
Perhaps MS had to restore the account from backups.
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