hotmail.com not working via PP. Oauth2 issue?

[tphil]

As of last night, my one Hotmail.com email won't work with PP - just times out.

I can access it directly via Hotmail, and all my Hotmail.co.uk emails still work with pp fine. I haven't changed anything. All version info shows up-to-date. Any suggestions welcome!!

[tphil]

Now getting new error message - 'authenticate failed'.

[tphil]

Ah. Just noticed the 'Oauth2' button on the account edit. Never seen it before, not quite sure what it does and I'm using my PC not a phone or something, but seemed worth a try and did the trick!

[izumi]

wow I had this problem since 3 days now and I didn't notice the Oauth2 button either. Just had to link my account and it works fine now! weird just one of my hotmail account had this problem tho.

[spc3rd]

Welcome to the Esumsoft Forums, tphil & izumi!

Thank you for reporting the issues you've experienced, and the resolution(s) you included. Jeff and other members of the Esumsoft Team are reviewing this topic, and will provide additional information/feedback, as needed.

There have been a number of service disruptions reported with Windows Live Mail/Hotmail in the past 24 hours - with the most significant amount occurring within the past 3 - 4 hours or so.

* For any others experiencing the issue described in this topic and receiving any error message(s), please provide the error overview information by clicking on the yellow-colored icon with an exclamation mark "!" in the lower-right corner of the main POP Peeper window interface and press the "Copy" button and then "Paste" that information here in this topic (right-click and select "paste"). (The above instructions are credited to/provided by Global Moderator, lakrsrool).
This can help us significantly.

** tphil & izumi: As you are new members to the forums. please take a moment and review some helpful information provided in this Sticky: Information for new users and forum members.

Thank you and best regards,

[Jeff]

tphil and izumi -- did either of you make any recent changes to your hotmail accounts? For example, enabling 2-step verification or any other security-related options? Or did you recently add your account to a mobile device?

Gmail started the "we require oauth2" a couple years ago. Yahoo started doing the same earlier this year (requiring OAuth2 without any warning). Until now(?), Hotmail's use of OAuth2 has been optional, but I'm wondering if Hotmail has started following suit. I believe that Yahoo puts an email into your inbox when OAuth2 is required and you try to login using the normal method (unfortunately, their email is rather vague and basically suggests that you should use their mail app); did you receive an email from Hotmail?

[tphil]

Jeff - no, I'm a dinosaur. Never use anything but my pc to access email, no emails from Hotmail, no changes of any sort made by me.

When I used the Oauth2 , just came up with request to verify use of this app - I assume it referred to PP - which I verified with my password. Since I'd accessed it via the PP button I'm assuming it's safe, but will change password anyway. But it's only the Hotmail.com account, not the .uk ones.

[garalare]

--- Version ---
OS: Windows XP
POP Peeper: 4.3.0.0
Webmail: 4.2.5.0
SSL: 1.0.2.6
IMAP: 4.3.0.0
SendMail: 4.3.0.0
Notification Skin: 4.3.0.0
Profile Picture: 4.3.0.0
AntiJunk: 4.3.0.0
Spell Checker: 4.3.0.0
Web of Trust: 4.3.0.0

--- Error ---
Hotmail [1000: IMAP] ['imap-mail.outlook.com' (993) SSL: 1] [Smtp: 'smtp-mail.outlook.com' (587) SSL: 2]
Timed Out

[garalare]

Even when I click on the OAuth2 button, I give my log in and password and when I hit send it takes me to:

This program cannot display the webpage

Most likely causes:
•You are not connected to the Internet.
•The website is encountering problems.
•There might be a typing error in the address.

What you can try:
Check your Internet connection. Try visiting another website to make sure you are connected.

Retype the address.

Go back to the previous page.

More information


-- Version ---
OS: Windows XP
POP Peeper: 4.3.0.0
Webmail: 4.2.5.0
SSL: 1.0.2.6
IMAP: 4.3.0.0
SendMail: 4.3.0.0
Notification Skin: 4.3.0.0
Profile Picture: 4.3.0.0
AntiJunk: 4.3.0.0
Spell Checker: 4.3.0.0
Web of Trust: 4.3.0.0

--- Error ---
Hotmail [1000: IMAP] ['imap-mail.outlook.com' (993) SSL: 1] [Smtp: 'smtp-mail.outlook.com' (587) SSL: 2]
Login Error (AUTHENTICATE failed.)

[tphil]

I think they have problems? When I tried to reset my password as above, couldn't access the account settings page - 'there's a problem, try again later'.

Only way I could do it was to deliberately put in the WRONG password, and go through the forgotten password routine.

I don't think my account has been hacked, since all this happened through the Oauth2 button on PP, and access to the account etc was fine. Wonder if it's just typical Microsoft - 'if something is working fine, let's change it a xxxx it up !'

[Jeff]

General -- enough people have reported this issue (here and via email) that it's apparent that Hotmail is enforcing OAuth2. Like Yahoo, I wish that Hotmail would make it more obvious in the login error information. Gmail does it slightly better -- they provide a URL that gives a list of about 10 things that may be wrong, one of which is the OAuth2 reference.


tphil -- I didn't mean to imply that anything nefarious was going on. I was just uncertain whether Hotmail enforced OAuth2 out of the blue, or if something you did had triggered it. As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, enough people have reported it for it to be coincidence. btw, one nice thing about OAuth2 is that you can change your Hotmail password and you won't have to update it in POP Peeper (you can delete your password from your Hotmail accounts as long as OAuth2 is used)


garalare -- The "time out" error is mostly a symptom of Hotmail's unreliable Imap server (make sure that IDLE is enabled in your accounts to *reduce* [not prevent] the number of errors). As for the subsequent error when enabling OAuth2 -- it could be a temporary issue, as tphil mentioned. Keep trying (give it time between attempts) and if it continues to fail, there could be a problem with your connection. Check to make sure that you're able to log into Hotmail.com with your webbrowser (and use Internet Explorer / Edge, as that's basically what POP Peeper uses for OAuth2).

[garalare]

I am able to log in without PP and also using PP's run email client

[tphil]

Thanks Jeff.

No, I wasn't interpreting what you'd said as implying anything dodgy going on, but whenever I have to enter my email password in something I don't 100% expect I tend to change it as a matter of course!

However, from working last night (on PP) the .com email isn't working today! With yet another error message, 'unknown host'.

--- Version ---
OS: Windows 7
POP Peeper: 4.3.0.0
Webmail: 4.2.5.0
SSL: 1.0.1.8
IMAP: 4.3.0.0
SendMail: 4.3.0.0
Profile Picture: 4.2.0.0
AntiJunk: 4.2.0.0
Spell Checker: 4.2.0.0
Web of Trust: 4.2.0.0

--- Error ---
[1000: IMAP] ['imap-mail.outlook.com' (993) SSL: 1] [Smtp: 'smtp-mail.outlook.com' (587) SSL: 2]
Unknown Host

As before, I can access it fine directly, just not through PP.

[garalare]

I just retrieved my hotmail messages, however there are only asterisks in the sender and subject columns

[garalare]

PP seems to be working again, just within the last hour...... what is the Idle/Push checkbox for? what does it do?

[tphil]

PP seems to be working again, just within the last hour......

Not for me

[Jeff]

Hotmail is aware of issues:
https://portal.office.com/servicestatus

And looks like the fixes are rolling out, so if POP Peeper isn't working now it should be soon.

Title: Can't access or synchronize Outlook.com email

User Impact: Users may be unable to access or synchronize their Outlook.com accounts while using applications or mobile devices.

More info: While we're focused on remediation, users may be able to access the service by logging in to their Outlook.com accounts with a web browser as an alternative method.

Current status: We've completed the fix and are deploying it throughout the affected environment. While the fix is being deployed, some users may begin to access and synchronize their Outlook.com accounts while using applications or mobile devices.

Start time: Thursday, November 17, 2016, at 12:00 AM UTC

Next update by: Wednesday, November 23, 2016, at 8:30 PM UTC

Title: Can't access or synchronize Outlook.com email

User Impact: Users may be unable to access or synchronize their Outlook.com accounts while using applications or mobile devices.

More info: While we're focused on remediation, users may be able to access the service by logging in to their Outlook.com accounts with a web browser as an alternative method.

Current status: We've identified the cause of the issue and we're preparing a fix to be deployed to the affected infrastructure.

Start time: Thursday, November 17, 2016, at 12:00 AM UTC

Next update by: Wednesday, November 23, 2016, at 2:00 AM UTC

Title: We're looking into a potential problem

User Impact: Users may be unable to access their Outlook.com accounts.

Current status: We're investigating an issue in which some users may be unable to access or use Outlook.com services or features. We'll provide an update shortly.

[Jeff]

IDLE -- this feature allows POP Peeper to stay connected to the server and when you receive new email, the server "pushes" that information to POP Peeper and so you get instant notification of new email. That's the primary purpose of IDLE. As for Hotmail, it has another positive side-effect: Hotmail's imap server is fairly unreliable, but most of the errors occur during the login process. By remaining connected to the server, PP doesn't have to continuously login every X minutes, thus reducing the chance of login-based errors.

[Jeff]

Asterisks -- this means that the account is password protected. You can disable password protection by editing the account.

[tphil]

Don't know if it's just me, but still not working - unknown host message still as above