AOL Changing Sign-in on October 20, 2020

[Nikon54]

I received an email from AOL about using 3rd party apps as follows:

We’ve noticed that you’re using non-AOL applications (such as third-party email, calendar, or contact applications) that may use a less secure sign-in method. To protect you and your data, AOL will no longer support the current sign-in functionality in your application starting on October 20, 2020. This means that you will need to take one of the steps below to continue using your AOL Mail without interruption.

Option 1: We recommend that you access your mail using our free AOL app for iOS and Android or simply go to mail.aol.com to access AOL Mail on the web.

Option 2: Keep your current, non-AOL app, BUT follow a few steps to get it to sync with our secure sign-in method. The steps vary across different email applications, but in most cases, you will have to remove your AOL account from the app and then add it back again to update sign-in security.

Option 3: You can generate a one-time, unique password that will allow you to sign in to your account using your non-AOL email application. Once created, this password will continue to allow your app to securely sync your AOL email unless you sign out (or are signed out) from your app. You can find instructions on how to do this here.

If you want more details on these changes, please visit our help page. If you’ve already taken action, we’d like to think you haven’t read this far, but if you have... we appreciate the diligence!

Did anyone else get this and have you done any of the above steps? Which option works best with AquaMail?

TIA!

[Radoslav Stoyanov]

Hey,

Yeah, we are getting some complaints recently about this.
It seems like all AOL users who use third-party apps received this notice, judging by all of the forum posts on AOL's forum. AOL is changing their security and account measures for further security.
As of now it is not needed to do anything from our side, our AOL users must remove their existing AOL Account and re-add it using their new app password in order to have their accounts setup properly and for it to be used after October 20th.

To do so, please follow these steps:

• Open your AOL account in a browser
• Tap/Click the options tab in the right upper corner
• Go to Account Info (you may need to allow the website to open pop-ups)
• Then go to Account Security > Scroll down to and Tap/Click on "Generate app password"
• In the next windows Tap/Click the drop-down > Select Other App
• Enter Custom Name: Aqua Mail (Of your choice) > Generate
• The app specific password is available in the next window > type it in when adding the AOL account in Aqua Mail

If you have any further questions, feel free to ask here or at support /at/ aqua-mail /dot/ com

Cheers,
Radoslav

[mikeone]

Hi Radoslov,

This information would certainly be useful to include on the app's FAQ page, right?

https://www.aqua-mail.com/faq

Have a great day!
Mike

[snowjn]

Any chance you'll support Oauth2 for AOL?  I know it's supported because I have used it via Thunderbird on the desktop.

[tommyt]

I just went through the motions with this and discovered that, after deleting my one Yahoo account (a Verizon/AOL concern), then going back to create it in Aqua (Pro), there is a Yahoo branded selection, which I used, and used my previous current account password, successfully setting up the account again. I had an "app password" from Yahoo ready to go, but didn't expect there to be a Yahoo branded selection and entry page, or for my established password to work to create a "new" account on this 3rd party app (Aqua Mail). Maybe things will change on Tuesday (Oct. 20). At this point it's wait and see. Not too much info here on the forum about it, strangely.

[tommyt]

Here we are on the 20th, and I haven't seen any issues with Aqua Mail and my Yahoo account. Didn't use an app password; just removed and added back the account. I kind of wish I had waited, left it alone, and saw if anything adverse happened. There is the possibility that there's a specific time today they consider the deadline, but in the US even in the Pacific time zone it's definitely Oct. 20.

[Radoslav Stoyanov]

Here we are on the 20th, and I haven't seen any issues with Aqua Mail and my Yahoo account. Didn't use an app password; just removed and added back the account. I kind of wish I had waited, left it alone, and saw if anything adverse happened. There is the possibility that there's a specific time today they consider the deadline, but in the US even in the Pacific time zone it's definitely Oct. 20.

Hey Tommy,
Thanks for the information that you have given us, hopefully it helps some of our other users.

[tommyt]

Latest observations:

Yesterday, Oct. 26, on an LG phone where I'm running its native email app, I attempted opening up that mail app and was prompted that my Yahoo password had changed and that I needed to do something about it. It was indeed a need for the app password!

I went to a PC and to my Yahoo account's webmail access, and when I got to the area to generate an app password (focusing on this LG device's native email app), I was surprised to see an entry for Aqua Mail (as if a password had been generated for it), as I had not performed that operation. However, I had removed and re-added this Yahoo account to Aqua Mail on a different device, and in Aqua Mail had encountered a Yahoo-branded sign-in, where I simply added my existing known personally chosen password (this was a couple of days before Oct. 20).

In the Yahoo listing for the generated app passwords, for Aqua Mail, it showed that the password had not yet been used! So I've no idea what that's referring to or how it came to be. Aqua Mail is continuing to fetch email for this Yahoo account with no issues. I'll post if anything else happens.