IMAP is not working correctly on Outlook Office365. Error: "User is authenticated but not connected"

Anonymous
2019-04-01T17:16:04+00:00

Hello

Since a couple of weeks I get the problem that IMAP services are not working correctly.

Problem:

I have a GMail client on an Android phone, and a Thunderbird client. Both using IMAP to reach my emails.

From time to time the IMAP service responds with the error "User is authenticated but not connected" and denies the synchronization of the emails, for around 15-30 minutes. In this time I can not access nor answer my emails from the clients.

I have tried from mobilenet and from fix wifi, but I get the same results. So it is independent from the connection.

I have found some hints that this is due to the "chatty client policy" of the cloud.

However this is not an excuse. I need my two clients for work, and I have a business package.

How can I overcome this problem?

Thank you in advance.

r

Outlook | Windows | Classic Outlook for Windows | For home

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-05-14T10:26:16+00:00

    I am experiencing the same problem described in this post. 

    Any chance for publicly available solution/hint/workaround for this?

    thanks,

    Artur

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-05-14T12:06:34+00:00

    Hi Artur,

    The problem has still not been solved.

    I was told to create a service request via Office 365 admin center.

    This ticket is currently in the system, but did not received any answer.

    I will post back if there is any information.

    Regards,

    Robert

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-05-14T13:25:27+00:00

    That would be great, thanks.

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  4. Anonymous
    2019-05-17T09:31:26+00:00

    Is this ticket available anywhere publicly to see the progress/participate in the discussion?

    I mean I would think this should be a pretty straight forward for an engineer to answer the question what is causing this particular message to occur?

    This is a bit frustrating.

    Thanks

    Artur

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  5. Anonymous
    2019-05-17T16:45:09+00:00

    Hi Artur,

    No I do not think so. It is on the Admin Center.

    However I am frustrated as well, because I did not got any answer yet.

    I tell you my educated best guess, which might not be true:

    There is a policy in place to prevent repetitive or "stress" usage of the IMAP interface. It is there to protect the cloud from the users. (see problems with Office365 cloud earlier in the news...)

    This might effect some users, might effect all users, might depend on your users behavior. (e.g. coming on black list because you logged in too many times, and had "bad" behavior earlier, and you will be handled in a more stricter manner.)

    If you do something "wrong" you get "banned" from IMAP for a while...that is the reason why I can not login for a certain time.

    What I have tried is, that I have reduced the number of threads used by the client to 1. In Thunderbird it is in the server settings under advanced and it is called "Maximum number of server connections to cache" you will find it in your client for sure. This seemed to help a little, but I work mostly from "any" place, which means I use mobile net a lot, which reconnect to the GMS network often (because I move, because whatever reasons), so I get every time a new IP address, so the client logs in again, so the cloud sees I am logging in from many places, which they might interpret as "bad" behavior, and "ban" me...

    On strong internet connections like a good business line it is less frequent that I get banned. Earlier it was never happening, but currently it happens from time to time. Which suggest to me that there is a difference between user and user.

    In my team none has this problem, but I have a huge amount of mails, so the IMAP synchronization has something to do, it is not just a "nothing new? OK..." check. On my test accounts which I have let created for me, I experience this problem as well, but only if do generate a a lot of emails into different IMAP folders and give the synchronization something to do...

    I suggest to try the number of connections first...maybe that is enough in your case.

    Please give a feedback what was your result...I am curious.

    And In the meantime if I get some answers on the Admin Center I will provide you that as well.

    Regards,

    Robert

    PS: Of course none of my other email providers which I use over IMAP,  -- and where I also have quite a big amount of emails -- has ever produced this problem...so it is exclusively Office365 specific.

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