Thunderbird Community Forum

Using Thunderbird desktop for Windows with my Hotmail account, I frequently cannot send an outgoing email. I regularly get the following message even while successfully receiving incoming messages.

Send Message Error Sending of the message failed. An error occurred while sending mail: Outgoing server (SMTP) error. The server responded: Cannot connect to SMTP server 2603:1036:308:2817::2 (2603:1036:308:2817::2:587), connect error 10060.

I use Thunderbird for Android with the same email account without any issues. Any thoughts?

It had too much in it, but I was erasing a lot and it didn't help. Then it was suddenly gone. I've had it for many years. I reset the password, but the solutions were very confusing and I need help. They are still showing up on my phone. Thanks Carol

Hello all,

Here is my environment.

Thunderbird 128.9.2esr (64-bit) running on Windows 10 Home, version 22H2 (with current patches).

I have both a Gmail account, and a Yahoo mail account. I've connected Thunderbird to both accounts. Recently, I made a configuration change somewhere in Thunderbird, and it asked me for my "full name." I put it in, not thinking it would change how incoming emails are displayed because under General->Settings->Message List, I have the "Full name and email address" option checked.

However, for both Gmail and Yahoo, I only see that "full name" that I put into my settings when I read an email message. It does not show the actual name (if any) that is in the email header, nor does it show the email address. Basically, the To header in the incoming message is ignored.

I've checked the account settings for both Gmail and Yahoo. Default Identity->Your Name, hasn't changed for either account. Both names are different from the "full name" that I put in recently. I'd like for Thunderbird to show the actual To header for both accounts.

Does anyone know hot to fix this?

Thanks in advance.

Robert Orosz

I created a 2nd account years ago and it has worked since then. Now when I create a third account, it works well but when I disconnect I loose the account and have to recreate it again. How come?

Everytime I close down thunderbird (128.9.1), the emails disappear and when I open the program, the are re-downloaded from the server every time. I have been having issues with my computer lately and having to reboot it (another computer is not an option right now). I cant hep but think I need to un and re-install thunderbird.

I exported my profile to an external drive, then reset my Windows 11 PC. The resulting file is a zip file. When I import, the import starts, then stalls and gives an error. The error log is incomprehensible to me. How can I not lose my local folders and messages? I tried unzipping and importing that folder, but another error. I need help! Ideas? Thanks.

Image of the error attached.

I have been using Thunderbird for years. In the last few weeks I have a problem with appointments disappearing from my calendar. The calendar syncs to my Google Calendar and nothing disappears from the Google Calendar.

The time shown in the Date column for TB is 2 hrs earlier than the actual time. The TB error console also displays the wrong time.

TB 128.6.0esr on freebsd-13.4-RELEASE-p5

System time is set to and displays as MDT (US Mountain/Denver) $ date Fri Apr 18 12:29:52 MDT 2025

TB error console: Date() "Fri Apr 18 2025 10:31:04 GMT-0800 (GMT-08:00)"

about:config timezone settings: calendar.timezone.local MST calendar.timezone.recent [] calendar.timezone.useSystemTimezone true mailnews.sender.date_senders_timezone false

Mail headers show proper time in mail file: Received: from mail-yb1-f187.google.com (mail-yb1-f187.google.com [209.85.219.187]) ... for <xxx>; Fri, 18 Apr 2025 11:55:40 -0600 (MDT) Received: by mail-yb1-f187.google.com with SMTP id 3f1490d57ef6-e5740c858besf2902470276.2 ... for <xxx>; Fri, 18 Apr 2025 10:55:39 -0700 (PDT)

And display properly in the TB headers display: Date Fri, 18 Apr 2025 11:55:29 -0600

Yet TB displays 2 hrs earlier in the Date column: 09:55

How to correct? I had set the Calendar timezone manually, but it is now set as above. I tried deleting calendar.timezone.local but it is rewritten when TB exits.

I'm trying to transfer to a new computer. The instructions say to copy your profile folders in imap roaming to a new computer and everything will be there. But the local folders are not there. The instructions also say the data from addons is stored in the profiles folder, but that didn't seem to transfer either. Nor did message filters. Then I saw a post where they said to go up 3 levels from the profiles folder and copy all that. Is that right? But it also says the local folders should be under local/thunderbird instead of roaming/mozilla thunderbird. And I don't see any mailbox folders there.

Also supposedly you are supposed to be able to go to a command window and type thunderbird -P "profile" to open a specific one, but when I do that it doesn't show me the profile names, just default, default-esr, and default-esr1. But I have multiple profiles on my computer so I am unable to choose the different ones.

Seaching through past posts is sometimes not useful because they refer to old versions of TB.

A few more details: I loaded TB fresh on a new computer and ended up with 2 profiles. Not sure why. But I already had 2 profiles on my old computer which contain all the personalization so I'm trying to move. One of the 2 on the old computer contains local folders I've never been able to figure out how to bring back into my current profile, instead of having to go into that profile when I want to look at local folders. (I did that because Thunderbird performance was really suffering with large local folders, but I'm hoping that problem is solved now. What I would like to do is combine all the local folders from the 2 old profiles into one and make that the active one on my new computer. I'm sure there is a way I can move the local message files, I remember doing this many years ago, but the file extensions changed since then and I need to know which ones to move. THANKS!

Dear Sir(s):

I'm just getting started and have no idea on how to setup thunderbird on my Raspberry Pi 5 computer. Here is what I did: I entered my full name: William Loucks I entered my email addr: wll107@proton.me I entered my password: .... checked remember password then I clicked Continue and got the following: Available configuration

• IMAP
• incoming: IMAP | STARTTLS

127.0.0.1:1143

• outgoing: SMTP | STARTTLS

127.0.0.1:1025

• username

wll107@proton.me then I clicked Done ...and got the following: Unable to log in at server. Probably wrong configuration, username or password When I got to proton.me and put in the same username and password everything works fine. So what can I do now? Thanks, William

I just tried to download Thunderbird on my computer today but it did not end up listed as an installed app, nor was I taken through any of the installation steps.

I have been using Firefox for a few years, and have received my primary mail account through Firefox. I noted that a Thunderbird app was already installed on my computer, so I tried to find a way to use it for my email. I was not able to do so, and thought that it would be best to delete it and reinstall it. But I can still not find a way to find its icon much less view my email in it. Please help me understand what I have been doing wrong.

Is there a way to sort Favorite folders? I've tried dragging them to a new order with horrible consequences. Instead of changing the order, the actual folder was moved to a sub-folder position within the actual folder I was trying to move to the position beneath it.

In other words, if I have Favorite folders: A, B, C, E, F, D and I want to move Folder D to the position after C and before E, dragging D to C will cause the physical location of the Folder D to be moved to a sub-folder position of Folder C in the email account.

If you then move it back to it's correct position AND folder D had sub-folders as well, you will then get the error message for any of Folder D's sub-folders: Unable to open the summary file for FOLDER D's SUBFOLDER NAME. Perhaps there was an error on disk, or the full path is too long.

BTW: is there a way to fix that error as well?

I have used the following process many times during the past months, but now it's not working:

Message is composed in Word, with phrase hyperlinked. Message sent with Thunderbird through Gmail server.

Suddenly, the hyperlink does not show, only plain text.

I have a homegrown POP3 bridge server. It implements the basic commands plus CAPA with TOP and UIDL.

Thunderbird is requesting:

1. USER
2. PASS
3. STAT
4. LIST
5. UIDL
6. NOOP
7. RETR

Notes:

1. The response of STAT correctly tells how many e-mails exist but the size announced is dummy and doesn't match the real sum of the size of the e-mails (nor the sum of the sizes output by LIST).
2. The response of LIST correctly tells how many e-mails exist the size of each one is dummy but different numbers. Each element of a list corresponding to the same e-mail always has the same published size.
3. If the oldest e-mail is deleted, LIST will shift all values
4. In the response of UIDL, the uid is unique. Deleting an e-mail won't cause a reuse of the uid.

Thunderbird settings set:

1. "Fetch headers only" unticked.
2. "Leave messages on server" ticked and unticked the part of "For most" and "Until I delete them".
3. Everything else is set to default settings.

Thunderbird user behavior:

1. Thunderbird is accessing and downloading e-mails.
2. E-mails listed, are listed with just default variable values (see email_appearance.png)
3. If I open properties and press repair folder, all messages appear normal as if it's fixed. But it's not because all new e-mail continues having the same issue.
4. E-mails downloaded open correctly, including attachments, and display all metadata correctly. I.e While in the list the date is the default, in the GUI of the e-mail header, it appears correctly. Same for subject and all other headers that thunderbird displays.
5. Sometimes, Thunderbird decides to download all e-mail a second time.

Thunderbird unexpected behavior with server:

1. Sometimes, there is a new e-mail and another e-mails is deleted in the server. Thunderbird requests STAT and then assumes there is no new e-mails even though the size reported changes.
2. Sometimes, there is a new e-mail. Thunderbird uses command STAT which responds differently from the STAT in the previous session (E.g. 1 more e-mail and higher size) but thunderbird displays in the interface as if there's no new e-mail.
3. Sometimes, thunderbird executes STAT, then LIST, then decides to download all e-mail, even without executing UIDL command to confirm the e-mail uids. I don't know when that happens.

Examples:

These responses lead to a full re-download of all listed e-mail.: STAT: +OK 14 85539 LIST: +OK 14 messages 1 1910 2 2692 3 8118 4 1101 5 3910 6 8916 7 6456 8 6500 9 6518 10 6602 11 7595 12 9363 13 9369 14 6489 .

UIDL: +OK 14 messages 1 2311910 2 2312692 3 2328118 4 2323011 5 2313910 6 2338916 7 2346456 8 2346500 9 2346518 10 2346602 11 2347595 12 2349363 13 2349369 14 2356489 .

-> Then it downloads all e-mail.

Next connection,

STAT: +OK 15 92559

-> Thunderbird doesn't do anything and doesn't download the new e-mail.

5 connections later, I delete a few e-mails in the server

STAT: +OK 12 72939

LIST: +OK 12 messages 1 1910 2 2692 3 8118 4 1101 5 3910 6 8916 7 6456 8 7595 9 9363 10 6489 11 9369 12 7020 .

UIDL: +OK 12 messages 1 2311910 2 2312692 3 2328118 4 2323011 5 2313910 6 2338916 7 2346456 8 2347595 9 2349363 10 2356489 11 2349369 12 2357020 .

-> Thunderbird downloads (RETR) all e-mails.

Why is thunderbird downloading all e-mails?

Issues in analysis:

1. Downloaded e-mails appear listed without their subject and date appears as default although all of that data is in the e-mail. Repairing .msf file makes it appear correctly.
2. Thunderbird is downloading all e-mails every time it contacts the server and it considers there's an update.

Thunderbird version: 128.7.1esr I don't have any antivirus and I'm using an ubuntu 24.04 variant.

I have a few favorite folders. One of them has sub-folders. Is there a way to favorite a folder and have the sub-folders be available at the same time? I don't want to favorite each sub-folder separately because the context would be lost. What I'm asking is there a way to show the "expand" option of favorite folder?

How do I export my address book from TB128 (Windows 10 desktop) to TB for mobile (Android)? So far TB for mobile (just installed) shows only an arbitrary, short selection of addresses from old emails.

How do I configure the new "Local Folders" archive set just created - so they'll be displayed and searchable in the Email folder view?

Thunderbird v128.9.0esr (64-bit) on Linux Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS

I have archived emails on my IMAP server for some time.

Now to avoid a full quota on the server I have reconfigured the Archive to "Local Folders" and changed the configuration to yyyy/yyyy-mm.

After archiving "fresh" emails and re-archiving from the IMAP server archive folder

I can see the respective sequences of folders under the menu

• Account Settings
• email@account.com
• Copies & Folders
• Archives on Local Folder

and within the file selector menu

• Archives on Local Folders
• Local Folders
• Archives
• 2023
• 2023-01
• 2023-02
• etc

The result in the email account folder shows the old "Archive" folder - but now emptied - alongside new (unarchived) emails.

On interrogating the Archive folder properties the location reported is the (previous) IMAP address.

So how do I:

1. identify the location of the newly created "Local Folders" archive set, and
2. make the Archive folder set display and be searchable in the Email folder view?