Thunderbird Community Forum

Many moons ago I used Microsoft's Outlook as my email program. When I would open Outlook, it would retrieve all of my emails from my ISP's server, permanently removing the emails from the server while downloading them into Outlook.

When I installed Thunderbird recently, it was to do the same thing. My ISP had sent me several notices that my email account was close to full, so I was looking for an email program that worked the same way Outlook does, and removes my emails from my ISP's email server as it downloads them to my PC.

The first issue I'm having is that Thunderbird does not appear to do this? Or do I simply have my Thunderbird account/settings set up incorrectly?

My next issue is directly tied to the first one. Every time I open Thunderbird it starts re-downloading all of the emails that it has previously already copied into my Thunderbird Inbox, but that are still in my email account on my ISP's email server. This is probably 15 years worth of emails and equates to thousands of emails I'm saving, and every time I open Thunderbird it starts re-downloading them again. I simply want to be able to save them to my local email client (Thunderbird) and store them on my PC's hard drive.

The final issue is also tied to the first two: As soon as it starts downloading the emails again, Thunderbird (and only Thunderbird) lags heavily and almost continuously. It lags so badly that it becomes incredibly difficult to write a new email in Thunderbird, and so I end up closing the program and logging into my ISP's email server and using their client to write my emails, or conducting my email business via my phone, which takes longer and is more challenging due to continuous fat-fingering of the phones tiny little keyboard.

So, am I missing something, or do I have some settings in Thunderbird set up incorrectly? Or does Thunderbird simply not work the same way Outlook does (or at least use to)?

Thanks in advance for any help or advice anyone is willing to give.

~ Doug

Hi,

Why am I getting this message?

Unable to write the email to the mailbox. Make sure the file system allows you write privileges, and you have enough disk space to copy the mailbox.

I started the program this morning and got a small download. Left the program open and 30 minutes later tried another download. The program shut down last night without a problem. I have compacted the inbox and there is plenty of disk space. What is the problem? Allan

I'm finding threads that include the correct emails for the subject, but also additional emails that do NOT relate to the original subject. How do I pull the other "subjects" from being in the wrong thread and create their own thread. See the highlighted emails in the attached image. Each color represents a separate thread that should stand on its own.

Thanks.

I use google to host my email account. I use Imap with TB 128.5.0 esr. MacOS 15.1.1.

Recently, maybe after last OS update, older emails stored in folders (synced with google mail) have zero body text. The same emails are fine on my ipad and phone.

I have check that all folders are subscribed and forced a sync.

Help!

Thank you!

I keep getting the following message whenever I bring up Thunderbird…

Error with account xxxxxx@gmail.com The STAT command did not succeed. Error getting message number and sizes. Mail server pop.gmail.com responded: [SYS/PERM] Your account is not enabled for POP access. Please visit your Gmail settings page and enable your account for POP access.

Please help! Thank you!

Hi

I have several different email accounts. All but one are working fine. But my primary account is continuously unresponsive and freezes. This has been going on for several weeks now and today I can't get that account to work at all.

I'm on Windows 11 and have tried re-starting my laptop in Safe Mode but the freezing persists. I've tried turning off Windows Defender - it makes no difference and I don't have any other anti-virus running.

I have 450 emails in my Inbox and don't want to lose any of them or my address book. I do back up each week.

Not very tech savvy and no clue how to sort the issue out.

All help appreciated.

Hi guys, been experiencing the rainbow / spinning wheel on my Mac with Thunderbird since I switched to Mac. I do have a decent machine with M1 chip. Thought that it was due to having a few accounts but then reinstalled Thunderbird and tried with one account only and it does the same thing. If there is no account connected to it, it loads right up. And it was working fine on Windows (loads up quite fast).

Is anyone else experiencing this? Any solutions to make the program startup better? It feels like it will freeze the computer...

I have never been a big fan of your products. However, i WAS curious about your email client, Thunderbird. So I decided to download it and try it out. THAT WAS A MISTAKE. I have a pretty good computer and have had vert little issues with other products from other companies. You products tend to freeze ALOT and I have spent the last 10 minutes attempting to enter my email information (e.g email and password) and keeps saying "UNABLE TO LOG IN AT SERVER, 'Probably wrong configuration username or password." I change the change the password and still nothing, so I manually entered protocol, hostname etc. and I am still getting same message. I check my firewall settings just be sure things were good. I checked with the my email and everything was ok there. What do wrong?

I am retired and I get a little money from the CPP & Old Age, and I authorize a donation for you $7.90. But you are taking two donations from my account, the other is $ 11.13 which I didn't authorize. Please keep the money you got already and please do not get over payment any more. thank you. Pablo.

bonjour désirant supprimer automatiquement les messages de plus de deux jours dans le dossier spam de TB, la procédure "règle de conservation" dans les propriétés du dossier ne fonctionne pas, y a t il autre chose à paramétrer ? ou un module complémentaire ?

merci de votre aide

Добрый день. Не приходят оповещения о новых сообщениях во вложенной папке. По письмам, которые попадают в папку входящие, оповещения приходят, а в созданную папку с настройками сортировки оповещения отсутствуют

Hi, I have imported mbox file and Thunderbirds shows the initial view of messages. However, when I double click the mail to open the mail, I says :

File not found

Check the file name for capitalization or other typing errors.
   Check to see if the file was moved, renamed or deleted.

The file folder path isD:\Ortaklık\1_Mail\Mail_Retail The file name is RetailOmni_postalar002.mbox

I couldnt get why it says this error.

Could you please help? Thank you

Please tell me how to sync my Thunderbird calendar to pass my appointments to my iPad/iPhone running ios18.1.1. It used to work for iOS 17. I am using the current Thunderbird edition.

When I startup Thunderbird, it sometakes takes up to one minute.

I read on this forum that it maybe due to the linkes MacOS AdressBook. How can I "unlink" it?

Any other clues?

ANTIVIRUS turned off.

The Menu at the top of e-mail to be sent disappeared so I can's send e-mail. I was able to click "File" and then click "Send Now" for a few days but the menu bar just disappeared. k.blair@sunflower.com

I’m having some issues with Thunderbird. It’s running really slowly and making my whole computer lag. Thunderbird consumes constantly 8-9% CPU while it’s on. I’m using Windows 11 and Thunderbird version 128.4.3.esr (64-bit) on a laptop with fast NVMe drives.

I’ve added 8 email accounts, and the mail folder (Roaming/Thunderbird) is about 165 GB right now. I think it’ll go over 200 GB once all the messages finish downloading.

The problem seems to be with message indexing. The Activity Manager shows it’s indexing over 300k messages. Even if I leave Thunderbird running all night, it doesn’t finish. When I get new emails in the morning, the indexing starts all over again. It takes hours and uses a lot of CPU while it’s happening.

If I disable the "Enable Global Search and Indexer" option, Thunderbird works fast and smooth, and CPU usage drops a lot. But, I assume, this means I lose the ability to search emails.

When the lagging happens, opening an email preview can take up to 3 seconds (!), and deleting a message also takes 2-3 seconds. However, when I disable the "Enable Global Search and Indexer" option, Thunderbird works ultra-fast. Opening and deleting messages is instant, and there’s no delay.

Any idea how to fix this?

I've been using Thunderbird on my PC (Win 10) for many years, and the email does not download today. I tried reconfiguring the server settings but it says: The stat command did not succeed. Servier unavailable 21

Could anyone please help Thank you Mario

Please excuse my wording as I don't know all the correct terminology. I have several email addresses with our current local phone company with our landline/internet package. Since the internet service is so poor, I would like to discontinue this internet service and go with something like Comcast. Once we cancel our internet service with our local phone company, we can no longer use those emails addresses (name@embarqmail.com).

I'm trying to find the best provider that supports POP3 protocol as that works best for our household. And I'll need to set those email addresses up BEFORE I cancel with our local company. Can I set up emails with Thunderbird (name@thunderbird.com) or should I go with something like Gmail or Outlook or Yahoo? Trying to find the best solution so we don't have to do this again if we change internet providers.

I already do have one Gmail account and it says it supports POP3 protocol - but it doesn't always work - sometimes I get an email on my phone that doesn't come through on my desktop computer - and you have to type Recent: while setting up the account.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Une erreur est survenue lors de l’envoi de l’e-mail. Le serveur e-mail a répondu : Fyb8tba6aT9Xf Authentification requise. Authentication Required. OFR203_200 [200]. Veuillez vérifier que votre adresse e-mail dans les paramètres du compte est correcte et essayer à nouveau

Bonjour Les messages ne s'affichent pas en mode 'normal' Je dois me mettre en mode 'DEPANNAGE' pour les afficher ?

pouvez vous m'aider Merci

Version thunderbird 128.5.0esr 32 bits