Imported Settings from one phone don't work on New Phone

Support
1

First I think that there are two issues here.

  1. Export and Import failed to set up New phone correctly!!
  2. “Network error - Unable to parse TLS packet header”
    I copy the text of my mail to Startmail Support

I’ve now run into a problem migrating to a new phone.
Old Phone - Samsung S20+ - using K9 Mail
New Phone - Google Pixel 8a - using K9 Mail

I didn’t want to migrate everything, so I set up most things fresh. however I uploaded a settings export from K9 Mail, to a cloud acount.
On downloading this settings file to the Pixel phone I was getting “failure to authenticate” repeatedly. (reason given below)

I deleted K9 Mail and re-installed it, and used the exported settings again. Same result.

This time I checked the settings manually and found/remembered that Startmail use a different password for Browser and for Apps like Thunderbird and K9 Mail.

I changed the password on the Receive Setting and now I’m getting my mail, however for the Send Setting it gives a different error,
“Network Error Unable to Parse TLS Packet Header”. Upon the failure to connect, the password reverts every time to the incorrect one.

I don’t know why K9 Mail’s Settings Export didn’t export the FULLY WORKING SETTINGS correctly from my Samsung! That may be K9 Mail’s issue, and I will contact them as well!!

But can you help me to understand, and correct, why I am unable to get the settings changed correctly and to work - as they do on my old Samsung.

I am pasting the correct password direct from my password manager, so I don’t think that there CAN be an error there…

Other than the password issue, I can find no other setting that is different on the two phones…

As a user of a VPN, I also tried pausing Nord VPN for one of my attempts to get it working - no joy…

I also shut down the old Samsung for one attempt, just in case having two Phones with K9 Mail, connecting with Startmail was an issue, this didn’t work either…

I sure hope that you (Startmail) and or K9 Mail can help me!

2

I do realize that those few years ago, when I first started to use K9 Mail, I must have input the “Web Browser Password” rather than the correct “Application Password”. But then to get it working on the Samsung I MUST have used the correct password!!!
Indeed on viewing the password in K9 Mail on the Samsung (with fingerprint verification!) what I see is the “Thunderbird or K9 Mail Password”. That’s correct of course!

But WHY K9 Mail remembers that incorrect Password and prefers it to the correct and working password (on the Samsung Galaxy S20+) and put THAT into the Export File - well that is something that K9 Mail really SHOULD investigate!

3

K-9 Mail doesn’t export passwords because it’s far too easy to accidentally leak them this way. Are you sure you didn’t enter passwords after importing the settings file? If passwords really were included in the settings file, you are most likely not using K-9 Mail as published by us. Are you using another email app that is based on K-9 Mail?

The error message “Network Error Unable to Parse TLS Packet Header” could be an indicator that you are trying to connect to a non-TLS port while the app is configured to use TLS. Maybe you accidentally changed the value of the security dropdown when editing server settings.
Startmail’s server settings are documented here: https://support.startmail.com/hc/en-us/articles/360006596718-Server-addresses

Server settings are only saved after they could be verified. So it’s not that the password resets to the old one, it’s that the old configuration was never successfully changed to the new (non-working) one.

4

Hi cketti, thanks for your reply.

I installed the app direct from the Google Store, where it has the exact right name, “K9 Mail”, plus the correct Icon. This should be a good method - with PlayStore security checks?

Yes on the first try I WILL have entered the wrong Password (the one for Web Browser access).
It took me two tries to realize and remember that there are two passwords…

However on subsequent attempts to get it working, I uninstalled the app with Revo Uninstaller, supposedly deleting ALL app info… So after that it was strange that the incorrect Password was still there. Does K9 Mail store settings somewhere that Revo Uninstaller cannot delete? It seems that it must!

Your link to the StartMail settings may have helped. I noticed that my old Samsung was set up using the “Alternate” Receive Mail Port 587, so I changed that to the now standard Port of 465, input the correct App Password - and lo and behold it connected and is now working for both Send and Receive. So thanks for getting me on track.

Security wise - yes I had already deleted all the instances of the export file, except on my fully encrypted Cloud Account. Now that it is sorted, I’ll delete that too…

A final comment:- if settings are maintained between install and uninstall, causing incorrect passwords to be “still there” - as was certainly the case here - then the program should offer the possibility to delete this, or to “Do Not Use Old Settings”, for just this eventuality. It seems that the Old incorrect password MUST have been there.

I found it prticularly “troublesome” (and even annoying) that on putting in the correct password, but the setting not being verifiied and saved, that the password REVERTED to the incorrect one rather than being left as a blank field. I think that this certainly requires changing!

Thanks again for your help in getting this sorted! - Stellar Greg (both Astronomer and Sidereal Astrologer - but no 2 horoscopes!)