Thunderbird not connecting to server. Cannot send or receive emails.

This seemed to happen after the update on 8/19. I have no clue on how to fix. All my settings are correct for server incoming and out. I rely on this email and it seems I have no solution. This did happen once before after an update and the technicians were able to find a cause. Please help.

If it is a timeout issue, this may work.It's the only suggestion for you that I have. Let me know:

1. click to settings>general
2. scroll to the bottom and, on the right, is 'config editor'. click that
3. enter this: mailnews.tcptimeout
4. I think you will see the default setting is 100. Change to 250 save and exit
5. restart thunderbird and let me know. Also, recheck config editor to be sure your change took.

Thank you. I tried it. Still just a blue line right hand corner trying to connect, but then msg says connection to server timed out.

I'm having the same problem, Jill. Everything was working fine until around 8/21. Sure would appreciate a fix since the web mail access to my server (Spectrum) is clumsy.

I clicked thumbs up, meaning I agree with your post. It popped up as Glad to hear it! I did not mean that.

My wife and I am having the same problem. We get a time-out connecting to the same address "mobile.charter.net", so I think this may be a Spectrum problem, perhaps they recently changed something on their servers. I am fed up with Spectrum and would like to change to a thunderbird, Firebird, or Mozilla email support server. How do I get an email address for this change?

Thunderbird itself is just an agent. Three popular free email providers that I am familiar with are gmail, outlook, and gmx. They all work well and many users here are familiar with them. I see complaints about Spectrum daily. Thundermail is in initial testing with beta clients, but I don't know when it will be available and there is a fee, to my knowledge.

David, I am currently using Thunderbird and have heard they (or Firefox or Mozilla) have an email server. That is what I want.

It's coming. you can sign up at this URL: https://www.tb.pro/en-US/

I guess that's it. No solution. Thunderbird is dead?

No. Thunderbird is alive and well. That question on a thunderbird server was a side topic. The thunderbird you and I use is free and will remain free. The issue is charter.net. THere have been several complaints on timing out there. Thunderbird can't fix network problems or an email provider's server problems. One solution that was discussed was switching away from charter.net. That is an option, and charter.net may have had only a temporary blip. Thunderbird is not dead. With many such email providers as charter.net appears to be, it is difficult to get support on these issue, causing users to come here, hoping someone can figure out the problem. There may be someone here on the forum who is a whiz at network issues, but I am not that person.

Ok, well thank you. I just tried to call Spectrum and they have a recording while you're waiting saying Microsoft email users are having trouble connecting to the server and they are working on it. But when I got an agent, he knew nothing about it and said nothing showed for him in the data base and just go to webmail. Not helpful.

This sure is getting complicated trying to sort out if it's a Thunderbird issue or Spectrum. I was able to use the Blue mail app and connect with Spectrum with no issues. I was only doing that as a test to see what would happen, but it left me thinking it's a Thunderbird issue.

Peter

I agree this is not a Thunderbird problem. I have been aware that Charter (i.e. Spectrum) has been apparently trying for years to eliminate third party email clients. When ever there was a problem with supporting third party clients (like Thunderbird) their response has always been go to a browser version of their email support. When Thundermail becomes available you can be certain to find me there.

I have been having the same problems as described here and they all started with the latest version of TB. After starting TB, it asks for me to enter my Charter password and then tells me its the wrong password. It is not wrong since it allows me to log into the Spectrum website and look at my emails. Soon after loading TB I get the message that the connection to charter has timed out. Some emails do appear in the inbox window but when I click on them they don't appear in the adjacent panel (as they used to).

I am the first to acknowledge that Spectrum/Charter is a PITA but I don't think this is their problem. I would switch ISP in a flash except I don't want to change my email address which I have used for years.

Is it possible to revert back to an earlier version of TB? It seems that would help establish whether this is a TB problem or not.

This problem does not appear only on the latest version of Thunderbird. When I had it on version 115.10.1 (64 bit). When I updated to the latest version of Thunderbird (153.1 Oesr (64 bit)) the problem persisted. So far as I have seen on these posts everyone that has had this problem had email addresses tied to "charter.net". I have not seen anyone using any other mail server. I have to wonder about people whose email address ends in "spectrum.net" or "spectrum.com", because Spectrum bought out Charter some years ago.

Many years ago I found out that the code being used for the email server owned by Charter was using code from a company (I have long since forgotten it's name) that had gone out of business and had failed to code their server code to support an IEEE standard specifying how to support sub-folders that contain blanks in their name. (I see now a statement that IEEE no longer specifies standards for emails, that is now IEFT that provides standards for email. I am not sure I trust this statement.) Sub-folders is a technique I have almost for ever used to organize emails that i have received, i.e. in subject categories. I used to use blanks in the sub-folder names, but when I moved to Charter.net (during a physical move from one state to another). I had to quit putting blanks in sub-folder names. The code on Charter.net servers did not comply with the IEEE standard on how blanks in folder names was to be handled across the internet, while Thunderbird complied with said standard. I had collected IEEE standard file names then but have since lost that file.

Holding my breath, but it is working this morning.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm pleased that all is well again. :)

David, I tried your mailnews.tcptimeout solution and it looks like it may have solved my problem. I will report back if this looks like a permanent fix or only a temporary one. I am still waiting for an invite to Thundermail.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad it worked. The invitations to thundermail are on a slow rollout. It may come today or in a few weeks. I see it only from the sidelines. But it will come.