Setting up Comcast email in an Android client

[Adam H. Kerman]

I had to swap out my mother's LG cell phone with the Samsung Galaxy A32,
T-Mobile's 5G promotion to convince their stockholders that there truly
is demand for 5G and all the monies they spent re-equipping was worth
it.

I tried using the Samsung email client for her Comcast email account. I
verified that I was using the correct credentials as I was able to reach
her mailbox using an email client from the Linux command line with the
same credentials.

The Samsung email client supports IMAP, although it doesn't state IMAP4.

Nothing would authenticate. Calling Comcast's unhelpful tech support,
after a long time, she tried to tell me that Comcast no longer supports
Android email clients. Huh? None of them? She wanted to assure me that
iOS email clients are supported.

As I wasn't using an iPhone, really not helpful in any way.

Then she tried to send me a URL of a Web page but the email message I
received had an HTML document attached that I didn't trust Comcast to
open, so I couldn't. She claimed she had no ability to send a URL as
plain text.

Yes, make fun of me for being a sucker expecting Comcast's tech support
to be helpful in any way.

Surely she lied and people have used Android clients for Comcast email?

Is this an XOAUTH2 thing? She claimed it wasn't expecting a token. I
don't recall if Comcast uses XOAUTH2.

[Retirednoguilt]

Did you try to follow the step by step in:

https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/android-configure-comcast-email

and if that fails, there's always the Adroid Xfinity Connect app.

[Adam H. Kerman]

Yes. I got to the Xfinity screen pictured in the document but it
wouldn't authenticate the credentials I submitted. I never got to the
secondary step in which a token is submitted or something.

>and if that fails, there's always the Adroid Xfinity Connect app.

As far as I can tell, the app gives me access to Web mail. I'm not
interested.

[Retirednoguilt]

I'm a Comcast customer, and even though I don't use my Comcast e-mail
account, I have 2 old e-mails in my inbox from Comcast dating to when I
first obtained my Comcast account. With my Android wifi only tablet's
wifi off and airplane mode on, I was able to open the Xfinity connect
app, tap the e-mail tab on the left side of the screen and see my inbox
with both messages there. I could then tap either message and the
entire message displayed, just as it does for my other e-mail accounts
that I access using the Android e-mail app.

I'm quite familiar with web mail. In fact, when in-town, that's my
usual way of reading/sending e-mail. All my e-mail accounts can be
accessed web based via any browser when logged into a wifi signal. None
of those accounts can be accessed much less read when I'm off line.

Doesn't seem to me that the Xfinity Connect app provides a "web mail"
user interface. Once on the email tab of the Xfinity Commnect app, the
user interface is very similar to the android e-mail interface - at
least on my Samsung tablet.

[R.P. McMurphy]

On 7/28/21 9:03 AM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
> I had to swap out my mother's LG cell phone with the Samsung Galaxy A32,
> T-Mobile's 5G promotion to convince their stockholders that there truly
> is demand for 5G and all the monies they spent re-equipping was worth
> it.
>
> I tried using the Samsung email client for her Comcast email account. I
> verified that I was using the correct credentials as I was able to reach
> her mailbox using an email client from the Linux command line with the
> same credentials.
>

FWIW...

moto g power on xfinity wireless

using the gmail client to retrieve from imap.comcast.net is working just fine here.

[Frank]

Been a couple of years but I had no problem setting up my Android tablet
to get Comcast email.

[Adam H. Kerman]

Ok. That does't exactly tell me that it's not a Web interface.

>I'm quite familiar with web mail. In fact, when in-town, that's my
>usual way of reading/sending e-mail. All my e-mail accounts can be
>accessed web based via any browser when logged into a wifi signal. None
>of those accounts can be accessed much less read when I'm off line.

Ok. I use IMAP for that purpose as I don't archive Mail messages on a
local computer.

[Bears]

It's a web app if it uses something like Firefox or Chrome? maybe.
This is a web app for xfinity:
https://connect.xfinity.com/appsuite/
Does this page look like what the android connect app looks like?

>> I'm quite familiar with web mail. In fact, when in-town, that's my
>> usual way of reading/sending e-mail. All my e-mail accounts can be
>> accessed web based via any browser when logged into a wifi signal. None
>> of those accounts can be accessed much less read when I'm off line.
>
> Ok. I use IMAP for that purpose as I don't archive Mail messages on a
> local computer.
>
>> Doesn't seem to me that the Xfinity Connect app provides a "web mail"
>> user interface. Once on the email tab of the Xfinity Commnect app, the
>> user interface is very similar to the android e-mail interface - at
>> least on my Samsung tablet.

--
Linux Mint Cinnamon 20.1 64bit, Dell Inspiron 5570 laptop
Quad Core i7-8550U, 16G Memory, 512G SSD, 750G & 1TB HDDs

[Tekkie©]

On Wed, 28 Jul 2021 13:03:07 -0000 (UTC), Adam H. Kerman posted for all of us
to digest...

>
> I tried using the Samsung email client for her Comcast email account. I
> verified that I was using the correct credentials as I was able to reach
> her mailbox using an email client from the Linux command line with the
> same credentials.
>
> The Samsung email client supports IMAP, although it doesn't state IMAP4.
>
> Nothing would authenticate. Calling Comcast's unhelpful tech support,
> after a long time, she tried to tell me that Comcast no longer supports
> Android email clients. Huh? None of them? She wanted to assure me that
> iOS email clients are supported.
>

Baloney, I have a A50 IIRC and the client can access it fine. However it never
really syncs up correctly with the folders. It does display new email. I think
my wife has an A32 but I never tried email on hers.

I don't like email on phones so I don't don't use it much. If I do I just use
the web-mail. That sucks on a phone too as the k/b covers the message and I
never know where the cursor is.

I don't know if I EVER got a useful response from their tech support. I usually
blunder onto a fix myself or someone here; like you.

--
Tekkie

[Nil]

On 28 Jul 2021, "Adam H. Kerman" <a...@chinet.com> wrote in
alt.online-service.comcast:

> Surely she lied and people have used Android clients for Comcast
> email?
>
> Is this an XOAUTH2 thing? She claimed it wasn't expecting a token.
> I don't recall if Comcast uses XOAUTH2.

All I can say is that I can and have been doing Comcast IMAP email
using Bluemail and K-9 email for a long time with no problems.

I have noticed in the past that Comcast may have had more than one help
page for email settings, and they don't always agree with each other.