[SOLVED] - AOL Mail Refusing Access - Dec 2019

[sunclad]

SOLVED - There is a new process for validating 3rd party mail applications.

Login to AOL using a web browser. You will use your regular everyday AOL password to get in as always. Select the account settings and then the security options.

Below the 2-step authentication option check box is a new application password generator. This is what needs to be used to authorize 3rd party mail clients. Select this option and then select your listed application. If it is not there select "Other" and insert the name of the application to be used i.e. Thunderbird, Seamonkey, etc. Click and obtain an APPLICATION SPECIFIC password. Save this to the side.

Now go back to your mail client program and insert this new APPLICATION SPECIFIC password in place of your account password. This will be the password for the 3rd party mail client that will access the AOL account. What ever your prior settings were for SSL, etc should be OK, or if setting up an account, enter what ever the manual settings may need to be.

This is a new thing not documented at AOL and certainly not on tech forums.

So for each 3rd party mail client application that you will want to access AOL mail, you will need to generate an application specific password for it, and use this in place of your account password. Then from the web interface you can deactivate applications when desired.

Once I understood this, and again not documented or explained in any tech blog (yet) I was able to regain full access to AOL mail in Seamonkey. I will now go on to do T-Bird at my office system.
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Original post

Hi All -

Seamonkey 2.49.4. Have yet to update to .5

This past week I started to have issues accessing AOL mail. All settings are correct.

I logged in using the web browser and checked all settings for "less secure applications" which many systems require for access by mail cleint programs. The settings menu stated that the option to have this setting is going away in March of 2020.

Since I was already having access issues to the mail server i decided to try to reset the allowance of "less secure applications." Much to my surprise, after shutting it off, with the intention of turning it back on, it disappeared from the settings menu. Flushing the browser cache and re-logging in did not fix this.

So as of today, and as of earlier this week, it appears that you can no longer access AOL mail externally using a mail client such as Seamonkey.

Can anyone confirm?

DMK

[Peter Creasey]

My Compuserve email processing via the AOL service is stillk being handled in fine fashion by SeaMonkey.

Occasionally, I have to uncheck the leave messages on server option for a short period of time.

[sunclad]

Hi -

See my original. Seamonkey 2.49.4 (since updated to .5) was showing no connection or connection refused. When I logged in via web browser to AOL Mail the first time the security settings stated that effective March 2020, that "less secure apps..." would cease to be allowed. Thinking a resent of those settings might help, I turned off 3rd party apps (which includes Seamonkey and Thunderbird) with intent to just switch it back on. Instead the page reloaded and the feature to allow 3rd party program access disappeared.

I've since tried other web browsers and flushed web cache holdings to see if it was a page issue but I continue to get the page now displaying as noted. I have also tried adding my Verizon-now-AOL address to T-Bird and also to a couple of other mail clients with no success. I have also followed AOL's server settings page which was updated as late as November 2019 with no success.

The suggestion is that new AOL mail is not being allowed to have 3rd party mail client access which would include Seamonkey, T-Bird, and several others. If you still have access, leave it alone but given the message I saw said that 3rd party access will cease in March 2020, you may want to be concerned.

I am hoping this is a temp glitch on their end. I don't use that address for much, but for just enough that changing addresses will be a pain in the neck. i also have my Verizon bill coming there. As far as I know there was no advance notice on this.

If anyone gets it working, I'd be interested in seeing the server settings posted. For now I am stuck in web view.

DMK

[4td8s]

I have an AOL Mail account and I can login & logout to it just fine with unofficial Seamonkey 2.53.1 from Wg9s (may also work with unofficial SM 2.57)

official SM 2.49.x will soon be EOL so I don't use 2.49.5 anymore

though disable any ad blockers like ABP (AdBlockPlus) or ublock origin OR allow (aka "whitelist") the AOL Mail site if either ABP or ublock for SM are installed

[sunclad]

Edited original post with the fix

DMK

[Peter Creasey]

Can someone say in layman's terms what the upcoming status of client (e.g.) SeaMonkey access of AOL will be, please?

Thanks.

[kerft]

If you have already allowed less secure apps in AOL mail, it will probably continue to work with Seamonkey until around March 2020 with the old login by password method. If you are a new member, or at that time, this will not work and you will have to do what the first post says. You will have to use instead of your password, an "application specific password" generated on their site.
Note that AOL and Yahoo are owned by Verizon.

[Peter Creasey]

Okay, so AOL will continue to work with SeaMonkey but the password will have to change. That seems manageable.

[4td8s]

Seamonkey 2.53.1 beta 1 "official" was released a few days ago, which should work with the AOL Mail site with virtually no problems.

[sunclad]

Seamonkey 2.53.1 beta 1 "official" was released a few days ago, which should work with the AOL Mail site with virtually no problems.

The issue per my understanding is that AOL, and now Yahoo (both owned now by Verizon) are eliminating the feature that allows "less secure programs" to access mail. in their eyes, this is any client other than their own, or by modern web browser. according to a statement in your mail settings and security area, starting March 2020, that feature, if visible in your account via web browser will go away. Any new users signing up are not seeing the less secure program option. If you accidentally turn the less secure option off to reset it by turning it back on, it disappears completely.

The new process which appears in its place, will be to create an application-specific alpha-numeric password for each external mail client that will have access to your mail. You will still need a general password to log in to your AOL or Yahoo account as always when using their app or web browser, but all 3rd party program access will require an application-specific password.

Their tool in the user account security screen generates the password for you. You do not have the option to change it. When it is generated you need to copy it and save it. Then go to your 3rd party program such as SeaMonkey, Thunderbird, etc and use the app-specific password for accessing mail -- not the general logon password for the account which is used to access ALL of AOL (or Yahoo) content.

In my case I have had to reset this app-specific password a couple of times now which is suspicious to me. I am hoping that it is a system flub. Otherwise the suggestion is that these app-specific passwords may have a freshness date on them requiring you to generate a new one periodically. I continue to monitor the situation with hope that is not the case. So far so good, and fingers crossed.

DMK

[hilby]

THANK YOU DMK!
You are absolutely right, nowhere was this advertised.
They message now extends to June 2020.
Thanks for the steps to recover. I use Mac Mail and this was my primary email that got locked.

[Peter Creasey]

They message now extends to June 2020.

I've had no issues thus far.

Can you please explain exactly what is meant by this?

[glnz]

Today, using my Outlook 2003, suddenly I can no longer send emails on my verizon.net email account and, unfortunately, this password generator (discussed above) is also NOT helping for me.
See this thread on the verizon email forum: https://forums.verizon.com/t5/Verizon-n ... d-p/894768

EDIT - AOL FIXED IT AND IT IS WORKING 3:45PM 5-25-20

Thanks.

[Peter Creasey]

My AOL/Compuserve email has worked fine with SeaMonkey with no changes up to now. I got an email today saying that the change described upthread will be effective starting October 20, 2020.

A couple of questions:

1) will our cell phone accessing of AOL fall under these new rules?; and

2) will each PC need a different password, even if the user ID remains the same?

Let's keep the dialogue in this thread going so that we can all know what's going on (especially since there is a dearth of instructional literature).

[epp]

My AOL/Compuserve email has worked fine with SeaMonkey with no changes up to now. I got an email today saying that the change described upthread will be effective starting October 20, 2020.

A couple of questions:

1) will our cell phone accessing of AOL fall under these new rules?; and

2) will each PC need a different password, even if the user ID remains the same?

Let's keep the dialogue in this thread going so that we can all know what's going on (especially since there is a dearth of instructional literature).

1. If you are using a third-party app (something other than the AOL or Yahoo app), yes.

2. No.

Their e-mail is not worded properly. When using a third-party app, SeaMonkey or Thunderbird, you do NOT have to remove the account from the software. Simply generate the new password according to the instructions, write it down and change the password in the software.