Thunderbird Community Forum

Recently I posted about this problem here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1580858 In sum, I was having problems both in downloading messages from the Spectrum server and also with sending messages. I've attached screenshots of the error messages.

Matt and David kindly posted some helpful responses. The problem then seemed to spontaneously solve itself and I breathed a sigh of relief. Then a few days later it re-appeared.

This time it's not quite as bad in that I'll get the error messages but then usually a few minutes later I can download the messages or send an email. But it's still a real problem.

I called Spectrum again and this time the rep was adamant that if I can still use the Spectrum webmail feature (and I can), then it's not a Spectrum issue.

Last time Matt asked about my antivirus. I use Windows Defender (and occasionally do a manual scan with Malwarebytes free version), so if I understood him right, I should be OK as far as antivirus interference.

Matt also suggested I set TB so that I download messages at startup and every 15 minutes. I was set to every 10 minutes so I changed it to 15.

Matt said for me to check the Activity Manager. I've attached a screenshot of what that showed a few minutes ago. But I should note that this was after an error message displayed but my email downloaded anyway.

Finally, Matt said I should check the Error Console (Control + Shift +J). I've attached a screenshot of that. He also said I should use the trash can to clear it, so I did. He then said to press Shift + F5 to attempt to get my messages. But on my laptop, F5 just dims the display so no dice on that. But I have a second laptop and F5 is "neutral" on that one so I tried it there. I didn't get any new error message.

However, one of the screwy things is that sometimes I get all my messages as normal, but only after the "Can't connect to the server" message displays. And that's what happened with my second laptop above.

I hope I've provided better info. this time. And I hope you gents can help me with this mess.

Thanks,

Andrew

I have moved my Thunderbird data from drive C:\xxx\Thunderbird to N:\xxx\Thunderbird. The Thunderbird program remains on "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird" How do I tell Thunderbird to find its data on the N: drive?

     Thank you,    Art Lieberman

I'm trying to remove a couple accounts that I no longer use in Thunderbird. A window keeps popping up asking for a password, but the mail service is no longer available. When I click on the red delete button for that account, nothing happens. I've deleted all the mail in one of them which I was able to do as I thought I might need to do that first, but I still can't delete it after that. The other one won't even let me delete the emails. How do I delete these so I stop getting asked to put in a password for accounts that are no longer valid and I don't want anymore?

This only recently started happening. This has been tested on 3 different computers. Windows 10 Pro on all three.

With VPN on: Bluemail works fine.

Thunderbird can connect and download messages, but when I try to send a message, it gives an error.

With VPN off:

Bluemail and Thunderbird both work fine.

I have a lot of emails stored in different local folders. My search now hang. They go so far than just hang. Is there a way to rebuild the complete indexing for my thunderbird install?

I'm getting "Thunderbird can't connect to the server" message, so I can't download messages. However, a message or two will finally download 1-2 hours later.

Same problem on 2 laptops, both running Windows 11. But I know my emails are coming in as I can view them via Spectrum webmail. So the problem isn't the Spectrum servers.

I've logged out and back into Thunderbird, and have re-booted my laptops. No luck. What to do?

Also, is there a place to report problems directly to Thunderbird?

Thanks for any help.

I can receive outlook e-mail but I cannot send from Thunderbird. I am asked for a password for the specific Microsoft server. I enter my Microsoft account password but this does not work. Security setting is STARTTLS withNormal Password authentification. My other Thunderbird non-MS e-mails are problem free.

Since yesterday (27 Apr 2026) any and all mail that comes into Thunderbird gets marked as SPAM. I searched online and found people saying that I could reset the junk training filter, so I did this, but incoming mail was still marked as spam. The next suggestion was to delete the training.dat file. Did that, restarted Thunderbird and incoming messages are still marked as spam. The last suggestion was to turn off adaptive junk mail controls. Didn't want to do that because I assumed that it would let spam through. Nope. Turned it off, restarted Thunderbird and two emails from my work came in and got flagged.

I'm running version 140.10.0esr (64-bit) on Windows 11. I am using IMAP to connect to the mail server but it's not running any spam detection software (like Spamassassin). I know this because it's my server and even if it was, no updates have been preformed since the first of this month and this just started happening yesterday. Combine this with the bug that Thunderbird notifies me of incoming mail, even if it's spam (didn't post about this because there are plenty going back a couple of years), is starting to make me look for an alternative.

After I migrated everything to a different computer, 'Local folders' no longer appears in the side bar, so I cannot archive messages locally.

Can some kind person please help me to reinstate it?

None of your "topics" addresses my issue at all. Where is your user manual? I'm trying to figure out how your "retention" works. Also how to get a message filter to run on a specific folder daily.

Thanks, Saroj Gilbert

There is a post from Mozilla which said your comments were written by a bot. The problem is that there is no access to the comments through my iPhone even though I logged in with Robert’s email and password. I apologize profusely. But there is no way that I can respond instead of creating a new subject.i’m normally reasonably capable of running a computer.I have a 4 y/o M1 mini running some version of 16.

Hi, I use my Thunderbird installation as a feed reader for RSS. Unfortunately, there are two feeds which aren't updated any more. I can't find an error. The feed is OK, I checked the XML file - the new entries are in the feed. The same feed works with a different feed reader. I already deleted the feed and added it again to Thunderbird. That didn't help. I don't know how to find the error. One of the not working RSS feeds is this one: https://mastodon.social/@islieb.rss

When I execute "right click -> Get Messages" on the feed, nothing happens. No error message... What can I do to find the error?

I'm running Fedora Linux 43, Workstation Edition; Thunderbird 140.10.2esr from Flathub. Everything's up to date.

Thanks, Simon

A few weeks ago I began getting spam in my inbox from about ten senders (Omaha steaks, C0stco, Marriot, Harbor Freight, Harbor Tools, Ace, Lowes, CVS, Blue Cross) and no matter what I do, I can’t make it stop. In fact, the numbers have grown higher every day - probably now over 100. Marking them as junk doesn’t work. I have triple-checked all my settings. And setting up specific filters with these names hasn't worked. I don’t have a spam add-on but I see here in Support complaints about SpamAssassin’s ineffectiveness.

Is anyone else getting junk from these specific senders? Has anyone discovered a way to banish them?

MANY THANKS

This happens erratically, not every time. Annoying when trying to select a message to delete and the one before or after or both also deletes at same time. Now I have to go and retrieve it back to inbox. Checked in settings and cant find a solution. Also looked in pad and mouse settings to no avail. Seems to have started in last 2 or 3 months, can't be specific of time line.

Two identical spam emails came in, and I deleted both from my Inbox. Both had attachments. Deleting them moved them to the Trash folder. When I went to the Trash folder, I found both emails had been combined into one file. Is that "threading"? I don't want any emails to be combined together EVER. Previously I had checked the "Unthreaded" box in Settings; so if this was threading, why did it happen?

Another question: I couldn't find anything to do with this combined file but to delete it. Did the act of deleting it also delete the attachments, which probably contained viruses?

This "threading" business has been going on for years now. I always check the options that supposedly disable it, but then it keeps happening.

Once in a while, when I download email, Tbird fails accessing outlook.com. The message is in the attached image. If I redownload, it works. Any Ideas? P.S. this has happened with several versions of Tbird... Thanks.

Whenever i send a message , it is saved to the 'inbox' previously it would be saved "sent mail". I have verified that TB is configured to save to sent mail but the msg is saved anyway to inbox.

Can some one explain how to get back to saving sent messages to sent mail folder.

In all honesty I find it frustrating to keep moving msgs manually.

I'm unable to recall which user name & email password combination I used to setup my NTLWorld email when I had to reconfigure it for Virgin/Googlemail. How can I find or reset it (so I can export to mobile)?

Thanks, Andy Hayward