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Unable to send mail

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  • 7 views
  • Last reply by brianlec

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My email provider required that I change my email password as they had seen an unusual log-in. I did this and have changed the password on the Thunderbird desktop, but now I can receive mail but not send any. I get the message Thunderbird was unable to log in to the email server. I have Thunderbird on my phone and that works for both receiving and sending mail. It seems Thunderbird has updated the password for the incoming mail server but not for the outgoing one. I also updated Thunderbird Desktop to 128.9.2.esr (64-bit) .

My email provider required that I change my email password as they had seen an unusual log-in. I did this and have changed the password on the Thunderbird desktop, but now I can receive mail but not send any. I get the message Thunderbird was unable to log in to the email server. I have Thunderbird on my phone and that works for both receiving and sending mail. It seems Thunderbird has updated the password for the incoming mail server but not for the outgoing one. I also updated Thunderbird Desktop to 128.9.2.esr (64-bit) .

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You can check this by clicking settings>privacy&security and viewing the passwords set there.

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Did you edit the stored password?

  • In Settings > Privacy & Security
  • Scroll down to Passwords section
  • click on 'Saved Passwords'
  • Click on 'Show Passwords'

If prompted for password: If you have previously set up to use 'Primary Password' then enter the Primary Password - do not be confused this is not a mail account password. If you have not set up 'Primary Password' then you ay see a 'Windows Security' window asking for password. When you start computer and enter user account password to see desktop - that is the password you need to enter.

Mail account will have two lines, one for incoming and one for outgoing smtp. It sounds like your incoming is ok - so check the smtp line - does it have same username and password as the incoming?

  • Right click on smtp:// line for account and select 'Edit Password'
  • Completely clear all content and then carefully type the correct password.
  • When finished, click on 'Close'

Now Exit Thunderbird , wait a few moments for background processes to complete and restart Thunderbird. It should then use the updated password.

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Well, I have got it working now. Last night when I got the error message I also had a prompt to reset the password, which I did, and it still didn't send mail. Today I tried again and entered the new password and it worked. I had assumed, when it says use same password for both incoming and outgoing servers, that when I changed the password, Thunderbird would change it for both, but clearly I was wrong. Though why, when at the initial setup, you enter a password and it sets the same one for both servers automatically. Something which could be improved I think.

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