Thunderbird Support Forum

I'm trying to help someone out with their Thunderbird install. The problem started with 4 out of 5 of his accounts were working on Thunderbird, but a 2nd Gmail account gave message incoming server already exists. We had him rename that account - still same error. He uninstalled and reinstalled a newer version of Thunderbird - still same error. Then we went nuclear and had him uninstall Thunderbird, then delete his Thunderbird profile after verifying he was on IMAP and that he would lose no data.

Ever since then, now he gets "incoming server already exists" no matter which e-mail account he tries to add. We had him uninstall and delete all Thunderbird folders. Same problem. We had him try Thunderbird 38, 45, and the latest version of Thunderbird. Same problem. He calls us "mate," so we think he is in UK, Australia or NZ, so we always sent him official Thunderbird ftp links that let him pick by country. Suspecting that he might be doing something wrong in deleting the profile or adding accounts, we had him create a new Windows user account to be sure. In the new user account, he gets the same problem. Very perplexing.

So, at this point, I would think the problem is not tied to his Thunderbird user profile or his Windows profile. He has no problem accessing any of his e-mail accounts via webmail. I should mention at this point that he is using a decrepit Windows XP machine. Suspecting that he could be having a problem with e-mail accounts in general, or with having Thunderbird set as default mail reader, we had him change his default to Outlook Express and set up a couple of accounts using Outlook Express, and he had no issues in Outlook Express. We returned to Thunderbird, and he got the same error.

I've never had to resort to registry edits involving Thunderbird, but we are at a loss.

Any advice/suggestions welcome.

Edit: I should also mention that he says that when he tries to add an e-mail account, it stays stuck on "Checking password" for about an hour before it produces the "incoming server already exists" message.

I have followed the Migration instructions over 8 times now and have clearly seem my Roaming Thunderbird folder of nearly 6 Gb moving from PC to Caddy Drive, and then onto the new PC in the Roaming Thunderbird folder. Each time i clicked "replace previous data", and no Thunderbird account has been set up on the new PC. But that's as far as i can get, I cannot get it to open the profile so I can see my 3 years worth of mail. The instructions stop at replace previous data (or whatever the wording is). I'm tearing my ancient hair out as my old PC keeps crashing and I begin 2 training courses tonight to get my web sites and video sales moving. I used to be ok with tech when it was Windows 3.1 but I'm 75 now and am obviously a bit out of touch! H-E-L-P  !! John Reed, York, UK (John O'York on Facebook)

This is not an IMAP vs. POP question. I have installed Thunderbird and linked it via IMAP to my institutional email. Everything there works great. Using Provider and Lightning I have successfully integrated my calendar and made it editable. It works perfectly.

The problem I now face: I have multiple computers: Desktops at the institution and at home and a laptop. I also run multiple OS - Linux and Windows, dedicated installations on separate computers.

On my laptop running windows I installed Thunderbird and got everything working well. I started building my address book and more. However, I find that, in order to mirror this installation and any changes I make, I'll need to do everything all-over again on each computer. Worse, any changes I make on one computer when it comes to my profile and preferences, will not be shared by the others unless I copy/paste the proper profile file to the proper place.

These days we live in the cloud, so, like other email programs, I'm wondering if anyone out there has a way to streamline the profile issue and point Thunderbird to one spot in the cloud where there is one profile and all computers and operating systems share it. I have multiple cloud accounts I could use (google, dropbox, onedrive).

Thanks for your help.

Thunderbird asked me to restart for an update and now all I get Is the following:-

XUL Runner Error: Platform version 78.5.0' is not compatible with minversion >=78.4.0 maxversion>=78.4.0

Can someone please help

Hi,

My old Gmail account works in Thunderbird 68.12.1 (32-bit) with no problems, that is, it sends and receives mail. Now I decided to add another Gmail account to Thunderbird. It receives mail without problems, but it can't send mail. If that matters, I have total 4 accounts in Thunderbird (the other 2 aren't Gmail accounts and they're working).

Both accounts have identical settings:

1) both are Gmail mails, that is, mail address is like name1.name2@gmail.com and those mails aren't new (I've had them for several years, but in Thunderderbird was using just one of them).

2) the option for "Less secure app access allowed" is turned ON in Gmail account security

3) POP mail server settings: Server Name: pop.gmail.com Port: 995 Connection security: SSL/TLS Authentication method: Normal password

4) SMTP server settings in Thunderbird: Server Name: smtp.gmail.com Port: 465 Connection security: SSL/TLS Authentication method: OAuth2

So why my new account can't send mails with Authentication method: OAuth2 (it can only send mails using Authentication method: Normal password).

Isn't that the opposite of what should be happening? I thought that Gmail was supposed require OAuth2 method. Anyway, what I'm missing to make those accounts identical for Gmail?

Thunderbird was working fine for a number of years, and then out of the blue I get this error message when I try to send e-mail: The Mail Server responded 554 5.7.1 (P4) Message Blocked due to Spam Content in the Message.

Nothing has changed...no additions or changes to my Thunderbird e-mail. These are one on one e-mails I'm trying to send...no group mailings. My carrier is RCN and I can send e-mail from my RCN webmail address. I can receive mail with no trouble. RCN claims it's not their issue. BUT.....I also have a Samsung Galaxy 7 phone with an ANDROID OS. I get a similar error message on my RCN e-mail account on the phone. Two totally separate devices....different OS....but same problem. I have changed nothing on the phone...heck I can hardly figure out how to answer an incoming call let alone mess around with e-mail settings. I have two other e-mail accounts on the same desk top computer and phone that both work fine...one is a Yahoo account, and one is a Verizon account. I'm not a high level tech with these devices...please make suggested remedies as simple as possible. Thanks very much....Bob

I'm trying with utter lack of success to configure a Thunderbird install to link to a Gmail account via IMAP.

System Basics: Windows 10 Home, 64bit, fully patched. Antivirus by MalwareBytes 4.30 Premium, fully updated. No fancy firewall, just a regular router.

This account had been installed and working fine until a family member "helpfully" changed the Gmail password, but reauthentication fails. I enter the account details, including password, into the Thunderbird Accounts settings for the account; it pings Google and correctly retrieves all the IMAP settings, and when I click "Done" Thunderbird opens a browser window to Google's two-step authentication with the email address prepopulated. However, when I click the blue "Next" button on that authentication page, rather than advancing to a password screen, the browser simply deletes the email address from the text box and stays on the same screen (see attached image for what I'm talking about).

Things I've tried:

• Uninstall, reboot, reinstall Thunderbird.
• Turn off MalwareBytes protection.
• Uninstall, delete every registry key related to Thunderbird, reboot, reinstall Thunderbird.
• Clear cache on every browser on the system
• Change Windows default browser settings to either Chrome (see below) or IE/Edge
• Install new browser (Chrome wasn't yet on this PC), then change Thunderbird's file handler for https to Chrome (this is MUCH harder than it used to be as T-Bird v. 78.anything doesn't have the old "Preferences" menus)

Incidentally, changing browsers doesn't seem to make a difference in that pop-up browser window, so I suspect Thunderbird is using its own internal browser and not the system browser.

I have, and can send, the support info extract from T-bird to a support technician but am unsure of uploading it here. Nevertheless, I welcome suggestions ... this is driving me nuts!

Hello Since last google outage on 14th December 2020, Thunderbird Email Client is unable to access gmail. It shows " Authentication failure while connecting to server imap.gmail.com Out of 3 accounts, 2 are @gmail.com and other is @tritek.in. All 3 accounts have identical settings. Server imap.gmail.com Port:993 Connection Security: SSL/TLS Auth. Method: OAuth2 Allow Accessing gmail through less secure apps: ON

one gmail.com is able to access emails, while other 2 cannot access email.

Thunderbird version is 78 on Windows 10 64 Bit.

Please help to sort this issue.

Thanks.

Sudhir

How to download all messages (full with message body) with all folders structure and attachments in Thunderbird for offline usage. It could be done probably with IMAP because POP doesn't save folders structure (download everything to one folder).

There are a number of contacts that send me emails with images that do not display. Instead I get a box where the display should be with a picture of a camera in the top left corner. Clicking on the camera does nothing. If I open the page with Firefox, the images display correctly. Sometimes I can see that for an instant, the image displays correctly before it almost instantaneously disappears. This is bloody frustrating and I would love some help in having my emails displayed correctly.

Sent emails from Mozilla Thunderbird on my pc re not showing on my Android BlueMail sent folder, likewise emails sent from BlueMail are not showing on Thunderbird. My mail provider (Pipeten) say my email can be either POP3 or IMAP according to client settings, but from what I can see the settings on both are correctly set to IMAP. Any ideas?

I have been using the program for many years. Now, I need space on my computer. I deleted 20GB mail on my Gmail account and after that I opened Thunderbird and sync everything. My mails have been gone on Thunderbird, Ok, but when I opened storage folder of Thunderbird there was no change. I expect that this 20GB should have been gone because I already deleted it on Gmail.

So, could you please help me, how can I delete, my deleted messages from storage?

Thanks in advance!

Suddenly thunderbird won't access emails. Address is sbcglobal.net, which arrives through yahoo. "Get messages" button gives me the following: "sending of password for user (my email address) did not succeed. Mail server inbound.att.net responded: server error - Please try again later".

For outbound mail get message: "login to server smtp.att.yahoo.com with username (xxxx@sbcglobal.net failed" with the option of entering a new password.

I'm using the correct password, and am able to access my email directly from yahoo with that password.

Thunderbird updated to version 78.5 just before the problem started. I deleted 78.5 but could not figure out how to install the previously working version, 78.4.3, so added 78.5 back again.

I read that there can be a problem if the provider doesn't use TLS 1.2. As far as I can tell, that shouldn't be the problem with yahoo.

I suspect possible problem with free version of avast, but I have been using this for several years with no problem.

Incoming server setting is pop.att.yahoo.com, port 995 Outgoing is smtp.att.yahoo.com port 465

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/thunderbird-and-yahoo#w_my-sign-in-attempt-was-prevented tells me to set security to "Oauth2", but that is not an option in the settings menu.

Any suggestions appreciated! Thank you.

I got a message from yahoo mail saying they will no longer support current sign in methods. They give instructions for how to update thunderbird for the new settings, which basically involves deleting the old yahoo account and setting up a new one. Following those instructions results in all of my mailboxes and messages being deleted -- what a brilliant solution! I have years of messages I don't want to lose. Fortunately I had a backup of my .thunderbird directory (this is Linux, thunderbird v. 68.11.0)

See here for how NOT to do this "upgrade": https://help.yahoo.com/kb/new-mail-for-desktop/SLN27791.html?impressions=true Don't follow those instructions or you will lose all of your messages and mailboxes.

So, is there a way I can delete and re-install the account settings using the automatic features yahoo wants, without losing everything?

Suddenly it says "The messages you have deleted can be purged from disk" every time I move emails. Every stupid time. Probably a very useful feature but just not how I have used things for the last decade or so. At first all I wanted to say was 'thank you but no thank you" Now it is getting beyond a joke. How do I get rid of this without deleting any emails? Yes I know they are nominally deleted but I've use that as an easy way to archive them and then copy them off as a history trail. All my accounts are carefully set to "Don't delete any messages". I like that. I mean it.

I have been using TB for many years, but with the latest update to version 78 I cannot connect my Google contact list as the addon I used is not longer compatible. The suggestions I have read about is to use TBSync, which I have installed, but I can't get it to connect to my Google account. Each time I try autodiscover I get a message saying it has failed. I tried to manually enter the server name, but that wouldn't work either.

I can't find any support instructions in the Add In web site or on the Mozilla support site. Can anyone help?

Can I revert to an earlier version of Thunderbird?

Recently there have been days when sent e-mails have not appeared in the Sent folder. I have compacted the folder but no change. My e-mail address is hotmail.co.uk so I have looked at it in the web browser, which shows the same gaps in Sent messages as Thunderbird. Is this a Thunderbird or Microsoft problem and how can it be fixed? Thank you.

I am running Thunderbird 68.2.2. When ever I start up Thunderbird I get this message: Unable to connect to 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've tried various fixes including changing the maximum amount of server connections to cache and testing my antivirus email scanner by disabling it. Nothing has solved my problem.

Note that after Thunderbird loads in and above error message shows, I can then access my email by clicking on it's inbox folder.

Could this possibly be a bug with Thunderbird?

Thanks.

Recently I re-installed my system. I now use Thunderbird (78.2.1) and Windows 10. I backed up my old Thunderbird with Mozbackup. This created an archive file Thunderbird 68.11.0 (en-GB) - 2020-08-26.pcv The restore process failed to work. Mozbackup has not been updated for some time, and I was unwise to use it. When I reconnected Thunderbird with my web email supplier, the existing inbox and sent folders were repopulated from there. However my only ‘sent’ emails were those from my mobile phone, not my PC. Therefore I would like to restore my old ‘sent’ folder, saved by Mozbackup, but into a new local folder, perhaps called ‘Old Sent’. I can create a new local folder in Thunderbird. The problem is to populate it with my old emails. A Mozbackup .pcv file is actually another name for a .zip file. I can get at the individual folders backed up within the archive by copying it, renaming it as .zip, and I can then open it. I have two relevant files, now renamed as Old Sent , Old Sent.msf My problem is how to get Thunderbird to recognize the emails. Simply copying the two files into my current imap mail folder doesn’t work; Thunderbird ignores them. There is an ‘import’ facility in Thunderbird, but it isn’t obvious whether this would be able to do what I want. I see there are some add-ons that handle import to Thunderbird, but they don't appear to work with the latest version.