Who is your email provider? What is your account type - POP or IMAP? Are you using OAuth2 authentication?

Thank you for your reply. I have AT&T for internet service but the accounts are gmail. They are IMAP and when I dug deep to look the password type had somehow been changed to Auth2, which I always had set to Normal. I changed it back to Normal but the client still insisted on encrypting the passwords. Last time I looked the passwords were still unencrypted but if I look again it could be back. Total mystery to me since I am NOT using Master Passwords. Thank you!

Gmail + IMAP + OAuth2 authentication With OAuth2 Thunderbird doesn't store the actual password but an authentication token. It gets refreshed periodically, you'll then see a password prompt, where you'll have to provide your main Google account password. It's simply the way OAuth2 works. Note, OAuth2 is the authentication method Google prefers for Gmail. You shouldn't mess with it.

Even though you can revert to 'Normal password' authentication, Google will let you jump through some other hoops. It's therefore not recommended.

Thank you for all that information, but I don't like this Google method. I prefer to see the actual password when I Reveal Passwords. Often I need to see what it is to verify a password on another device or to copy and paste elsewhere. These cryptic passwords do me absolutely no good for these purposes. I have it set again to Normal Passwords and as of a few seconds ago it is still that way. I hope Google does not get their fingers back into my pie again and change it once more. Sometimes the eggheads at places like Microsoft and Google think they are helping when in fact they are not. They do not live in the same world us ordinary folk live in and therefore cannot relate to our actual needs and desires. One example that has plagued me for years lately is with computer displays that are very wide but not very tall. Why is that? Often we need to view documents that are in what people call "portrait" orientation but the squat shaped displays make it hard. Also, in AutoCAD my screen menus are truncated at the bottom because my laptop display is not tall enough. This is a real world problem. I believe the reason this is so is because all the latest hardware and software is designed by young people that are only interested in video games and movies. They do not do the kind of work people like I do. It is a curse getting old in this matter. Thank you again and Regards, ~Dave K

dwksimi said

Thank you for all that information, but I don't like this Google method. I prefer to see the actual password when I Reveal Passwords. Often I need to see what it is to verify a password on another device or to copy and paste elsewhere. These cryptic passwords do me absolutely no good for these purposes. I have it set again to Normal Passwords and as of a few seconds ago it is still that way. I hope Google does not get their fingers back into my pie again and change it once more. Sometimes the eggheads at places like Microsoft and Google think they are helping when in fact they are not. They do not live in the same world us ordinary folk live in and therefore cannot relate to our actual needs and desires. One example that has plagued me for years lately is with computer displays that are very wide but not very tall. Why is that? Often we need to view documents that are in what people call "portrait" orientation but the squat shaped displays make it hard. Also, in AutoCAD my screen menus are truncated at the bottom because my laptop display is not tall enough. This is a real world problem. I believe the reason this is so is because all the latest hardware and software is designed by young people that are only interested in video games and movies. They do not do the kind of work people like I do. It is a curse getting old in this matter. Thank you again and Regards, ~Dave K

It really does not matter what you prefer. You only get two choices, use the oAuth2.0 authentication or not. If you do not you may be able to access your mail if you enable the less secure apps setting in the google account settings on the web. If yous att account provides you access to those. In which case you can use a plain password, but really you are the spider on a log in a flood. you really do not get much choice in how it works.

But please remember that this authentication method is being pushed by Google and ATT, Thunderbird supports it basically because we want the product to support what users do, not because we like it. There was a long and heated discussion about simply refusing to implement what is a web authentication protocol in a mail client. You are here complaining the product you pay for does not suit you. I suggest you complain to ATT that their product does not meet your needs. Then go open a free mail account with GMX and use that. It uses a plain password and you will see in the password manager exactly what you want to see. Be aware that Yahoo and AOL are bringing in the same requirements. I would assume outlook.com will get a proprietary thing that only works with windows 10 mail and outlook in dues course as well.