Since the update to V14 I get “Authentication failed” warnings connected with two old Yahoo.co.uk accounts (set up in the days when Yahoo emails would work with email clients - I believe that new Yahoo accounts don’t allow this). These warnings only started after the update to V14.
In both cases the emails are left on the server by K-9 but deleted from the server by Thunderbird on a PC.
If there are no emails for the account on the server and there are no emails previously downloaded to the mobile for the account then switching to the account inbox in K-9 doesn’t generate a warning. In this situation swiping-down to synchronize the accounts also doesn’t generate a warning.
If there are no emails on the server but there are previously downloaded emails then switching to the account in K-9 generates the warning. If the warning is then cleared and the account synch’ed the inbox is emptied and no warning is generated.
If there are emails on the server but the K-9 inbox is empty switching to the account doesn’t generate the warning but the warning appears if the account is synch’ed.
The warnings do not stop the emails being downloaded - they are annoying not fatal.
The accounts are set for POP3.
No warnings are generated when the accounts are accessed by Thunderbird on the PC.
If the warning is cleared, aeroplane mode is turned on and then you switch to one of the Yahoo accounts in K-9 the warning reappears. To me this suggests that the suggestion made in the warning message to change the server settings is nonsense, since there can have been no communication with the server. This does not happen if I switch to an email account from another server whilst in aeroplane mode.
This is a bug that has been introduced in the update to V14.
What authentication type are you using. OAuth2, App password, username & password?
If oAuth2, the token might have expired. Try re-authenticating the incoming and outgoing connection settings.
You indicate the issue started after K9 updated to v14.
Have you tried to eliminate this as the cause.
Can you try installing Thunderbird v14 side by side with your existing K9 v14. Manually add one of the account showing authentication issues in TB and see if the issue presents. Then remove and repeat with TB v13 and see if the issue stops.
Your existing K9 install is not touched by this process.
It could just be that something got corrupted during the v14 upgrade, and would be fixed by a reinstall. It could also be due to a change by Yahoo.
Yahoo backed out of a change in November following user reported authentication issues. It was being tracked by the Thunderbird Desktop team on Bugzilla.
Thanks for your response. The authentication is user name and normal password. The authentication can’t have been failing as the emails were downloaded.
Anyway I exported the settings from K-9, installed TB V14 and imported the settings. TB then didn’t show the warnings in the situations noted in my first post.
I then uninstalled and reinstalled K-9, again importing the previously saved settings - now K-9 doesn’t report the warnings either
My question now then is which client should I use - or is it a case of ‘badge engineering’ and both apps are essentially the same? Will there come a point when only one of the apps is supported?
K9 & TB are essentially the same app, built from the same code base.
I prefer the blue Thunderbird Icon & color scheme to K-9’s red but each to their own.
What is the difference between K-9 Mail and Thunderbird for Android? They look the same?
In June 2022, K-9 Mail joined the Thunderbird family as the foundation for Thunderbird on Android. Since then, we’ve been updating both apps to give users the same solid experience, so it’s normal to notice that K-9 Mail and Thunderbird look and feel nearly identical. They’re built on the same code, and that’s intentional!
We’re able to configure which features are available in each app, so some features might be unique to Thunderbird if they are a better fit. For example, the import feature helps users move from K-9 Mail to Thunderbird, which wouldn’t really make sense the other way around. Over time, Thunderbird will gain a few unique features as we evaluate the best way to support our Android email users – including when it might make sense to consolidate our focus fully on Thunderbird.
