Unable to connect to Comcast email from Android (stopped working)

We are having the exact same problem now for a couple of days. Very frustrating. Is there any solution?

My wife and I are having the exact same issue, except it doesn't seem to start working a few days later.  First, one of my comcast emails stopped working and then a week later, a second one stopped.  Both with the same invalid credentials message.  I too am an IT professional and I spent close to an hour on chat with a comcast support person who ran me through all the same tests I had tried.  It is not my phone as my wife and I (and apparently others) are all experiencing this.  It is not my specific email account as we have noted multiple accounts stopped working at significantly different times.  If I had to guess, comcast is blocking the port.  I have tried a couple ports but I still have not been able to add my account back into outlook.  Please let me know if you find any solutions that work and I will try to do the same.

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@jeffweaver25 wrote:

I am unable to consistently connect to Comcast email from Android Outlook app. This app has been working fine until recently. About a week ago, I received an error that I needed to re-enter my password. I did that, but it didn't help. I deleted the account from the app and tried to re-add it. That failed. However, about 12 hours later, I tried again and it worked! Then two days later the same thing happened. Today, yet again, it has stopped working. Here are some relevant facts,

  - I am only having this issue with my Comcast email accounts.

 - Outlook connecting to my Comcast accounts is working fine on other (non-Android) devices.

 - Yes, I know my Comcast account password!

 - I deleted the account from the Outlook app, cleared the app cache, rebooted the phone,  but it still won't add the account (login errror).

- It seems that after 12-24 hours (based on previous experience) it will allow me to add the account; and that after 1-3 days it will stop working again.

- I have more than one Comcast email account set up in my Outlook app. Currently, one is working, one is not. Which one is not working varies.

- I am using IMAP. Yes, the settings are correct!

- I am an IT professional and this isn't (shouldn't) be rocket science. Yet, here I am.

- No, I am not going to wipe my phone and start from scratch. Every other email provider is working fine, this is restricted to Comcast only.

- I had a similar problem with Comcast accounts about a year ago, but it went away.

 

 

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@jeffweaver25 Just to confirm ,the issue is on a single device intermittently using a comcast.net account(s)? Also, this is only happening on the one specific device and not any others? if so, that would mean its a device specific issue. Do you happen to know if the phone and/or app is fully updated? Would you happen to know the version of the outlook app? 

Only thing i was able to confirm on my end was that the server did receive bad authentication attempts. So the app did have the wrong password on quite a few occasions. Why it woud have a bad password even though you entered it correctly, Comcast would not be able to identify as it is a third party software. 

Good afternoon, I hope I'm not intruding on the thread but as you can see from the posts, this is affecting multiple people, multiple accounts, and mutiple phones.  One comcast email account works on my phone while another doesn't.  This morning, a second account stopped working and somehow I have managed to get the first working again.  The Android Outlook app does not have the abiltiy to adjust authentication settings other than User/Password/IMAP Server/SMTP Server/ and the ports that these sevices use.  By default, Android fills in the User with the email address so I question if it should have the @comcast.net for the user or not and I'm not certain it is picking the correct ports.

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@DrSmith wrote:

Good afternoon, I hope I'm not intruding on the thread but as you can see from the posts, this is affecting multiple people, multiple accounts, and mutiple phones.  One comcast email account works on my phone while another doesn't.  This morning, a second account stopped working and somehow I have managed to get the first working again.  The Android Outlook app does not have the abiltiy to adjust authentication settings other than User/Password/IMAP Server/SMTP Server/ and the ports that these sevices use.  By default, Android fills in the User with the email address so I question if it should have the @comcast.net for the user or not and I'm not certain it is picking the correct ports.

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@DrSmith I understand that, but again i would like to know app versions/OS versions to see if there is any correlation. While i understand the issue, Comcast unfortunately doesn't maintenance external third party software. Our server when it comes to authenticating an email service/software is a mere keyhole. A triangle fits into the triangle keyhole, but email clients have the whole gamut of shapes of keys(square, octagon, triangle, circle, etc.);. Which authentication key it decides to use is not up to the Comcast server. In your case i can also confirm that our server is seeing attempts that are failing authentication. To note, username is a reference to just the first portion without the @comcast.net. When it refers to email its with the @comcast.net

My device is a Samsung S8 (SM-G950U), with all updates applied. I am running the latest version of Outlook (4.1.37) available from the Google Play store.

If you are seeing invalid authentication attempts, that's interesting. Do you have any visibility to what device (MAC address maybe, or OS) those attempts are coming from. I've been trying multiple devices, and I also reset my password at one point. I'm not sure why Outlook would corrupt a userid/password only for Comcast accounts, or why re-entering the information would not work (and takes a very long time to respond). Yet, several hours later it does work (and responds in a reasonable amount of time). Usually, when it works, it is after I switch networks (see more discussion below) - for example going from work to home, or home to work.

Sometimes, when we see 'abberant' behavior like this, it is caused by a server that needs attention. A database (like my email) will usually have many servers sitting in front of it (for load balancing, regional performance,  and scaling) and the 'luck of the draw' can cause these kinds of abberant symptoms. Or put another way, the address imap.comcast.net is directed to one of many servers in a probably "random" way. Replicated databases can also cause similar issues.

At the moment, everything is working because I was able to (again) enter the exact same credentials and parameters and it just worked.  To the person who isn't having such luck, try moving to a different wi-fi network, or connect via your wireless service.  (This is usually how I get  my email reconnected). If it's a specific Comcast server, doing this will often force you to a different server since many network appliances use a hash based on where you are coming from to assign you to a server.

This problem started for me last night. I have 2 Xfinity email accounts under Outlook on my Google Pixel phone and Samsung tablet. On both devices, email account #1 will not authenticate. I changed the email password on Xfinity, uninstalled Outlook on the devices, reinstalled, etc. Nothing I do will allow that particular account to be set up and authenticated. All was well until last night. I dislike using Xfinity webmail, but that seems to be the work around for now.

I am also having problems with 2 email address. I am using a Samsung S10 and also tried to on a desktop. I have not received any emails for the last 2 days. I tried calling but the wait time is more than 1.5hrs. Is there a known issue at this point??

I tried adding the affected email address to Outlook last night and it worked and is still working this morning. I too moved everything to the Google Mail app and both Xfinity email addresses work there. 

Tried Outlook (version 4.1.48 (200251) again this morning "The connection was lost. Please try again later. If the problem persists, please contact customer service (702)." BTW... my last Outlook update on the Android was 2-days ago (just about when this started happening). Anon18660

Same issue here, but today is the first day for my problem

Using Outlook for Android (V4.1.48)

Samsung Note 9

Android Version 10

The home computer, other android email apps work fine.  This seems to be an Outlook problem.

No way to get Outlook for android to find my account.  Says the email or password are incorrect.

Two other comcast email accounts on my phone are working, only my primary account is having issues as of this morning.

Reset, Changed Password, Reset accounts - No Luck - Fun, Fun, Fun

Nothing new to add here other than to add my name to the growing list with this problem.

In addition to inability to connect, I've been getting frequent security locks from Xfinity requiring me to constantly reset my pw.  I have resent my pw about 5 times in the last 4 weeks and I've had this account for over 10 years with no issue.

Connectivity via Android is an additional frustration.

@jcgeneral feel free to PM me any information you may have, but from what i see our system is forcing you to reset your password because you are logging in from 5+ countries simultaneously. Are you by chance using a VPN when signing into your email?