674660 - Problem with "PASS command" and other password errors. Unable to collect any email.

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Thunderbird :: Security, defect)

Description

[Rob]

Attachment: login_failed.gif

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:5.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/5.0.1
Build ID: 20110707182747

Steps to reproduce:

I installed Thunderbird 5.0 when prompted.  I had previously been using 3.1.11. I am using a MacBook Pro, Intel Core Duo, OS X 10.6.8, 8gig RAM.


Actual results:

On restarting after the new version installed, I immediately started getting "password" errors when trying to connect to mailservers.  I have numerous email accounts, on several servers.  Thunderbird 5.0 does not seem to communicate with them properly.

I got various dialogue boxes, two of which I got a screen shot of (attached).  One said the mail server did not respond to (or didn't recognise) the PASS command.  The next said my password was invalid (it's not), then the next said that the login failed, and allowed me to enter a new password.  I enter the correct password, and the cycle starts again.

I was unable to collect any email, so I restored my Thunderbird 3.1.11 from backup. It started giving me password errors, too (which it never has before -- seems 5.0 possibly corrupted something). However, since I re-entered the passwords, some accounts seem to be working again. 


Expected results:

I should have been able to collect my email like usual.

Comment 1

[Rob]

Attachment: password did not succeed

Comment 2

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

(In reply to Rob from comment #0)
> I was unable to collect any email, so I restored my Thunderbird 3.1.11 from
> backup. It started giving me password errors, too (which it never has before
> -- seems 5.0 possibly corrupted something). However, since I re-entered the
> passwords, some accounts seem to be working again. 

So how many accounts work, how many are broken ?

Are these pop or imap accounts ?

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul] from comment #2)
> (In reply to Rob from comment #0)
> > I was unable to collect any email, so I restored my Thunderbird 3.1.11 from
> > backup. It started giving me password errors, too (which it never has before
> > -- seems 5.0 possibly corrupted something). However, since I re-entered the
> > passwords, some accounts seem to be working again. 
> 
> So how many accounts work, how many are broken ?
> 
> Are these pop or imap accounts ?

Rob, please reply to comment 2

Comment 4

[Rob]

Hi Wayne,

Sorry I haven't responded earlier to the ongoing bug issue. Bugzilla wouldn't let me log in with the user name (or email) and password with which I created my account. Obviously, I've requested a new password. :)

> Are these pop or imap accounts ?
In any case, the answer to your question is, "I'm not sure."  I have many POP accounts and they definitely produced the reported behaviour.  I have only one IMAP account, but I don't specifically recall if it produced the reported behaviour, too.  Sorry about that.

> So how many accounts work, how many are broken ?
I have a lot of accounts.  I serve my own mail, so I can (and do) create accounts as needed.  I subscribe to many mailing lists, and often use different accounts for those purposes, or when making an online purchase or registering a product, so I can track SPAM.  I don't know exactly how many were broken and how many worked, but there were a lot of broken ones.

I'm still on version 3.1.15, which is working for me -- I can get and send email, which is the most important thing, of course.  I look forward to upgrading to a newer version, which will hopefully address not only the issue we're discussing here, but the ongoing profusion of modal dialogues in 3.x.

Thanks a lot,
Rob

Comment 5

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

suggest you try version 7, or 8.
v7 picks up a fix for Bug 671965 - failure to report invalid pop3 account password when auth logon fails
v8 beta available at http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/channel/

Comment 6

[Rob]

No joy. :(

I installed the v8 beta, and I am still getting the same results, though not on as many accounts.  Some of the accounts are working, others are not.

I get the dialogue, identical to that submitted originally, that says, 
"
Login Failed

Login to server [my server name] failed.

[Enter New Password] [Cancel] [Retry]
"

And the other dialogue posted originally, though the text has changed slightly from v5; 
"
Alert

Sending of password did not succeed. Mail server [my server name] responded: please send PASS command.
"

So, Thunderbird v8 is still exhibiting the same error as v5, though fewer accounts are affected.  I was having no problems, of course, with v3.1.15 which I was using earlier today.  I'll have to restore that now (sigh).

Thanks,
Rob

Comment 7

[Rob]

To add, it would be helpful if the dialogue gave some indication of which account it was trying to collect mail for when it failed.

Comment 8

[Rob]

On a separate note, v8 STILL has the pointless (and intrusive) MODAL dialogue, "A folder is being processed, please wait..." that pops up for no apparent reason, when I am doing something completely unrelated to either that mail folder or even Thunderbird itself.

For the life of me, I can't see how that dialogue adds any value to the program.  It certainly adds a source of irritation, though. :)

Rob

Comment 9

[Rob]

A couple further data points.

- As I let v8 run after the first launch, it eventually stopped showing the dialogues mentioned above.

- When i quit, it again gave me the "Login Failed" dialogue, and then hung.  I had to force quit.

- I relaunched, and it continues to give the dialogues. Usually two or three of each (first "Sending of password did not succeed." then "Login Failed".)  Perhaps I have two or three accounts that it no longer handles correcty, but it gives no indication of what ones they might be.

Unlike the first launch, they haven't stopped.  They come up over and over.  I have to make the modal dialogues go away every couple minutes.

Comment 10

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

What happens if you remove all remembered passwords and enter them one by one again after the next restart ?

Comment 11

[Rob]

There's been one account that it simply won't connect to.  I keep getting the password error.  I re-enter, but no joy.  I've changed the password for that account on the mailserver, but no joy.

I've tried to create 4 new accounts recently, 2 POP, 2 IMAP.  One POP and one IMAP worked, the other two give the same password error.  I can't see any pattern to all to this.

I'm not going to be removing and re-entering all my passwords -- there's just too many.

Comment 12

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Rob, It's been a long time. Do you still see this problem?

Comment 13

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(I believe the reporter's bugmail address is bouncing)