[Alpine-info] ALPINE: [O365] Email Setup: Seems to be difficult

[Andrew C Aitchison]

Brian,

We share your frustration.

Sadly Google and Microsoft do not really wish to provide an IMAP service
- I don't think that Microsoft even provide an IMAP client for Windows any more.

Documenting how to set up either of the Microsoft mail services* is a
tedious and substantial piece of trial and error and our experience is
that it changes more frequently than we would like to repeat it.
Plus any existing settings - probably including some stored in the
web-browser - are likely to make the result different from a truly fresh
setup.

* Microsoft have two mail service with barely distinguishable names,
but if you ask their support for help for the wrong one there will
send you to the other one ...

Alpine follows the OAUTH2/XOAUTH2/OAUTHBEARER standards,
but they don't cover the whole process of getting and using tokens
to use Microsoft or Google (mail) services.

As a user, I avoid it by getting Gmail to forward my messages to
a sane email service and collect it from there.

Oh, IMAP is not insecure, but MS & G want you to use the same
authentication for all their services, ideally through a web-browser
and having two systems does present a bigger target,
especially if one is only used by a small number of people.
Given the effort they put into IMAP, they are probably correct
that using IMAP *to connect to their mail services* is less safe
than using their preferred connections.

I am sorry that I cannot give you more optimistic news.

On Sat, 23 Mar 2024, Brian S. Baker [VIA BBUS] wrote:


> I just wanted to post to the list to ask if there is any way to make

> it easier to set up alpine using office365 Email.  When I follow the

> instructions from:

> https://alpineapp.email/alpine/alpine-info/misc/SettingXOAUTH2Outlook.html

> I end up getting either an error, and I have to go to azure and mess

> around with codes and tokens, or I get a login screen that says to

> login, and it gives me a place to sign in and when I do I get the

> screen that tells me that I will be giving alpine permission to do

> [insert permissions that it says here] and I click OK.

>

> Then it tells me that alpine is logged in, and I can close the

> browser.  when I return to Alpine, I get the indication that I have

> a collection for Office 365 email, but when I go to "INBOX" there is

> NOTHING there. (Just a BLACK Screen, and it appears I am connected

> to my inbox, but can't see any mail in it.)

>

> Can someone Please tell me how to set this up so that it will work.

> I get the impression that Office 365 and Gmail believe that Alpine

> is apparently Unsafe, and gmail has blocked it, but in all my years

> of using PINE (3.89, 3.90, 3.91, 3.95, 3.96, and then Alpine 2.0,

> 2.23, 2.24) I have NEVER found it so difficult to set up IMAP Mail

> from either host.

>

> I have over 30 years of experience doing stuff on the internet, and

> providing computer tech support, helping those that need help with

> setup, and maintenance of PC's.  From 1993-2007, and from 2007-2018,

> I was a user and volunteer at Tallahassee Freenet, and used PINE for

> years: I was also a member of our Questions and Problems Aliases,

> and wrote helpfiles for our system.  I messed around with PINE, and

> was asked to write a helpfile for PINE, and that is how I became a

> member of TFN's Staff, and in 2007, was managing webpages for the

> site.  I now own buddy hyphen baker DOT com, DOT us, DOT ORG, DOT

> info as well as bbus.info - All because I had a dream that one day I

> would OWN my own domains, and my own server, inspired by my work

> with Tallahassee Freenet!

>

> I don't know if I am doing something wrong, but with all the POWER

> that you have in your hand, ALPINE, like its Sisters PICO and PINE

> have really come a long way, and it would be a SHAME if I could NOT

> use PINE from my shell: I do not run mail servers on my Linux

> machine, but I could do what I wanted to (accessing the mailservers

> through IMAP and ALPINE, before Microsoft was chosen by Godaddy to

> take care of the email for us.

>

> Can anyone assist me with this: It seems that people may think PINE

> and ALPINE are older technology, and they don't support anyone

> running their own machines.  It would be NICE to be able to login to

> my terminal and command "alpine" and be able to see my email on my

> linux server.

>

> Thanks,

>

> Brian

> XOAUTH2 Configuration<https://alpineapp.email/alpine/alpine-info/misc/SettingXOAUTH2Outlook.html>

> Information about XOAUTH2 configuration

> alpineapp.email

-- 
Andrew C. Aitchison                      Kendal, UK
                    andrew at aitchison.me.uk