Open Bug 1847846 (tb-ms-exchange) Opened 2 years ago Updated 3 days ago

[meta] Implement Microsoft Exchange

Categories

(Thunderbird :: Account Manager, task, P1)

Product:
Thunderbird
Component:
Account Manager
Type:
task

Tracking

(Not tracked)

People

(Reporter: aleca, Unassigned)

References

(Depends on 53 open bugs, Blocks 1 open bug,
URL
)

Details

(Keywords: meta, Whiteboard: [see wiki link])

Meta bug to track the implementation effort to fully support Microsoft Exchange, including authentication, email, calendar, and contacts.

Depends on: tb-ms-oauth2
See Also: → 134763
See Also: → 1846203
Keywords: meta
Depends on: 1859645
Depends on: 1859653
Depends on: 1859654
Depends on: 1859656
Depends on: 1859859
Depends on: 1860333
Depends on: 1860334
Depends on: 1860335
Depends on: 1868655
Depends on: 1876553

I'm posting this here because I'm not sure where else to mention this and don't see anything specific to "EWS Support" in an issue.

I've seen several articles recently about Thunderbird working to implement Exchange support using EWS.

EWS is deprecated for Exchange Online and will be blocked starting October 1, 2026.
84% of exchange mailboxes are in the cloud vs on-premises based on the latest Statista information

Is implementing EWS support the correct way to enable Exchange Online mailboxes today?
Are you looking at Graph API instead?

At present, EWS is our best way to enable support for both Exchange Online and on-premise installations.

Graph API has been considered and may be considered again in future, but it currently provides narrower support than EWS and lacks some functionality for desktop applications. Even with the announcement that EWS support will be removed for Exchange Online, it's still valuable in the short term for enabling access for a wide userbase and in the long term for supporting users using on-premise installations.

No longer depends on: 1859654
Depends on: 1892082
Depends on: 1892085
Depends on: 1895317
Depends on: 1895801
Depends on: 1897303
Depends on: 1899653
Depends on: 1899649
No longer blocks: 1905689
Depends on: 1905689
Depends on: 1906188
Depends on: 1906757
Depends on: 1907993
Depends on: 1907714
Depends on: 1910980
Depends on: 1910983
Depends on: 1908866
Depends on: 1914794
Depends on: 1914442
Depends on: 1915208
Depends on: 1915211
Depends on: 1915214
Depends on: 1915339
Depends on: 1916449
Depends on: 1916452
Depends on: 1916658
Depends on: 1917090
Depends on: 1917110
Depends on: 1919027
Depends on: 1920130
Depends on: 1920131
Depends on: 1920133
Depends on: 1921600
No longer depends on: 1914442
Depends on: 1924804
No longer depends on: 1924853
Depends on: 1929091
Depends on: 1931624
Depends on: 1933535
Depends on: 1935013
No longer blocks: 1936081
Depends on: 1936081
Depends on: 1936555
No longer blocks: 1911467
Depends on: 1911467
Depends on: 1937927
Depends on: 1941880
Depends on: 1956121

Forgive me for posting here, but this is an important feature. If there's a way to avoid Outlook (I already use Thunderbird at work with our on-premise mail server, but we'll be moving to Exchange-365 in the next few months and Outlook seems to be the only choice), I'd be willing to donate an amount in that direction. Maybe it's a good idea to open a petition for this specific feature that gathers money that will be directed in implementing all these features for Exchange interoperability. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one that is willing to donate an amount for that.

(In reply to Vasilis Lourdas from comment #3)

Forgive me for posting here, but this is an important feature. If there's a way to avoid Outlook (I already use Thunderbird at work with our on-premise mail server, but we'll be moving to Exchange-365 in the next few months and Outlook seems to be the only choice), I'd be willing to donate an amount in that direction. Maybe it's a good idea to open a petition for this specific feature that gathers money that will be directed in implementing all these features for Exchange interoperability. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one that is willing to donate an amount for that.

Thanks for your interest.
The feature is already well underway in its development and you can start using it with some basic functionalities in the Daily releases.
Make sure to follow our mailing lists to keep up to date with our progress.

Note that to access your Microsoft 365 email you can usually also do that through IMAP or POP3 (unless your admin disabled it).

Depends on: 1957603
See Also: → https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird:Exchange
Whiteboard: [see wiki link]
Depends on: 1957975
Depends on: 1958346
Depends on: 1958548
Depends on: 1961218
Depends on: 1963462
Depends on: 1964652
Depends on: 1966306
Depends on: 1966474
Depends on: 1948979
Depends on: 1970399
Depends on: 1970672
Depends on: 1973062
Depends on: 1973681
Depends on: 1974730
Depends on: 1975706
Depends on: 1975707
Depends on: 1975709
Depends on: 1975710
Depends on: 1975711
Depends on: 1975712
Depends on: 1975713
Depends on: 1975715
Depends on: 1975716
Depends on: 1975717
Depends on: 1976254
Depends on: 1976396
Depends on: 1976550
Depends on: 1976552
Blocks: tb-enterprise
Depends on: 1977208
Depends on: 1978594
Depends on: 1978968
Depends on: 1977653
Depends on: 1978683
Depends on: 1978685
Depends on: 1981520
Depends on: 1981524
Depends on: 1981535
Depends on: 1981835
Depends on: 1982367
Depends on: 1982368
Depends on: 1982369
Depends on: 1982370
Depends on: 1982371
No longer depends on: 1899653
No longer depends on: 1975717
No longer depends on: 1981520
No longer depends on: 1981524
No longer depends on: 1981535
No longer depends on: 1982367
No longer depends on: 1982368
No longer depends on: 1982369
No longer depends on: 1982370
No longer depends on: 1982371
Depends on: 1899653
Depends on: 1975717
Depends on: 1981524
Depends on: 1981535
Depends on: 1982370
Depends on: 1982371
Depends on: 1981520
Depends on: 1982367
Depends on: 1982368
Depends on: 1982369
Depends on: 1983118
Depends on: 1984116
Depends on: 1984372
Depends on: 1984378
Depends on: 1984416
Depends on: 1984494
Depends on: 1985377
Depends on: 1985381
Depends on: 1985408
Depends on: 1985409
Depends on: 1985735
Depends on: 1985847
Depends on: 1986415
Depends on: 1986510
Depends on: 1986621
Depends on: 1987691
Depends on: 1988155
Depends on: 1989067
Depends on: 1989688
Depends on: 1990186
Depends on: 1990187
Depends on: 1989498
Depends on: 1990761
Depends on: 1991848
Depends on: 1992017
Depends on: 1987786
Depends on: 1994858
Depends on: 1995024
Depends on: 1994719
Depends on: exchange-phase5
Depends on: 1995405
Depends on: 1995612
Depends on: 1995613
Depends on: 1995078
Depends on: 1995699
Depends on: 1995682
Depends on: 1995690
Depends on: 1995688
Depends on: 1995799
Depends on: 1995820
Depends on: exchange-graph-phase2
Depends on: 1996095
Depends on: 1980463
Depends on: 1995003
Depends on: 1995017
Depends on: 1992652
Depends on: 1998204
Depends on: 1998426
Depends on: 1998428

Hello, I'm awaiting approval on topicbox and came across this - so thought I'd go ahead and ask here. I'm not sure if this is a bug, expected behaviour, or something I'm doing wrong.

I added 1 EWS account and it seems to be working great, I poked around and did the things in the TB beta post recommended for the last round of testing.

Then I added a second EWS account, and it only shows the first 9 folders in the account (but otherwise is working as expected). The second account is a 'service account' (not a shared account I don't think, pretty sure that's something else since a shared account can't be logged into directly or have it's own password, and this one is) - so I'm not sure if that might be an issue or not.

Anyway, not sure if I should file a bug report for this?

Thanks!

Yes, please file a bug. First, if you can, test with latest Daily.

Depends on: 1998980
Depends on: 1995521
Depends on: 1999328
Depends on: 2002408
Depends on: 2005470
Depends on: 2006367
Depends on: 2006683
Depends on: 2006844
Depends on: 2009399
Depends on: 2010330
Depends on: 2010331
Depends on: 2010818
Depends on: 2011562
Depends on: 2012783
Depends on: 2012785
Depends on: 2011680
Depends on: 2013038
Depends on: 2015590
Depends on: 2015861
Depends on: 2016427
Depends on: 2016432
Depends on: 2016548

Is there something we can do so that Thunderbird automatically uses EWS (or Graph API later) when an account from our domain is added?

Usually it should be enough to check if autodiscover.company.com redirects to Microsoft.

Microsoft requires a CNAME of autodiscover that goes to autodiscover.outlook.com.

Depends on: 2018729

(In reply to PC-SPEZIALIST from comment #8)

Is there something we can do so that Thunderbird automatically uses EWS (or Graph API later) when an account from our domain is added?

Usually it should be enough to check if autodiscover.company.com redirects to Microsoft.

Microsoft requires a CNAME of autodiscover that goes to autodiscover.outlook.com.

Thunderbird should try to detect an Exchange configuration via either https://autodiscover.company.com/..., https://company.com/... and http://autodiscover.company.com/..., as well as via an SRV lookup on _autodiscover._tcp.company.com. If the request to the HTTP URL (as in, the third one in this list) leads in a redirect that redirect is followed. Note that we don't just check whether the request redirects to Microsoft, but we try to fetch a configuration from it (otherwise we might not know where to send API requests, as our Microsoft AutoDiscover support caters both Exchange Online accounts and on-premises ones).

If Exchange/EWS is not offered to you when adding an account on your domain despite a working AutoDiscover setup, I'd encourage you to open a new bug (as this one is a meta-bug that's here to track any piece of work related to the support of Exchange accounts).

Depends on: exchange-graph-phase3

(In reply to PC-SPEZIALIST from comment #8)

Is there something we can do so that Thunderbird automatically uses EWS (or Graph API later) when an account from our domain is added?

Usually it should be enough to check if autodiscover.company.com redirects to Microsoft.

Microsoft requires a CNAME of autodiscover that goes to autodiscover.outlook.com.

We did for our organization what you are asking by defining a autoconfig.<my domain> DNS entry which responds with a XML configuration file. When the user tries to add a new @<my domain> account in TB, the only thing they must do is choose Exchange Web Services from the wizard (since our e-mail is hosted in EWS), all other details are omitted from entry. So, in other words, yes, you can do such a configuration if manually selecting EWS from the account wizard is acceptable for you.

FYI - I filed https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2001745 a while back about issues I was seeing with MS365 autodiscover. It's been closed but I still think it's an issue. Not sure if it's the same as being seen here or not.

(In reply to Orion Poplawski from comment #11)

FYI - I filed https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2001745 a while back about issues I was seeing with MS365 autodiscover. It's been closed but I still think it's an issue. Not sure if it's the same as being seen here or not.

Thanks. That looks exactly like our problem, Orion. I cannot add a comment there though.
Did you change something in the meantime? When I send a CNAME lookup for your autodiscover subdomain it shows proxy-sea01 instead of autodiscover.outlook.com. 🤔

(In reply to Vasilis Lourdas from comment #10)

(In reply to PC-SPEZIALIST from comment #8)

Is there something we can do so that Thunderbird automatically uses EWS (or Graph API later) when an account from our domain is added?

Usually it should be enough to check if autodiscover.company.com redirects to Microsoft.

Microsoft requires a CNAME of autodiscover that goes to autodiscover.outlook.com.

We did for our organization what you are asking by defining a autoconfig.<my domain> DNS entry which responds with a XML configuration file. When the user tries to add a new @<my domain> account in TB, the only thing they must do is choose Exchange Web Services from the wizard (since our e-mail is hosted in EWS), all other details are omitted from entry. So, in other words, yes, you can do such a configuration if manually selecting EWS from the account wizard is acceptable for you.

I cannot load autoconfig.lourdas.eu. 😅
May you please share your XML because I am not sure how to configure it properly for Microsoft 365. 🙈
Thanks! 😘

(In reply to PC-SPEZIALIST from comment #13)

I cannot load autoconfig.lourdas.eu. 😅
May you please share your XML because I am not sure how to configure it properly for Microsoft 365. 🙈
Thanks! 😘

lourdas.eu is my personal domain. I was referring to our business work domain. Give me your e-mail and I will send you the xml file tomorrow when I'm at work.

No longer depends on: 2018729
No longer depends on: 2015590
No longer depends on: 2012785
No longer depends on: 1995682
No longer depends on: 1995690
No longer depends on: 1995688
No longer depends on: 2016427
Depends on: 2022231
Depends on: 2022675
Depends on: 1995810
Depends on: 2025579
You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.