BT server not recognising password from email client

[Ian1147]

Hi,

I hope someone can help with this problem: I am running Win10 64bit with Thunderbird as my email client and I have BT high speed fibre to home.  I have 3 email accounts, 1 with talk21.com and 2 with btopenworld.com.  All were working perfectly 2 days ago.  Yesterday the talk21 worked but the openworld ones threw up a box saying that the passwords needed to be re-entered.  I did this but they didn't work.  I contacted BT and it was suggested that I change passwords.  I did this at bt.com/email via my browser (Firefox).  The new passwords didn't work with Thunderbird but they did with bt via Firefox.

I thought that Thunderbird might be the problem (although the talk21 account still worked) so I uninstalled Thunderbird, used %appdata% to remove all traces and then cleaned the registry.  I reinstalled Thunderbird, put in the email address and password for my talk21 account and Thunderbird automatically found the correct settings and installed the account. I tried to install both of the openworld accounts and in each case the correct settings were found but when checking the passwords the connection to the server failed.

I again removed Thunderbird as before and installed Mailbird which behaved in exactly the same way.  Then I tried Postbox, Mailspring, Outlook and emclient.  In each case talk21 went in correctly and worked but the openworlds were given the correct settings but failed when checking the passwords.  (message says: Unable to log in at server.  Probably wrong configuration, user name or password - the user names and passwords were correct).

The configuration for all 3 accounts is:

Incoming server

Protoco IMAP,  Host name mail.btinternet.com,  port 993,  Security SSL/TLS,  Authentication Normal password

Outgoing Server

Host Name mail.btinternet.com,  Port 465,  Security SSL/TLS,  Authentication Normal password

I have been on the phone to BT several times and we have tried to solve the problem but to no avail and I have now spent over 15 hours on this machine and I'm getting fed up.  Why did it suddenly stop working when the previous day it was fine and why does talk21 work in every installation but not openworld?

Any suggestion would be VERY gratefully received.

Thanks,

Ian

[licquorice]

Try changing the account to xxxx@btinternet.com rather than xxxx@btopenworld.com

The 2 are interchangeable but the server might be having problems with openworld which is deprecated.

[Ian1147]

Hi licquorice,
Thanks for the quick reply.
I've just tried your suggestion on Thunderbird but, unfortunately, I still get the same error message.
I feel that it must be something to do with the BT server for 6 different clients to behave the same way.
Thanks again,
Ian

[licquorice]

Can you confirm you are still a BT broadband customer or paying for Premium Mail, if neither, the accounts will have been downgraded to Basic mail which is only accessible via webmail.

If you are  a BT broadband customer, try disconnecting your hub from line for half an hour or so to get a different IP address which might connect to a different server in the farm.

[Ian1147]

Hi,
Thanks again. I am a broadband customer so I shouldn't have been downgraded but I'm waiting for a call back from BP so that I can check that my openworld accounts haven't been downgraded for some reason. When that is sorted out I'll be able to disconnect the hub and check. One of the joys of fibre - hub down, phone down - such is progress!.

[Ian1147]

Hi,
I've just had a phone call from BT and the person at BT thinks that my openworld accounts have become unlinked from from my BT account and are being treated similarly to basic WebMail. If this is the case it would explain why Thunderbird cannot connect them. I have no idea how this could have happened nor do I know why talk21 is unaffected but the BT agent said that he has passed it over to their technical dept to sort out. It may take a couple of days and I'll post the results either way. Thanks for suggesting the idea of a possible WebMail based cause.

[Ian1147]

Some slight progress.  BT checked and we have 2 accounts, a redundant one from before the switch to fibre (which was not cancelled) and a fibre one.  The old account was deleted and all email addresses were moved to the fibre account.  Going into bt.com shows the fibre account with 3 active email addresses, all of which can be accessed  via bt.com (as before).

But, I can still only get talk21.com on Thunderbird.  However, going into BT.com I created a new btinternet .com address & password which was picked up perfectly by Thunderbird and can send/receive emails.

I do not know why the 2 previous openworld.com addresses (which worked on Thunderbird a week ago) still will not work.  I've changed passwords and tried using internet.com rather than openworld.com to no avail.

Either Thunderbird is sending the wrong password or BT server is not accepting the correct one.

Work in progress!

[DanielS]

Hi @Ian1147,

To me, it sounds like the original accounts are BT Basic Mail and the latest one you set up is our standard mail which gives you access to email clients and apps.

I can sort that out for you, I'll send you a private message with some details that I'll need.

Also, the Talk21 account is most likely linked to an even older account that is closed but hasn't been switched to BT Basic Mail. I can sort all for you.

Thanks,

DanielS

[Ian1147 · Accepted solution]

Solved! 

Had a text from BT this morning saying that they had sorted the problem - and they have.  It looks as though the 2 problem addresses were set to webmail and not standard.  I put the settings & details into Thunderbird and they were found straight away and downloaded all my emails.

Thanks to everyone who made suggestions as to what the problem was.

Best wishes,

Ian

[DanielS]

That's great news @Ian1147.

It's good to see they've been moved away from BT Basic Mail back onto our standard.

If you ever need help in the future, please, feel free to get in touch with us or as you did over the phone.

Thank you

DanielS