Click to tools>Account settings - scroll to bottom where SMTP servers are listed together. Highlight and select REMOVE button.

Where is the REMOVE button? Please post a screen shot of the location of the REMOVE (or DELETE) button.

Pressing "Delete" on the computer keyboard does nothing.

Thanks.

here is a photo. bottom area of tools>account settings . Scroll to BOTTOM. You are not doing that.

These options do not display for us. Here is a screen shot of the very bottom area in tools>account settings.

Very frustrating :-(

Thanks for trying.

Scroll down the LEFT SIDEBAR.

That helped to some extent! We were able to remove all the excess smtp servers in the list, but not the default server. That is the one that Owl for Exchange says we need to remove in order to get Thunderbird working properly again.

One possible issue is that there are four different email addresses on the computer in question. Let's call them A, B, C and D. When we set up and save the username in one of the accounts (let's say, account B) and then view the account details later, the username has changed from B to A. Currently all four accounts switched to the user name of A. There were times where they all changed to different usernames. (A was B, B was C, etc.).

A is the main email address on the account. Should B, C and D all have the username A? If not, how can we get each account to retain its correct username? (If I need to start a new thread on the topic of the email identities/usernames, let me know.)

Thanks.

My suggestion is to remove the accounts and start over, thereby eliminating your concern of removing the default. Each account needs its own account in TB and its own smtp setup unless OWL does something special.

There are a lot of emails stored for each of the four accounts. Will the emails be deleted if we remove the accounts?

If the emails for the four accounts (A, B, C and D) will remain on TB after we remove the A, B, C and D accounts, can we set up new accounts in the previous names of A, B, C and D and (re)connect the email folders to them?

Thank you.

Those listed SMTP account have a set default button in the same collection as the Remove. Right under it in fact, so setting the default is as easy as clicking that button.

Have easily identified names on the SMTP server list is probably the key. Then when you select the correct SMTP server from you don't inadvertently selectthe wrong one of the three identically named Exchange entries.

BTW You can not delete the default SMTP server. Not an option. But as I said you can change it.

I've been waiting to hear from the Owl Exchange to see if they can let me know an outgoing smtp server to use, at least temporarily, and then I could change the default from Exchange to that one. Thanks to your tips, we were able to remove all but the default smtp outgoing server.

If that's not possible, if we delete the existing accounts and create new ones, will the folders and stored emails all be lost, or will TB retain them without an identity/associated email address?

If you have IMAP mail accounts then all emails are stored on the server, you subscribe to see imap folders, so you can see folders and emails in Thunderbird - so yes you can easily remove IMAP mail accounts and then recreate them.

If you have POP account then all emails are stored on your computer in the profile name folder. When you use Account Settings to remove the pop account, it disappears from Thunderbird but the actual pop account files are still in the profile. This means you can recreate a new pop account, but then set up the Account Settings > Server Settings - 'Local directory' to point to the original pop account to sees all files and emails. Use the 'Browse' button to select the original pop mail account name. See image below as guide. Slightly outdated version but info is all in same place.

However, it is always a good idea to create a backup of Thunderbird if you have not done one already.

Menu app icon > Help > More TRoubleshooting Information Under 'Application Basics' - Profile folder - click on 'Open Folder' A new window opens showing contents of 'profile name' folder Exit Thunderbird now - this is important.

Go up directory 3 levels to the 'Roaming' folder Copy the 'Thunderbird' folder to an external drive. See images below as guide.

Appreciate the details! One of the accounts is IMAP, the other three are POP.

If we delete/remove an account and create a new one to replace it, can we use the same email address that the account had before being deleted/removed, and then connect the relevant email and folders to the newly created account?

re :If we delete/remove an account and create a new one to replace it, can we use the same email address

Yes. You have to use same email address because you are connecting to same server. So if original email address was: personA@thisserver.com then that is what you use to create a new one.

The second part of changing the 'local directory' is just to use the original folders and files so you can still see all old emails as if nothing had happened.

If you look carefully at image I supplied showing 'local directory' - you will notice the last part shows an example of the mail account name as it appears in the profile. In my case it was ending : .....\profile name\Mail\mail.btinternet.com When you create a new account, that 'local directory' will use same mail account name in same profile but it will add a number, so the new one looks like eg: .....\profile name\Mail\mail.btinternet-1.com You would need to point it back to the original eg: mail.btinternet.com

Then restart Thunderbird to ensure the setting is being used.

Thank you! We will give it a try (hopefully within a few days). Appreciate your help.