GarryGLW's profile

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Friday, March 31st, 2023 1:02 PM

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Outlook and iphone email stopped working

Xfinity was scheduled to make the TLS support changes on March 31, 2023.

My outlook 365 email and iphone mail app stopped working on March 30. Both have been working fine for years.

Neither app can access the Xfinity Imap server. In outlook I get the synchronizing folders error 0x800ccc0e, cannot connect to server.

Any ideas how to solves this?

Expert

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110.3K Messages

2 years ago

The concern is not "Community Center" help related. Topic moved here to the proper help section for assistance. 

(edited)

Problem Solver

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1.5K Messages

2 years ago

Your iphone does TLSv1.2 and TLSv1.3 natively.  So does windows 10/11.  Mac should too past Lion (before safari, sorry, sierra).  TLS warning was for some versions of windows 7/8 that didn't ship with TLSv1.2.  In my market, the auth server ONLY speaks TLSv1.2, and has for quite some time.  Testing it:

# openssl s_client -connect imap.xfinity.com:993 -tls1_2

SSL-Session:
    Protocol  : TLSv1.2
    Cipher    : ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384

#  openssl s_client -connect imap.xfinity.com:993 -tls1_3

no peer certificate available
No client certificate CA names sent

New, (NONE), Cipher is (NONE)

How many things do you have checking your mail at the same time?  For kicks, try disabling mail on your iPhone temporarily (settings -> mail -> accounts -> select the account -> switch off mail/notes), close your office 365.  Close other things checking mail from your current network too -- especially mac mail. Wait about 10-15 minutes, then try office 365 again.  Magically work then?

(edited)

New Poster

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5 Messages

@flatlander3​ I stopped email on my 2 iphones and the ipad. Waited 15 mins then restarted outlook. Got same error. Login box keeps popping up.

I closed outlook. Went to Control panel, Mail(MS Outlook), and did a repair account for outlook. When it tries to logon to the imap server it keeps popping up the login box and finally fails to connect.

Problem Solver

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1.5K Messages

2 years ago

Couple more:

Webmail still works though, right?  Use the front door https://xfinity.com .  Just a sanity check: use their web server on their network to connect to your mailbox.  Is it there, and do your login credentials work?  As long as you're in there, click the gear icon on the top right and go into settings.  On the left side, make sure you're not auto forwarding mail to stray accounts (like yopmail.com or something odd you don't own).  Just making sure it's locked down and not hijacked.

Also in there, in the "security" tab, make sure ".....allow 3rd party access..." box is checked:  https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/third-party-email-access Maybe that got reset or munged somehow. Maybe uncheck it and check it again.

Could also be mail is just currently broke for your area.  If you really want to dig into it:

In my market, ICMP is blocked for the mail server, so you can't ping it to see if its alive.   Windows by default doesn't have an openssl client you can poke at the auth server with, like I did with the commands above, but you can change that.  Windows System Linux just a windows feature you can add easily enough.  Get a powershell, but you have to run that as Administrator.  Then just add Linux with the command "wsl --install".  It downloads and installs a stripped down Ubuntu (it's small and doesn't take up much space).  https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install

When that's done, just type wsl in powershell or a cmd shell (doesn't have to be an admin shell).  Try the two commands I used above.  TLS1.2 one should work -- you'll see a bunch of cert stuff, then "Dovecot Ready" you can at least talk to the auth server from your network.  CTRL-C to exit.  Type exit to close the Ubuntu window.

If you get nothing, use The Big Hammer!  Turn off WiFi on everything else.  Close Outlook.  Wait 15 minutes, and try wsl again.  Still nothing?  Then you're kind of stuck and we really need @XfinityCSAEmail email to take a look.  You might be stuck anyway if the auth server is there, but it's not doing it's thing.  I mention them here, and hopefully they'll see this and pick it up.  They're actually pretty good and do really have access to log files. 

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@flatlander3​ I have tried all the above with the exception of wsl. That is getting too complex for me :). I will be traveling to a condo rental on Saturday. I will try that area and Wi-Fi to see if it makes a difference. I did change email password yesterday, thinking that might refresh the connection but to no avail.

When I get more time, I may try installing wsl and trying the TLS commands.

Thanks for the help.

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31.5K Messages

@GarryGLW​ 

See if this post solves the problem for you.

 

I am not a Comcast Employee.
I am a Customer Expert volunteering my time to help other customers here in the Forums.
We ask that you post publicly so people with similar questions may benefit from the conversation.

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@flatlander3​ Outlook started working this morning and was able to sync folders. I have not tried my phones yet. Something must have happened on the xfinity imap server to allow the handshake. 

Problem Solver

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1.5K Messages

@GarryGLW​ When you do turn your phones on, do them one at a time and make sure all the mail loads completely before trying the next one.

Apple mail is a bit odd.  It tries to "tune the connection", especially after an update.  What it really does is bomb the mail server with auth requests trying different protocols to connect.  It's trying to be helpful.  I call it a misbehaving email client. 

Watching my own servers logs, I see the flood, and there is an authentication per IP address limit / in a given time span you can set on Dovecot -- same software they're using.  If you hit that, my gear tosses you in authentication jail.  If you keep nailing my server after that with additional client auth requests, the timeout jail time extends -- I assume I'm under attack. 

It's something to keep in mind if you change a password, or update with apple products connected and all trying to authenticate at the same time.  Best practice?  Switch off WiFi to get them off your network after you download an update.  Install the update, then connect them back one at a time.

It could be, their mail server was just broke too -- that happens.

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