Always (99% of times) it reports "password is incorrect"

[Zoltan Fedor]

I'm using evolution-ews (3.6.1) to connect to MS Exchange but the problem is that frequently reports "password is incorrect" when in fact I entered the correct password.
I'm saying frequently, which means I need to try 40-50 times to get in once. I don't really get a feel of what is changing when it let's me in. I need to restart Evolution many times and try the password many times and once it just works.

If I connect to https://[server]/EWS/Exchange.asmx directly from the browser, then I have no problem authenticating.

I have tried EWS_DEBUG=2 evolution, but all I see that the SOAP request is sent and I receive "Unauthorized" as a response.

Below are the debug details (I have shortened the SyncState hash in the xml):

The request headers
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:SOAP-ENC="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"><SOAP-ENV:Header><types:RequestServerVersion xmlns:types="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types" Version="Exchange2007_SP1"/></SOAP-ENV:Header><SOAP-ENV:Body xmlns:messages="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/messages"><messages:SyncFolderHierarchy xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types"><messages:FolderShape><BaseShape>AllProperties</BaseShape></messages:FolderShape><messages:SyncState>H4sIAAAAAAAEAO29B2AcSZYlJi9tynt/SvVK1+B0oQiAYBMk2JBAEOzBiM3mkuwdaUcjKasqgcplVmVdZhZAzO2dvPfee+[phone]ujudTif33/8/XGZkAWz2zkrayZ4hgKrIHz9+fB8/In6NX+PX/TXoOfjF+w+P9+/d3znePnlwfLC9f3xyb/vJyZO.........</messages:SyncState></messages:SyncFolderHierarchy></SOAP-ENV:Body></SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

> POST /EWS/Exchange.asmx HTTP/1.1
> Soup-Debug-Timestamp: 1379683933
> Soup-Debug: SoupSessionAsync 1 (0x7fa3fcd69de0), ESoapMessage 1 (0x7fa3fc9d6610), SoupSocket 1 (0x7fa3a8008970)
> Host: amers1mail.erf.thomson.com
> User-Agent: Evolution/3.6.1
> Connection: Keep-Alive
> Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8
> Authorization: NTLM TlRMTVNTUAABAAAABYIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMAAAAAAAAAAwAAAA
>
> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
> <SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:SOAP-ENC="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"><SOAP-ENV:Header><types:RequestServerVersion xmlns:types="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types" Version="Exchange2007_SP1"/></SOAP-ENV:Header><SOAP-ENV:Body xmlns:messages="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/messages"><messages:SyncFolderHierarchy xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types"><messages:FolderShape><BaseShape>AllProperties</BaseShape></messages:FolderShape><messages:SyncState>H4sIAAAAAAAEAO29B2AcSZYlJi9tynt/SvVK1+B0oQiAYBMk2JBAEOzBiM3mkuwdaUcjKasqgcplVmVdZhZAzO2dvPfee+[phone]ujudTif33/8/XGZkAWz2zkrayZ4hgKrIHz9+fB8/In6NX+PX/TXoOfjF+w+P9+/d3znePnlwfLC9f3xyb/vJyZO......</messages:SyncState></messages:SyncFolderHierarchy></SOAP-ENV:Body></SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

< HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized
< Soup-Debug-Timestamp: 1379683933
< Soup-Debug: ESoapMessage 1 (0x7fa3fc9d6610)
< Server: Microsoft-IIS/7.5
< Set-Cookie: exchangecookie=f0237b50427446798fed0c798c11621f; expires=Sat, 20-Sep-2014 13:32:13 GMT; path=/; HttpOnly
< X-Powered-By: ASP.NET
< Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2013 13:32:12 GMT
< Content-Length: 0

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[tdelunel (tdelunel)]

Same problem for me.
Authentication is ok during the account creation.
But then it always say "password is incorrect".

[Jeroen (c0p3rn1c)]

When I restarted evolution, the problem went away.

[Abhishek L (abhishekl)]

Facing the same problem on trusty with evolution-ews. During startup authentication is correct, and new mails are recieved etc. however after 15 minutes or so it always pops up with the password is incorrect dialouge

[Elemer (elemer82)]

Ubuntu 14.04 with evolution and evolution-ews same here, also with evolution-mapi don't even let me finish the account adding process.

[reye (rtestacct)]

I run into this issue at least every day or so. I don't normally reboot my computer unless it is needed but through my troubleshooting this issue below is the behavior I have experienced.

When I first boot the computer (Ubuntu 14.04 64bit) and run evolution 3.10.4 using evolution-ews I am prompted for my password once. After that point it appears to be a random time until I am prompted for my password again, sometimes it won't be until the next day, sometimes a few hours later. If I enter my password (correctly) I am prompted that my password was incorrect and to re-enter it. Trying this a couple different times has not produced a different result.

All available patches have been installed. I typically install any patches when they become available.

On the back end:
The Exchange servers that I am connecting to are running Exchange 2010 SP3 RU4. I do have an Exchange 2013 CU 6 server that I just finished installing. I will try some tests pointing to that server to see if I notice any different behavior.

Mitigation steps:
I have tried a couple different things. So far the only one that seems to make a difference is reducing the "Check for New Mail every" to 1 minute (Edit > Preferences > Mail Accounts > [Account Name] > Click Edit button > Receiving Options).
This seems to add a day or so until I get prompted again.

Workaround steps:
I have found that when I start getting the password prompt that simply closing Evolution and re-opening doesn't cause the issue to go away. What I have found that seems to help hold it off for a while longer without having to reboot my computer is to follow the steps below:

1. Close Evolution and all child windows
2. Open Terminal
3. run the current process command and grep to search for any remaining evolution processes. for example:
     sudo ps aux | grep -i evolution
4. if prompted enter your workstation password
5. get the process ID for any remaining evolution process (usually there are 3 processes), the process ID is typically in the second column. 1917, 2018, and 2196 in the sample below.

    username 1917 0.0 1.6 1601936 30324 ? SLl 08:45 0:00 /usr/lib/evolution/evolution-source-registry
    username 2018 0.0 4.2 1682524 78880 ? Sl 08:45 0:00 /usr/lib/evolution/evolution-calendar-factory
    username 2196 0.0 1.6 915272 30928 ? Sl 08:46 0:00 /usr/lib/evolution/3.10/evolution-alarm-notify

6. To stop the processes run the kill command with -9 with each process ID separated by a space, for example:
     sudo kill -9 1917 2018 2196
7. if prompted enter your workstation password.
8. Restart Evolution.

Next troubleshooting steps:
Test by killing only one of the remaining processes at a time to see if the issue is related to only one or more.
Test with Exchange 2013 CU6

If I missed any details that would be helpful please let me know.

R E