1798685 - IMAP subscription broken for Microsoft account, only INBOX works

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Thunderbird :: Untriaged, defect)

Description

[r.pietrini]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:106.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/106.0

Steps to reproduce:

The folder subscription for IMAP at outlook.office365.com has stopped working from today. Folder are still shown in the subscribe dialog, but the setting are not saved. They only folder I can subscribe is INBOX. There is a discussion here https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1395442 . Thubderbird is version 102.2.2 on Ubuntu 22.04.
In addition I have 3 microsoft account, but only 2 of them have this problem. All of them are configured with the same parameters.

Actual results:

Opened Thunderbird, folders are shown for a second. than they disappear and only INBOX remain.

Comment 1

[Piotr Koper]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:102.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/102.4.1

Same here. 2 out of 4 microsoft accounts in Thunderbird ignore any subscriptions.

Comment 2

[Ian M]

I have had this problem too, first noticed 1st November 2022. I am running 102.4.1. My scenario is:

I am an O365 system administrator so I have 11 accounts configured on Thunderbird.

I have four O365 mail accounts (used for test/sys admin purposes on the tenant I manage) configured for IMAP, and these all lost all folders except INBOX and DELETED. The missing folders such as DRAFT and SENT are all there on Outlook Online.

I have an additional account on the same O365 tenant which happens to be configured for pop, and is not affected - which is to be expected as subscription is a function of IMAP.

I have other accounts for other mail services (e.g. personal GMAIL) which use IMAP, and these are unaffected. i.e. it is only Microsoft O365 accounts setup for IMAP that are affected.

On all affected accounts, it isn't possible to change any of the subscriptions. i.e. all the boxes are empty, and trying to change them has no effect.

My workaround was to configure an affected account in TB to display all folders by UNTICKING the option "show only subscribed folders" in SERVER SETTINGS, ADVANCED. It is clear this same problem has occurred at various points in the past but I can't see any resolution to it. Most recent bug report here. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1714572

I raised an support ticket with Microsoft last night and they are suggesting Mozilla need to be investigating this.

I have since done the following tests:

1. I added a test account from my O365 tenant that has been in existence for a long time, but I have never had configured on my TB. This worked CORRECTLY - i.e. I was able to subscribe to other folders such as DRAFT and SENT.

2. I then removed one of my affected accounts (including ticking the box to remove message data), added it back in again expecting it might work based on the above test, and it DIDN'T. Same problem as before.

3. As a control, I then added yet another test account I have that has never been on my TB before, and that worked CORRECTLY, and I was able to subscribe to other folders on that too.

Comment 3

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

While it really sounds like something must have changed on the Microsoft side, it would be interesting to know if it works with an older Thunderbird version. http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/

(FWIW, I don't notice any problem my own account.)

Comment 4

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Please note (just to be sure):

(from Magnus Melin [:mkmelin])

Microsoft are force rolling out deprecation of normal password, so you have to switch to "Authentication Method: OAuth2" in the Thunderbird Server Settings.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/exchange-team-blog/basic-authentication-deprecation-in-exchange-online-september/ba-p/3609437

Comment 5

[r.pietrini]

I have already switched to OAuth2 like 2 weeks ago and everything was working until yesterday. Must be something else.

Comment 6

[Piotr Koper]

Attachment: Outlook error on Query IMAP folders

I have checked the latest Outlook and there is a problem with querying IMAP folders.

Looks like it's Microsoft 365 IMAP service issue.

Comment 7

[Rich Caloggero]

I've been seeing similar behavior since July when my empoyer outsourced to office365 eMail. My simptoms are a bit different however: I can't seem to copy messages to folders on the server, even if they show up as subscribed. FOr instance, drafts seems to be subscribed, but when I type a message and hit control+s to save it, I get a message from the server saying that it can't copy the message to the server. I then often get another alert saying that the server has timed out. Similar if I send a message: my sent items folder is configured to receive sent messages and when I go to send, it says that it can't copy the message to the sent items folder; it does send the eMail however.

Even weirder, is that sometimes, it works perfectly; sending copies to "Sent Items" as expected with no errors and no server timeouts!

Really seems like something is amiss in the protocol, whether on the microsoft side or the thunderbird side is unclear.

Comment 8

[Piotr Koper]

Summary:

1. On the 2-nd of November multiple Thunderbird versions (106 - comment 0, 102 - comment 1) and MS Outlook (comment 6) lost the ability to show previously subscribed IMAP folders and to query subscribed folders, and to subscribe folders, for Microsoft 365 accounts.
2. Only some part of Microsoft 365 accounts (IMAP) are affected.
3. There was a major software rollout on Microsoft 365 IMAP service for OAuth2. All of my 4 accounts are switched into compatibility mode (no OAuth2 required), and only 2 of those 4 are affected with folder subscription problems.
4. The problem can be replicated using Outlook desktop application when IMAP protocol is selected.

There is really not much to do on the Thunderbird side. Looks like Microsoft 365 IMAP service has downgraded functionality for some accounts since 2 Nov 2022.

I think, I'd better to close this bug as WORKSFORME.

Comment 9

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Yep since it's reproducible with Outlook desktop, we can safely say it's a problem on server side.