cannot connect to IMAP server
I just bought a new computer and as a part of setting it up, installed Mozilla Thunderbird for my msn.com e-mail account. I had this set-up on my old computer and it worked fine except for initially getting the following error message: "Unable to connect to your IMAP server. You may have exceeded the maximum number of connections to this server. If so use the Advanced IMAP Server Settings dialog to reduce the number of cached connections." I had followed through with that suggestion on my old computer and had no further problems. Unfortunately, I forgot to do the reductions on my new computer, and now I am getting the same error message. I have checked a number of online forums and tried a number of different solutions (including reducing the number of cached connections, simply waiting for several hours including overnight, uninstalling and reinstalling Thunderbird several times, resetting my router, and removing my Thunderbird account), all to no avail. The last step, removing the account has now resulted in my not being able to even re-add it to the new computer, getting a repeated message: "Configuration could not be verified - is the username or password wrong?" after numerous attempts. So now I am totally stuck. Ironically, I still have my old computer and am able to use Thunderbird and that same account with no problem at all. Any input or assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Chosen solution
If it was working fine before, and no changes were made to the TB settings, one possibility is that after the recent TB update to 45.6, you have a security AV/firewall program that is incompatible with the new version, a common problem. Do you have such a program set to scan email folders?
By the way, I have a live/msn/hotmail/outlook IMAP account that hasn't presented any server errors recently, and the number of cached connections has always been set to the default, 5.
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I doubt the problem is due to too many connections, but I suspect from the last error message "Configuration could not be verified..." that it is failing because you have two-step verification on the account, but haven't created an app-specific password to allow the account to be set up in TB.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1099766#answer-819512
Thank you, sfhowes, for your response. I followed your suggestion and went into my Microsoft account and doubled checked on the two-step verification . . . I do not have that activated. Plus, I failed to mention in the original post that when I first downloaded TB on the new computer, it did work fine for a couple of days, and then the "unable to connect to your IMAP server" error message began appearing. Then I attempted the various fixes mentioned above, to no avail. Once I removed my account from TB, then I began receiving the second error message about "configuration could not be verified" when I tried to open it again. I've had the original error message on two other computers and was able to fix it by the suggested simple solution of reducing the number of cached connections. That has totally not worked on this computer.
Chosen Solution
If it was working fine before, and no changes were made to the TB settings, one possibility is that after the recent TB update to 45.6, you have a security AV/firewall program that is incompatible with the new version, a common problem. Do you have such a program set to scan email folders?
By the way, I have a live/msn/hotmail/outlook IMAP account that hasn't presented any server errors recently, and the number of cached connections has always been set to the default, 5.
sfhowes - That worked! Thanks, so much. I had installed Covenant Eyes (Internet accountability and filtering) several days after installing TB. I just uninstalled both and reinstalled TB and it was able to add the e-mail account and connect to the server. Wonderful. I will still reduce the number of reduced cached connections and make an attempt at reinstalling Covenant Eyes, but right now I am just thankful that the e-mail is working. Again, thanks. Much appreciated.
I'm not familiar with Covenant Eyes, but you might want to read this before installing it again.