Tools

Unable to Save the Incoming Email Configuration after updating to Web Help Desk 12.8.8 and above

The issue occurs after upgrading to version 12.8.8 and there are emails in the Inbox folder of the email account. When clicking the Save button, the Confirm Email Setting pops-up but you won't be able to click to confirm the setting.

First published date

3/2/2026 9:18 PM

Last published date

5/8/2026 2:25 PM

Overview

When saving the configuration for incoming and outgoing email accounts, the confirmation email settings pop-up appears, but the changes are not saved. This also occurs with the AD/LDAP connection settings, where the changes made are not being saved. This can occur after upgrading to version 12.8.8 or later.

In the logs, you will see:

2026-02-24 05:36:34.166 [https-jsse-nio-443-exec-9]  WARN c.s.w.s.SymetricCryptoManager - Problem while decrypting string: {AES}3uH0C-pM1hbCgxjMOXkOXBMohY0JU5O3IQ6YEBUzTmI with algorythm: AES
com.solarwinds.whd.symmetric.SymetricCryptoProviderIncorectInputException: Problem with decryption
    at com.solarwinds.whd.symmetric.AESGCMSymetricCryptoProvider.decrypt(AESGCMSymetricCryptoProvider.java:123)
    at com.solarwinds.whd.symmetric.SymetricCryptoManager.decrypt(SymetricCryptoManager.java:130)
    at com.solarwinds.whd.symmetric.SymetricCryptoManager.decryptIfEncrypted(SymetricCryptoManager.java:61)

Product section

Web Help Desk

Cause

The password encryption algorithm has been updated starting with version 12.8.8. If the Web Help Desk was previously upgraded to version 12.8.5 and the migration.bat script was not run, the passwords for the incoming and outgoing email account stored in the database are still using the old encryption algorithm. The same occurs with the AD/LDAP connection password. This prevents the passwords from being updated. This article provides a way to update the passwords and to use the new encryption algorithm.

Resolution

  1. In the incoming/outgoing email accounts or the AD/LDAP connection settings, clear the passwords in the UI
  2. Click Save. You will get a notification that you need to enter a password, but ignore it.
  3. After clicking Save, log out of the Web Help Desk UI and log back in
  4. You may verify the password column in the email_account, smtp_server and/or ldap_connection tables if they were cleared or nulled
  5. Re-enter the password again in the incoming/outgoing email accounts and/or AD/LDAP connection, and Save
  6. Verify the password column in the email_account, smtp_server, and/or ldap_connection tables if they are now filled with the password with the newer encryption algorithm. (usually it would start with {AES-with long characters}
  7. The passwords should now work, and no error displays when clicking save.