Error with outlook.com account

13

All I can say in defence of eM Client is that using Outlook IMAP automatic setup or alt Outlook manual exchange setup works flawlessly for me and my friends on Windows and Mac using V8 and even latest V9 Beta. I cannot fault eM Client.

The only time I personally had Outlook issues was when Microsoft had that major global outage but that was resolved. So I can only presume the issue is with the specific Outlook Mailbox itself.

As to how other mail clients work ok but not eM Client as you say above is unknown. Could be they are not using normal IMAP authentication. Dunno.

The only way to find where the issue lies would be if a eg: eM Client pro customer who has this same Outlook issue sent in logs in a support ticket.

14

Thanks for the support! Nicely written. Definitely frustrating. I tried to launch EMC again today and re-added my Outlook account - at first it appeared to connect okay and downloaded most of my inbox messages but after about 20 minutes, that ludicrous error popped up again! I tested the sending ability of new mail in EMC and that function works but after the error shows, nothing further is downloaded. It stops dead on the tracks.

[IMAP]Known Microsoft Exchange server error “User is authenticated but not connected” has been encountered on IMAP connection. This issue is temporary and should be automatically resolved by the server. If not, please contact your mail provider.

I still have an open ticket with Microsoft Support (since 12/23) but they have not given me any answers - just kicking the can down the road to other departments. So not confident they will provide anything of substance. As mentioned, I’m using the Windows Mail App now and the messages flow seamlessly. It makes ZERO sense why EMC can’t perform the same. I repeat I had been using EMC for the last two years until this issue started on 12/2/21. It has not worked since.

1 Like
15

You are not alone. Not many people would make the effort to get it resolved either. Maybe 1 in every 100 people so we can only imagine the silent majority that has kicked EmClient into touch and the implications of lost potential revenue for them. They must not need the sales enough - not hungry enough!!

1 Like
16

1/2/22 update: The connection to Outlook.com worked for one day like normal from yesterday to today and just now it reverted back to the connection error. Unbelievable! I thought I might have gotten lucky but no such case. Microsoft Support was no help - ended up closing my ticket without providing a resolution. What’s the verdict here? I still vote it’s an EMC issue.

[IMAP]Known Microsoft Exchange server error “User is authenticated but not connected” has been encountered on IMAP connection. This issue is temporary and should be automatically resolved by the server. If not, please contact your mail provider.

17

This error means that the authentication process for your account was succesfull, but for some reason the mail server is not giving eM Client access to the account data, so it cannot synchronize your messages into the app. Unfortunately, this is not something we can resolve from our side, it needs to be resolved from the side of the mail server that actually contains all your data. Reach out to your admin or provider of the email account so they can fix the issue.

If this is happening with an email account that is set up using an Alias and not the Primary email address, try setting up the account anew using the primary email address to see if that resolves the problem.

18

I appreciate your insights. I’m not using an Alias or anything. This has been my primary email for a number of years so I just don’t get why this issue is happening. Microsoft is not providing any meaningful solutions - it seems they have no idea what’s going on. The Outlook.com division is not trained to fix this and I’m unable to speak with a “live” person. It’s funny how it works just fine with the Windows 10 Mail App but not EMC.

Tested again just now same thing:

[IMAP]Known Microsoft Exchange server error “User is authenticated but not connected” has been encountered on IMAP connection. This issue is temporary and should be automatically resolved by the server. If not, please contact your mail provider.

Sometimes it might work for a few minutes and I can receive a few messages but when it syncs again, it won’t connect.

19

Something to try. Try changing your password and then ONLY changin it to the correct password in emClient - leave all other devices and programs with the now old and wrong password. See if it then works and keeps working. I did read somewhere about an android device causing the issue for another mail program - something to do with PUSH and and someting to do with Exchange accepting the password initially, even if it is incorrect but then allowing no further access.

Just a long shot but may help with diagnostics.

I would say that it is a real shame that one has to have VIP support and the paid product for the folk at emClient to even look at it any deeper. Yes, I can understand that without VIP support you should be in the slow lane for any help but some help ought to be forthcoming even at a slow pace. One might have thought that it would be in emClient’s interests to put this issue to bed. It also does not explain why the mail program in Windows works but emClient does not (unless the working Mail program is scuppering things due to the above). No-one from emClient has offered any kind of explanation for that fact nor - by the looks of it - ever will.

I would also try all of the above with Thunderbird and see if that works. See if it also works with Thunderbird AFTER you change the password so TB is the only mail client with right password. Sometimes you just have to do your own digging to get the solution.

Also you should look at the microsoft account after a connection attempt to see if it needs approving. I saw that in a thread also

> “Another poster suggested to login to https://account.live.com , Under Security check your Recent sign in activity.” Approve the activity if it asks - long shot I know but all I can do is make some educated guesses to try and help you out.

20

Googling around this error happens with (many different email clients) and not just related to eM Client. As @Gary says it’s a Mail Server issue.

Many different forum peeps have reset their passwords many times in their account online in Outlook.com and removed and re-added their IMAP & Exchange accounts in different mailer clients (including Thunderbird) multiple times only to get this same error popping up time after time. Some might go for a little while as @beamer138 says but then stop receiving with the error again.

Many forum support peeps also say it is a MS Exchange issue with password relating back to (the server in some way), where for some reason Microsoft after the connection is established doesn’t think the password you entered is valid anymore even though it’s the correct password and the mail client just authenticated ok. See Google search quotes on this issue below.

Hopefully that above info @Paul23 advised about passwords might help @beamer138 where even a manual exchange setup didn’t work yet works for me & other users both ways with np in eM Client.

See below two quotes from Google searching this error with various different mail clients.

(Quote 1)

The message “User is authenticated but not connected” is due to a bug in the Exchange server’s IMAP implementation. If the client presents a valid user name but an invalid password, the server accepts the login, but subsequent commands fail with the aforementioned error message.

(Quote 2)

It seems to be a bug in Exchange’s IMAP implementation where the server continues “happily” along if the username is valid but the password is not (incorrect, expired, etc.)

Note: If Microsoft won’t fix the issue for customers with this issue, then I personally would look at eg: auto forwarding the Outlook.com email to another IMAP server mailbox like Gmail and setup eM Client for that account instead, and then setup an (Alias Outlook email address) in eM Client for sending & replying to emails etc.

If you did that option, you would export all your Outlook.com contacts online to a file and import them into Gmail after adding the Gmail account and just disable the Outlook.com account in eM Client (from checking mail) in Account settings. You could then (if you want) eg: drag all your Outlook emails to your Gmail account in same name folders in eM Client, to have it all in Gmail and just use Gmail from then.

You would also setup a “default sending email address” in your Gmail online account Settings “Send mail as” section so it matches eM Client. That way peeps still think you are sending from your Outlook email address in eM Client, even though it’s a Gmail account. I’ve done that before as well for some peeps who had problematic Outlook mailbox issues. This is done in combination with an Alias email address in eM Client. See 2nd screenshot below for how to setup and Alias eg: Outlook email address.

Send emails from a different address or alias - Gmail Help (google.com)

image
image753×416 35 KB

(Setup Alias email address in eM Client)

image
image1087×269 17.9 KB

21

Thanks for your suggestion. I just launched eMC again and it synced with no error yet. I’ll test the password tip later if error re-appears. This is probably short-lived. Will update later.

Also, I closed out of Windows Mail App prior to running eMC - not sure if that affects things. You’re right about having to ‘seize the bull by the horn’ and test things out one by one to see what the underlying issue is.

22

It’s a long shot but it might just be the Mail app causing some sort of conflict. It’s most odd that the mail app works consistently during those times that emClient is not working. It may be triggering someting on the exchange server side. Probably not but does no harm to test that scenario. Closing out the Windows Mail App will likely not be enough to stop it communicating with hte exchange server as it will be running in the background and doing regular checks for new mail etc even when you don’t think it is running. It would be a good idea to remove the account from the Mail App to be sure that it is not having any interraction with the servers. You can always re-add it when you have finished.

1 Like
23

Update 1/9/22: It only worked for a couple of days. The error is back once more. I tried to change the password for my Outlook account - that’s also a no go. I also tested it by downloading an app called Mailspring and it returned a similar error as well when I tried to add Outlook:

----------IMAP----------
connect mailcore::IMAPSession:0039F9FC

  • OK The Microsoft Exchange IMAP4 service is ready. [TQBXAEgAUABSADAAOABDAEEAMAAwADUAOQAuAG4AYQBtAHAAcgBkADAAOAAuAHAAcgBvAGQALgBvAHUAdABsAG8AbwBrAC4AYwBvAG0A]
    ssl connect imap-mail.outlook.com 993 2
    OpenSSL version: OpenSSL 1.1.0f 25 May 2017
    1 CAPABILITY
  • CAPABILITY IMAP4 IMAP4rev1 AUTH=PLAIN AUTH=XOAUTH2 SASL-IR UIDPLUS MOVE ID UNSELECT CHILDREN IDLE NAMESPACE LITERAL+
    1 OK CAPABILITY completed.
    connect ok
    login
    2 LOGIN “[email protected]” *********
    2 OK LOGIN completed.
    3 CAPABILITY
  • CAPABILITY IMAP4 IMAP4rev1 AUTH=PLAIN AUTH=XOAUTH2 SASL-IR UIDPLUS MOVE ID UNSELECT CLIENTACCESSRULES CLIENTNETWORKPRESENCELOCATION BACKENDAUTHENTICATE CHILDREN IDLE NAMESPACE LITERAL+
    3 OK CAPABILITY completed.
    4 NAMESPACE
    4 BAD User is authenticated but not connected.
    fetch namespace failed

Any other tips would be welcomed. I’m determined to get this to work again at some point. Thanks. The Mail app is the only one that works.

24

It looks like it is a problem with Microsoft as @Gary and @cyberzork have said. My steps were little extra’s that might have helped. Shame they didn’t but I also firmly belive (finally) that it is a Microsoft email server issue and the only people who can fix that are Microsoft. The only thing that emClient could do is somehow code around the error in emClient. This must be somehow possible if the Windows Mail app works but I can’t see emClient developers doing that as they would end up having to do little “workarounds” for all sorts of services/servers and it would become unmaintainable. Given that this is pretty widespread for microsoft accounts and Microsoft accounts are very common I would be surprised if they had not already looked into the possiblity of doing this and concluded that it was not possible. That is wild speculation of course and the only people who could comment on that would be an employee of emClient.

Sorry its not better news.
Paul

Given that the chances of them fixing it are a little above “zero” - I would seriously consider changing over to another provider like Gmail

1 Like
25

Thanks for the feedback. It’s much appreciated. eMC connected again this morning when I logged in to my computer. So one thing we do know for sure now is that this issue is ‘intermittent’ - before it could not connect at all but now it seems to be sporadic - it’ll operate normal for a day or two and then the error reappears again. So its behavior is wild indeed. There must be some underlying cause. My account doesn’t appear to be corrupt in any way. I can access it fine via the Outlook app for Android on my phone and of course the Windows Mail App. Let’s see how long it will last this time before it goes bad again.

I do have a Gmail account has my secondary (backup) email address but everyone I know has my Outlook address, so at this point it makes sense just to keep Outlook as my primary.

26

I did see some chatter on the google-interweb about some mail clients being too communicative and that making Exchange “barf” with this specific error. Purely speculation but…

One thing that has never really been explained in a satisfactory way is how some apps/programs manage to work flawlessley on your account while others (e.g. emClient) are so “flakey”. Maybe its down to emClient talking too much to the server in too short a period and the server saying “noooo - I can’t cope”. Maybe … emClient will know but if they do they are not letting on. emClient is doing something different to the Mail app - the mail app is working consitently - emClient is not. If I were a developer at emClient I for sure would be wanting to know why regardless if it is caused by a shortcoming in Exchange. I would want my mail app to exceed the performance of the Microsoft Mail app at the very least (as that bar is not very high let’s be honest :slight_smile: the Microsoft mail app is not the best for sure) but in this specific case it trumps emClient as it is working reliably for you. That would embarrass me if I were a developer at emClient but I guess they have thicker skin that me :slight_smile:

27

The problem is the both MS and Google can change their specs to make it hard for “outsiders” like thunderbird or emclient to work well with their systems. Then, they can take months to fix their problem. It is not going to be possible for any external client to imagine all the possible problems either of those companies could dream up. When you get free email, you sell your soul.

I’d suggest using Runbox or Mailbox as email providers and pay a little for their service of running an email service and not selling your information or advertising to you. Instead, their business model depends on working with others, rather than benefiting by not working with others.

28

I don’t disagree :slight_smile: It is “odd” that it only works reliably with one email program (Microsoft Mail) for @beamer138 I suspect it will also work flawlessley with Outlook (part of Office 365 / Office 2019) also. It’s very telling that it is easier for Microsoft to “dick around” with the end user clients to make a broken Exchange system work reliably (if that is the truth of the matter).

29

It’s been a week and eMC still working and connecting with my Outlook account. I went in the eMC settings and changed the frequency of the syncing from every 5 minutes to every 20 minutes and it has been behaving well. This is even with the Mail app running in the background (not opened). Crossing my fingers here that I won’t jinx this!

1 Like
30

@beamer138

I went in the eMC settings and changed the frequency of the syncing from every 5 minutes to every 20 minutes and it has been behaving well

Great that your Outlook is working ok atm. Hope it stays working :slightly_smiling_face:

I personally allways set eM Client to synchronize every 10 mins as alot of mail servers are a bit fussy if mail clients connect to much (or are too chatty as they say), particularly with multiple clients accessing the same mailbox account at the same time like with eg: Mob apps and Desktop apps etc.

31

Looks like that speculation might have been right then :slight_smile:

1 Like
32

This is what worked for me so far: User is authenticated but not connected (using outlook.com email) - #5 by LandOfManyRabbits