Thunderbird Community Forum

Hello, I started using Thunderbird in order to be able to manage all my email accounts from one place and I stumbled to one problem. I have 6 different email accounts and all are created by me.

I know that I cannot add a Proton account as it requires a paid service from Proton that I don't need as I use it only as a backup account in order to be able to recover the other 5 ones.

My Yahoo account added successfully without any problems as my 2 Google ones.

My primary outlook was added successfully by using the simple add account setup. The problem started when I was trying to add my second outlook account. Everything I tried it always gives me an error that says "Authentication error. Unable to login at server. Probably wrong configuration , username or password." I know for a fact that the username and password are correct as when I start to add the account it displays a prompt on my phone to verify the connection. But at the last step it says the error I mentioned. I even tried to clear all cookies and passwords and tries again but without any success. I compared the configuration of the 1st outlook one to the 2nd and they were correct. Correct hostnames, security etc.

I also checked the account settings in of the emails on the providers page and the only difference is that in the 2nd I haven't enabled the 2FF authentication.

What am I doing wrong?

Appreciate the help! Alex

Title: POP3 mail delivering into Archives/Inbox instead of real Inbox — folder appears mis-flagged as special Inbox

Thunderbird version: 152.0.1 (Windows 11)

Problem: After migrating my profile to a new computer (copying the profile folder and profiles.ini, both with relative paths), new mail for a POP3 account (server1, account1, ekonlich@savba.sk) is being delivered into a nested folder "Archives/Inbox" instead of the account's real top-level "Inbox".

Evidence gathered so far: - Real Inbox: mailbox://ekonlich%40savba.sk@savba.savba.sk/Inbox — only 1 message, effectively untouched for weeks - Archives/Inbox: mailbox://ekonlich%40savba.sk@savba.savba.sk/Archives/Inbox — 31,186 messages, 10.9 GB, actively receiving new mail (confirmed with a test send) - Both folders display the same "special Inbox" folder icon in the folder pane - Neither folder can be renamed (rename option greyed out on both) — normally only true special folders are rename-locked - Account Settings shows only 3 legitimate accounts (POP3 savba.sk, IMAP Yahoo, Local Folders) — no hidden/orphaned account pointing at Archives - No message filter is causing this (only active filter is an unrelated SpamAssassin rule) - Identity's archive_folder pref is set to .../Archives (not .../Archives/Inbox), so this isn't the manual-archive-target setting either - Checked prefs.js directly: no mail.server.server1.* pref names an explicit "Inbox" folder path, so the special-folder designation doesn't appear to live in prefs.js - Renamed folderCache.json to force a rebuild — did not fix delivery, and also temporarily broke the Send button in compose windows (fixed by restoring the original file) - Ran "Repair Folder" on Archives/Inbox — only rebuilt the message index (.msf); did not change where new mail is delivered

Current hypothesis: The special-folder (Inbox) flag seems to be stored per-folder (likely inside each folder's own .msf index or an internal DB row) rather than in prefs.js or folderCache.json — which would explain why neither cache rebuild nor folder repair touched it. Two folders under the same account appear to carry this flag simultaneously.

Questions: 1. Where exactly is the special-folder (Inbox) designation stored, if not in prefs.js or folderCache.json? 2. Is there a supported way to clear/reassign this flag from a specific folder via the UI or Config Editor? 3. Could deleting just that one folder's .msf file (Thunderbird closed) force it to regenerate without the incorrect flag, without affecting the 31,186 messages in the mbox file itself? Is this safe?

Happy to provide further logs or additional prefs.js excerpts (redacted) if useful.

Thanks in advance.

I'm new to Thunderbird so can you explain what is the status of a Local Folder, please. Does it count against the email allowance? and How can I move emails from a Local Folder back to the main folders, please?

Hallo, ich habe gesehen dass ältere Mails in meinem Posteingang zwar noch von der Überschrift vorhanden waren aber wenn ich drauf klickte waren die Mail leer, ohne Inhalt. Ich habe dann den Rechtsklick gemacht und auf reparieren gedrückt - jetzt sind diese Mails ganz aus dem Posteingang verschwunden!

Ich hab nun im Internet ein bisschen gelesen, da wird davon gesprochen die msf (?) datei zu suchen und diese zu löschen. Und beim neuen öffnen von Thundermail würden dann die Mails alle geladen werden...Ehrlich, da traue ich mich nicht so wirklich dran, löschen hört sich immer so "böse" an...

Zur Verdeutlichung: ich habe den reinen Posteingangsordner und in diesem Posteingangsordner liegen viele Unterordner als seperate Ordner. Und eben diese separten Ordner die als Unterordner im Posteingangsordern sind dürfen NICHT gelöscht werden!

Also Hände davon lassen oder kann da nichts passieren?

Danke schonmal für Eure Hilfe.

I have changed Thunderbird E-mail account from IMAP to POP3. My question is, How do I get all my E-mail folders from the IMAP into the new POP3 account. Nothing followed the changed accounts formats.

Each time I open TBird, I get a message at the bottom left of the screen telling me that TBird has deleted X number of messages. I do not want TBird to ever delete any messages. How do I turn this automatic delete function off?

Been using outlook since 2000, I am tyrin to cut the umbilial cord to outlook as it is craper each year that passes.

Can i have more than 1 sig as i use maybe 10 different sigs for different reasons?

I see a use file do i get to choose a differt file when inserting sig or am i stuck with one and have to manualy change file or copy from somewhere else.

Once i get Thinder runnin i wil be happy to support on a monthly basis but i need to se if ti will suffice.

On Saturday morning 27 June 2026 I tried to login my Orcon email account via Thunderbird (which I have been using for a long time). But my login didn't work, I got a message saying "login to POP3.orcon.net.nz with username habitation failed." On 30th June 2026 I reported the problem to Orcon.

Orcon gave me the following settings for Thunderbird. I have done that and even made a new account: Incoming Server Type: IMAP Mail Server: imap.orcon.net.nz Port: 143 SSL: Off Authentication: On (username and password required)

Outgoing SMTP Server: Mail Server: smtp.orcon.net.nz Port: 25 SSL: Off Authentication: Off

Since then I have spent many hours and going around in circles with Orcon's Technical Support to resolve this, but no luck. They blame Thunderbird. I used Thunderbird Troubleshoot Mode. The message that comes up reads: login to server mail orcon.net.nz with username habitation failed. Please can you check that your server settings above are correct? And if there is a bug? Irma

I always get: "newmsg Trojan:WIN/SuspiciousAttachmentScript.a" and "C:\Users\newb\AppData\Local\Temp Trojan:WIN/SuspiciousAttachmentScript.a" from Mcafee when I open Thunderbird. I'm only getting this in Thunderbird and suspect it's a false positive of some kind. It's still worrying and I'd like to eliminate this. This has been going on for a couple of months. I've run several cleaners and anti-virus programs on the system, but it still returns.

thanks

I reinstalled Thunderbird and now it tries to access my gmail account even though I didn't add it. I only use gmail when I log into it from a web site. I don't want thunderbird to have access.

Please let me know if it is safe to remove the older version of Thunderbird in the Installed Apps list. I also question whether the size of the app in the list is accurate; 250 GB seems quite enormous in a 500 GB hard drive. Thanks, Hans

I was cleaning up my wife's email when I noticed there are a lot of messages unread and in the trash folder that ought not to be. I am wondering how to fix that for her. Example: some amazon.com emails about orders, or emails from favorite merchants or websites.

It was working fine on the new computer until yesterday. Now I get a pop-up box that says: ' Unable to connect The connection was refused when attempting to contact localhost.

The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few moments.

If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network connection. If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure Thunderbird is permitted to access the web.

Good morning,

I’m reaching out because I’m having trouble with my Thunderbird email and need some assistance.

I was using Thunderbird without any issues before, but now all my old emails have disappeared. I can still receive new messages, but I’m unable to send emails like I used to. I also can’t recover or view any of my previous emails.

It seems like something may have reset or become corrupted, and I’m not sure how to restore my old messages or fix the sending issue.

Could you please help me get Thunderbird working properly again and recover my old emails if possible?

Thank you for your support.

Dee

I've had a Thunderbird email account for years. My laptop quit, so I've set up the account on a new laptop. I discovered that I hadn't saved my Thunderbird password, so I followed the procedure for "forgot password". This included a new p/w, and I also got a Mozilla PIN (for future Microsoft Password Manager use), and got a Mozilla Account Recovery Key, again for future use. But I can't log into my Thunderbird account. I get the message "Authentication Error" (Wrong p/w, email, etc.) Changing IMAP / POP settings didn't help, though I did go with the recommended IMAP setting.

Any suggestions?

Allan

A while back I complained about this exact thing here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1401708 — thread's archived now so I couldn't reply there.

Ended up building a small add-on myself since nothing else out there worked anymore. It makes every global search open directly as a list, no more clicking "Show results as list" every time.

[https://amaru7.github.io/search-results-as-list|search-result...]

Free, open source, no data collection. Can't be listed on addons.thunderbird.net right now (Mozilla's paused reviewing new add-ons that use Experiment APIs), so it's a manual install for now. Apparently this is getting built into Thunderbird natively from version 154 (bug 580252), so this is really just a bridge until then.

Posting here in case anyone else still lands on the old thread like I did.