I've got two computers that use IMAP for email. All settings are ostensibly the same, running Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and just upgraded from Thunderbird 68 to 78.7.1. I checked Edit-Account Settings while side by side, and didn't notice any differences. These machines are on the same network.
I don't save passwords for a few email accounts, but at the start of each Thunderbird session, when asked for a password, I enter it. On one machine, I can enter the password once, and send email all day without problems. On another machine, I have to keep re-entering the password every few minutes.
It seems the settings are the same, but perhaps there is something hidden that isn't there. In searching for solutions, I came across this, but it wasn't too descriptive:
On the machine that is having trouble remembering things, I've got a few more odd email accounts, but that's what appears to be the difference (but these are different accounts!). On the forgetful machine, some of the passwords for those accounts are saved, as was done with the earlier version of thunderbird, with no problems.
I'm wondering if there is a timeout setting someplace that can be tweaked, or if there is something subtle that is missed here.
11 Answer
[In case anyone else stumbles upon this still open question in search for help.]
Bug reports
Related bugs were posted on mozilla's bugtracker bugzilla:
- Bug 1673446 opened on 2020-10-26 for TB version 78: imap repeated authentication/password in 78.4.0 (Yahoo OAuth + other IMAP accounts that do not have passwords saved)
- Bug 1661337 opened on 2020-08-26 for TB version 68 – closed as Duplicate of 1673446: After OAuth2 enabled for one account, other accounts do not remember the password for the current session (Yahoo OAuth2)
The combination of both bug reports and the numerous comments narrowed down the problem, but sadly the bug was not fixed, yet.
FYI: This problem is neither restricted to Linux systems nor either one of IMAP/POP3.
Probable cause
I do not intend to give a full summary of those bug-report threads.
However, the problem only seems to occur when at least one of the email accounts uses the OAuth2 method. Then the other email accounts can be affected by the password-forgetting problem described.
One example:
Yahoo accounts use OAuth2 and can cause the bug to appear, but the problem was not restricted to this provider.
On the machine that is having trouble remembering things, I've got a few more odd email accounts, but that's what appears to be the difference (but these are different accounts!). On the forgetful machine, some of the passwords for those accounts are saved, as was done with the earlier version of thunderbird, with no problems.
@asylumax: If at least one of those "odd email accounts" uses the OAuth2 method, you are likely experiencing the same bug described in the bug reports referenced above – as am I.
Not always applicable workaround
The comments #96, #116 and #124 hint at a possible workaround involving the setup of the "Outgoing Server (SMTP) Settings". More specifically the accounts are set up to use different SMTP connection methods.
Shortcomings
However, not all email provider give us much choice regarding the available SMTP connection methods. And a higher number of accounts mean a higher total number of different SMTP connection methods required to apply this workaround. Therefore, this workaround can not be considered a "real" solution.
Hope for the future
Comment #116 suggests a more specific hypothesis:
OAuth2 module might mix up with STARTTLS (or SSL/TLS) when 2 or more accounts share with the same SMTP connection method.
The workaround mentioned above can be seen as evidence for this hypothesis. This suggests the bug lies somewhere within the OAuth2 module …
A more thorough search for the bug's point of introduction with mozregression as suggested in comment #125 could pinpoint the exact cause even further, but that requires more spare time than I have …
Hopefully, someone else finds the time for this process and fixes this annoying bug – without any shortcomings.
