Have you recently tried to logon to your webmail account to see emails? If no then please confirm you can logon to webmail ok. Servers do like you logon to webmail once in a while to keep them happy and prove you are you.

I was getting this error in Thunderbird: "mail server responded server error - please try later"

Well after a couple of days of this irritating message and no access via Thunderbird.............. Note: I could easily logon to the standard webmail : https://home.bt.com/login/loginform

Then I discovered there were two places I needed to logon to webmail. BT help does not tell you this.

It turned out that the BT and Yahoo servers were not in synch. So I used this link to logon: https://login.yahoo.com/

Reset the password to the same password I was currently using to access bt webmail and which is also the same as being used in Thunderbird bt mail account.

If for some reason, you are redirected to anything other than what that link says above, then clear your browser cache and re try.

Once I had done this, the yahoo and bt servers were back in sync and everything has been good since. I did not need to change passwords.

It's worth a try.

Thanks VERY much old chap. Much appreciated. I did what you suggested and so far so good. Although it does seem a bit slow, but that's OK.

They (BT) did ring me however to 'sort out the problem' which is :-

"It's all Thunderbirds fault because it is erratic and keeps altering settings." I told them that I did not agree with them, and that it works perfectly well with other none BT accounts, and if the nonBT accounts make it work why can't they. They then told me my complaint is to be escalated higher. Fun isn't it?

Glad to hear it is working for you. You would have thought BT would be aware of the crazy idea that you have to logon to a yahoo server usually not used to access BT webmail just to get both singing the same tune.

Could you mark the comment that I posted which contained the answer for you as a 'Chosen Solution', as this may help others searching for answers.

Unfortunately this fix did not work. Thank you all the same. R.E.Aucote

re :or resetting account I've also had recent instances of server reset message, but emails are ok so far.

I'd retry logging on to both webmails again to see if it gets things working again. Then you have some definate info to tell BT if it works.