Microsoft 365 (Thunderbird) - Configure Modern Authentication

1. Launch Thunderbird to bring up the main Thunderbird interface.
2. If you have other accounts configured, you can navigate here by clicking on Local Folders on the left-hand side. Select Email under the Setup Another Account section in the main window.
   • ! Important ! If you have any files stored locally, it is highly recommended to back them up before attempting modern authentication.
     • Microsoft 365 - Email backup strategies
     • Profiles - Where Thunderbird stores your messages and other user data
3. On the Mail Account Setup window, enter information into the available fields as follows:
   • Your name: Your name as you'd like it to appear
   • Email Address:
     • NetID Account: Enter netid@wisc.edu 
     • Service Account: Enter username_domain@wisc.edu
       • For example, if your username was helpdesk-team-kb and the domain was doit, you'd type helpdesk-kb-team_doit@wisc.edu
       • For multi-level domains, name@domain1.domain2.wisc.edu, use the following format: name_domain1.domain2@wisc.edu

   • Important: do not enter in your password on this login screen. Only enter your email address and name.

   • Note: If you don't know whether you are attempting to configure a NetID account or a Service account, please contact your domain administrator.

   
4. Click Continue
5. Thunderbird should automatically discover IMAP as the available configuration and fill in the server settings necessary for your account:
   • Incoming
   • Outgoing
   • Username
   
6. Click Done to confirm the creation of your account. You will be prompted to complete Two Factor Authentication. Complete this to continue.
7. For a service account, you will need to enter username_domain as the NetID (example: kb-helpdesk-team_doit), and you will need a password. If the service account does not have a password, you can request one at Microsoft 365 - Reset Service Account Password .
   
8. A window will pop up with a Permissions Request. Click Accept.
   
9. Click Finish.
   

If you are experiencing the issues after the above configuration attempt, use the following steps to verify that your server settings are correct. You will most likely not need go through these steps because these settings should be the default.

1. Navigate to Account Settings > Server Settings > Security Settings > Authentication Method and select OAuth2 from the Authentication Method dropdown.
   
2. Navigate to Outgoing Server on the bottom of the left-hand panel of the account settings screen.
3. Select the University of Wisconsin M365 smtp server and click edit on the righthand side
   
4. Change the Authentication method to OAuth2  to the following and then click OK:
   • Description: University of Wisconsin M365 (wisc.edu)
   • Server Name: smtp.office365.com
   • Port: 587 (default)
   • User Name: your username
   • Authentication Method: OAuth2
   • Connection Security: STARTTLS
5. Now, when you attempt to view your inbox, instead of being prompted for your password by Thunderbird, you will be redirected to authenticate through Duo.
6. After authenticating in step 5, the setup is complete. Email data will take some time to sync. BE PATIENT.

You can get to the configuration settings by:

1. Click Tools on the top menu bar (or the key combination ALT+T)
2. Click Account Settings

• Reconfigure folder mapping:

  Clients configured using Microsoft Exchange protocol use different folders for some of the primary mail folders. For consistency, we highly recommend that you configure Thunderbird to use these same folders. This will make it less confusing if you also use the web client for Microsoft 365 or a different desktop client that is using the Exchange protocol.

  1. Right-click on your Microsoft 365 account and select "Subscribe..." from the drop-down menu.

     

  2. Place a check-mark within the box next to each of these folders: "Drafts | Deleted Items | Sent Items".
  3. Click Subscribe button.

     

  4. Click OK button.
  5. Right-click on your Microsoft 365 account and select "Settings..." from the drop-down menu.

     

  6. Under your Microsoft 365 account, select "Server Settings".
  7. Within 'Server Settings | When I delete a message' section, select "Move it to this folder:" and use the text box next to this setting to select the "Deleted Items" folder.

     

  8. Under your Microsoft 365 account, select "Copies & Folders".
  9. Within 'When sending messages, automatically | Place a copy in:' section, select "Other" and use the text box next to this setting to select the "Sent Items" folder within your Microsoft 365 account.

     

  10. Make sure "Drafts" folder is selected within your Microsoft 365 account under 'Drafts and Templates'.

      

  11. Click the OK button.
  12. Restart Thunderbird
• Disable the adaptive junk mail controls:

  Microsoft 365 server side junk/spam filtering is already enabled for all Microsoft 365 accounts.

  1. Right click on the email address you just configured in the left-hand pane.
  2. Click on Settings.
  3. Click Junk Settings from the left-hand option pane.

  4. 

  5. Uncheck the box for Enable adaptive junk mail controls for this account.

  6. 

  7. Click the OK button.

• Thunderbird cannot access the Microsoft 365 Global Address List (GAL): Microsoft 365 - Getting Started with the Global Address List (GAL)

• Use these instructions to configure the Campus Directory (Whitepages): Directory Search (Win) - Configure Thunderbird for White Pages