Since January 26 I have been unable to send BT emails out of MS Outlook - it keeps on asking for username and password. I've downloaded Mailbird - same problem, traced to SMTP authentication. I've just added my gmail account to Mailbird and it fully installed - with authentication 'Google OAuth 2.0' from a dropdown list. Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL are listed, but not BT. The 'Username and password' option no longer works.
When is BT going to provide its own OAuth 2.0 protocol?
You don't need OAuth for MS Outlook mail client. Authentication is against your email address. You need to select port 465 (SSL) and plain authentication.
My research and experience is that you now need OAuth 2.0 or 2FA if you are a registered user of Office 365. If you are also an MS Exchange user, you can go into admin.microsoft.com and sort out credentials that way. But that's not an option for a personal subscriber to Office 365. Mailbird support, incidentally, has been very helpful in diagnosing the problem.
You didn't mention Ofiice 365 in your original post.
I wonder if this is connected
Big news flash on CNN today about the Microsoft problems with Outlook email. They recognize that they created the problem on or around Feb 3rd. I believe that it was well before then.
Taken form emclient forum.
Thanks, DavidCo. I don't think yesterday's Outlook outages are connected.
BTW, I tried two-form authentication (2FA) on my BT email account this morning. It doesn't facilitate my SMTP authentication.
As for BT support, I got as far as 'Did this fix the problem?', to which I answered 'No', and it replied 'Thanks for the feedback', with no further options. Very helpful!
Still no joy. My gmail account is fine on Outlook - and also on Mailbird, where it automatically picks up the Google OAuth authentication. I tried Mailbird's given Yahoo OAuth, and it got as far as saying it was issuing a passcode for my BT Email account - but it didn't. Trying the Microsoft OAuth option got nowhere.
As for my wife's BT email account on her iPad, outgoing emails get a "cannot find mail.btinternet.com" answer and get dumped in the Outbox, from which sending is completed sometime in the next 24 hours - sometimes!
Come on, BT. Update your system!