Office 365 SMTP authentication failing, even with correct account information

Anonymous
2020-02-10T16:38:43+00:00

On my Wordpress site I've run into a problem in the last day or so, where emails simply fail to send. Before today it was running flawlessly for two months. The account information/password/username etc have not changed in that two months.

I'm using a Wordpress plugin called WP Mail SMTP to facilitate the sending of all outgoing emails. The error log I'm getting from the email test on that is as follows:

Versions:

WordPress: 5.3.2

WordPress MS: No

PHP: 7.3.14-5+0~20200202.52+debian9~1.gbpa71879

WP Mail SMTP: 1.8.1

Params:

Mailer: smtp

Constants: No

ErrorInfo: SMTP Error: Could not authenticate.

Host: smtp.office365.com

Port: 587

SMTPSecure: tls

SMTPAutoTLS: bool(true)

SMTPAuth: bool(true)

Server:

OpenSSL: OpenSSL 1.1.1d 10 Sep 2019

SMTP Debug:

2020-02-10 16:36:56 Connection: opening to smtp.office365.com:587, timeout=300, options=array ()

2020-02-10 16:36:56 Connection: opened

2020-02-10 16:36:56 SERVER -> CLIENT: 220 LNXP123CA0008.outlook.office365.com Microsoft ESMTP MAIL Service ready at Mon, 10 Feb 2020 16:36:55 +0000

2020-02-10 16:36:56 CLIENT -> SERVER: EHLO www.*****.com

2020-02-10 16:36:56 SERVER -> CLIENT: 250-LNXP123CA0008.outlook.office365.com Hello [***]250-SIZE 157286400250-PIPELINING250-DSN250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES250-STARTTLS250-8BITMIME250-BINARYMIME250-CHUNKING250 SMTPUTF8

2020-02-10 16:36:56 CLIENT -> SERVER: STARTTLS

2020-02-10 16:36:56 SERVER -> CLIENT: 220 2.0.0 SMTP server ready

2020-02-10 16:36:56 CLIENT -> SERVER: EHLO www.zestpromotional.com

2020-02-10 16:36:56 SERVER -> CLIENT: 250-LNXP123CA0008.outlook.office365.com Hello [***]250-SIZE 157286400250-PIPELINING250-DSN250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES250-AUTH LOGIN XOAUTH2250-8BITMIME250-BINARYMIME250-CHUNKING250 SMTPUTF8

2020-02-10 16:36:56 CLIENT -> SERVER: AUTH LOGIN

2020-02-10 16:36:56 SERVER -> CLIENT: 334 VXNlcm5hbWU6

2020-02-10 16:36:56 CLIENT -> SERVER: c2FsZXNAemVzdHByb21vdGlvbmFsLmNvbQ==

2020-02-10 16:36:56 SERVER -> CLIENT: 334 UGFzc3dvcmQ6

2020-02-10 16:36:56 CLIENT -> SERVER: QmFkMzM4MzA=

2020-02-10 16:37:02 SERVER -> CLIENT: 535 5.7.3 Authentication unsuccessful [LNXP123CA0008.GBRP123.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM]

2020-02-10 16:37:02 SMTP ERROR: Password command failed: 535 5.7.3 Authentication unsuccessful [LNXP123CA0008.GBRP123.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM]

SMTP Error: Could not authenticate.

2020-02-10 16:37:02 CLIENT -> SERVER: QUIT

2020-02-10 16:37:02 SERVER -> CLIENT: 221 2.0.0 Service closing transmission channel

2020-02-10 16:37:02 Connection: closed

SMTP Error: Could not authenticate.

Does anyone have any ideas at all? I'm completely at a loss here.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Subscription, account, billing | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-07-06T16:16:02+00:00

    "...and at the least have a clear spot in azure admin to toggle SmtpClientAuthenticationDisable "

    Dead right Anthony Gentile_FUB.

    When I read that new tenants - and probably tenants that up until now have not used it - were to have Basic Authentication disabled for SMTP, I assumed that MSFT would at least make it relatively simple to re-enable it.

    Timme B81 has done us all a great favour in demonstrating how to do it. Many thanks.

    Perhaps MSFT do not realise the scale and disruption of forcing a conversion from SMTP Basic Authentication to Oauth2 in this way. And they haven't - and probably won't - produce a PHP version of MSAL, and that screws up the large number of apps (from the simple Contact form upwards) that email out of PHP on an Apache or similar back-end.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-07-06T11:57:19+00:00

    Thanks for digging into this.

    It is frustrating as on the application development side, to get announcements like these https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/exchange-team-blog/announcing-oauth-2-0-support-for-imap-and-smtp-auth-protocols-in/ba-p/1330432

    And then to move forward with implementation and getting customers through any friction with admin consent and then to discover that old accounts will respect the OAuth SMTP scope grant, but new ones won't because of this setting.

    From a consumer perspective, they've authorized it and in many cases an admin has granted approval for the application only to still have it not work for some hard to know reason (this setting).

    The OAuth grant should allow for SMTP, and at the least have a clear spot in azure admin to toggle SmtpClientAuthenticationDisable .

    As an application developer, I must say that the experience with conflicting, unclear documentation and the UX/UI of the admin portals have been the biggest challenge in interfacing with OAuth setup.

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-06-26T09:09:44+00:00

    @all i think this ist the solution:

    I had the same Problems, old offic365 accounts work, new accounts did not work. After searching for 5 hours i get a solution:

    In the old accounts SmtpClientAuthenticationDisabled is false by default on online Exchange, in the new accounts it is True by default.

    I had to set it to false by exchange online powershell and also hat do go to e-mail-apps and set the hook to authenticated smtp

    after that it worked. Here you can read what is to do by exchange powershell:

    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/clients-and-mobile-in-exchange-online/authenticated-client-smtp-submission

    Steps in Powershell:

    $UserCredential = Get-Credential

    $Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://outlook.office365.com/powershell-liveid/ -Credential $UserCredential -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection

    Import-PSSession $Session -DisableNameChecking

    Take a look if it is True: Get-TransportConfig  (if there is True set to false)

    Set-TransportConfig -SmtpClientAuthenticationDisabled $false

    Take a look again if it works: Get-TransportConfig

    Remove-PSSession $Session

    In Admin Center --> acitve Users --> click the user --> email-apps --> click the hook --> authenticated smtp

    With this combination it worked for me. Hope this can help you all

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-06-25T17:28:48+00:00

    Same issue here. We've got a phone server sending VM's to email using SMTP. We have successfully tested authenticating through OWA, but VM to email is no longer working. Has anyone made any progress on this?

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-06-22T17:44:35+00:00

    On my Wordpress site I've run into a problem in the last day or so, where emails simply fail to send. Before today it was running flawlessly for two months. The account information/password/username etc have not changed in that two months.

    I'm using a Wordpress plugin called WP Mail SMTP to facilitate the sending of all outgoing emails. The error log I'm getting from the email test on that is as follows:

    Versions:

    WordPress: 5.3.2

    WordPress MS: No

    PHP: 7.3.14-5+0~20200202.52+debian9~1.gbpa71879

    WP Mail SMTP: 1.8.1

    Params:

    Mailer: smtp

    Constants: No

    ErrorInfo: SMTP Error: Could not authenticate.

    Host: smtp.office365.com

    Port: 587

    SMTPSecure: tls

    SMTPAutoTLS: bool(true)

    SMTPAuth: bool(true)

    Server:

    OpenSSL: OpenSSL 1.1.1d 10 Sep 2019

    SMTP Debug:

    2020-02-10 16:36:56 Connection: opening to smtp.office365.com:587, timeout=300, options=array ()

    2020-02-10 16:36:56 Connection: opened

    2020-02-10 16:36:56 SERVER -> CLIENT: 220 LNXP123CA0008.outlook.office365.com Microsoft ESMTP MAIL Service ready at Mon, 10 Feb 2020 16:36:55 +0000

    2020-02-10 16:36:56 CLIENT -> SERVER: EHLO www.*****.com

    2020-02-10 16:36:56 SERVER -> CLIENT: 250-LNXP123CA0008.outlook.office365.com Hello [***]250-SIZE 157286400250-PIPELINING250-DSN250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES250-STARTTLS250-8BITMIME250-BINARYMIME250-CHUNKING250 SMTPUTF8

    2020-02-10 16:36:56 CLIENT -> SERVER: STARTTLS

    2020-02-10 16:36:56 SERVER -> CLIENT: 220 2.0.0 SMTP server ready

    2020-02-10 16:36:56 CLIENT -> SERVER: EHLO www.zestpromotional.com

    2020-02-10 16:36:56 SERVER -> CLIENT: 250-LNXP123CA0008.outlook.office365.com Hello [***]250-SIZE 157286400250-PIPELINING250-DSN250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES250-AUTH LOGIN XOAUTH2250-8BITMIME250-BINARYMIME250-CHUNKING250 SMTPUTF8

    2020-02-10 16:36:56 CLIENT -> SERVER: AUTH LOGIN

    2020-02-10 16:36:56 SERVER -> CLIENT: 334 VXNlcm5hbWU6

    2020-02-10 16:36:56 CLIENT -> SERVER: c2FsZXNAemVzdHByb21vdGlvbmFsLmNvbQ==

    2020-02-10 16:36:56 SERVER -> CLIENT: 334 UGFzc3dvcmQ6

    2020-02-10 16:36:56 CLIENT -> SERVER: QmFkMzM4MzA=

    2020-02-10 16:37:02 SERVER -> CLIENT: 535 5.7.3 Authentication unsuccessful [LNXP123CA0008.GBRP123.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM]

    2020-02-10 16:37:02 SMTP ERROR: Password command failed: 535 5.7.3 Authentication unsuccessful [LNXP123CA0008.GBRP123.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM]

    SMTP Error: Could not authenticate.

    2020-02-10 16:37:02 CLIENT -> SERVER: QUIT

    2020-02-10 16:37:02 SERVER -> CLIENT: 221 2.0.0 Service closing transmission channel

    2020-02-10 16:37:02 Connection: closed

    SMTP Error: Could not authenticate.

    Does anyone have any ideas at all? I'm completely at a loss here.

    I am experiencing the same issue.

    I tried setting up the Outlook Web App and Outlook Desktop and it works in both, yet when I try to send a test email from Wordpress or dotnet core I get the same error.

    Another thing I tried was using port 25 and didn't work either.

    The account has access to all mail apps:

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