Thunderbird Support Forum

I have been using Thunderbird for many years, untill march 2023. Then an authentication error made an end to it. I have tried everything I could find on internet, uninstalled Thunderbird, removed everything from the program / data / roaming directory, deleted everything I could find and checked that cookies are allowed. I have used BlueMail as an alternative but I love Thunderbird much more, so I now tried again to make a fresh start when a new installation of the latest version of Thunderbird. Connecting to the email server of caiway works fine, but I am unable to connect to a gmail. I have tried two different gmail accounts, both give the same error "Unable to connect". Is there anything I can do to solve this problem and enjoy using Thunderbird again?

I need to install a mailbox on a new machine. I have got as far as the second screen on manual configuration, ie the one which starts with IMAP etc but I can't remember what to enter in some of the boxes. I don't know the port number (or even what that means) and on the host name for the outgoing server I think it began with relay but can't remember the rest. My ISP is refusing to help so please can you? JW

Migrated now 77yo father a couple years ago from Win XP to Win 11.

He had been using Outlook Express for years, so I may have chosen Thunderbird ESR as replacement. He has the latest version (17.0.9) but it has stopped working due to Gmail's security change (oAuth).

Should I backup his profile, uninstall ESR, then download and install latest TBird version to get working again? Thanksbold text

TB kept telling me I needed to restart my computer to finish update. I did - multiple times. I tried to uninstall & found 2 versions in my Apps folder. I used uninstall for a version 78.7.1 installed 2/6/21. It keeps giving me the 'Need to restart" message. After multiple failures, I uninstalled a later version w/o any problems. Still can't uninstall 78.7.1. So tried to reinstall TB. It downloaded but when I get to the install screen, it says I need to restart to finish the update. Again, no results. How do I force the uninstall of TB that is obviously causing the problem so I can start fresh?

I want to transfer my email accounts and profiles from my Windows 10 machine to my Mac. Import failed. Following the instructions on Mozilla's site, I searched for my profiles folder on my Windows machine. Contrary to the instructions, which said there was ONE profile folder, there are 2: one in the "Roaming" folder and another in the "App Data > Local" folder. I copied both onto a usb stick, plugged the stick into my Mac installed Thunderbird, pointed Thunderbird to one of the 2 Thunderbird folders on my usb, and hit "import". Import failed. "Import failed unexpectedly, more information may be available in the Error Console". I have no idea where or what the Error Console is.

Any suggestions as to how to successfully migrate my profiles will be gratefully accepted.

New computer. Win 11 Thunderbird ver: 102.13.0 Set up my 3 existing mail accounts on the new machine; 2 work fine but my primary account cannot send (but it does receive emails). All accounts were created with identical settings (confirmed there's no misspellings, etc).

I deleted and recreated the primary account 4 times. Same problem each time I try and send an email, "can't authenticate outgoing server (SMTP)."

My service provider, Spectrum, doesn't support Thunderbird. Is there any chance that this SMTP problem is on Spectrum's server? Spectrum's online webmail service works sending/receiving email for that primary account.

Anyone got intel?,, ,

Dear TB helpers, I have a migration problem for email messages needing to be transferred please to a new PC. They resided in my previous TB within local folders, i.e., on my old PC.

Having backed them up by copying and pasting the old profile (and all its contents) on to an external HDD, I have also recopied the profile to a desktop folder on the new PC. It has a lot of sbd suffix folders and msf subfolders and many items with a name but no suffix.

The newly installed TB (IMAP method for my gmail address) on the new PC has a different 8-character ID as the default user new profile, i.e., different from the 8-character ID for the TB profile on the old PC.

Can the old email messages be added to the new TB local folders in the new PC under the new profile by following certain simple steps? I would not want to lose these 25 GB of messages as some could be needed for future reference. Just looking for continuity really but do not trust my knowledge of TB.

Regards, Bill 30may22.

I have cleaned and re-cleaned existing Thunderbird installation; export still creates a 2.7GB file which import fails with. HOW DO I MIGRATE MY PROFILE? (Firefox migrate was smooth as butter) I have used Thunderbird for 10 years, but am ready to switch to a different mail client if I can't get it migrated. PLEASE HELP!

I am struggling with Gmail and Yahoo mail account in TB these few days. I hit almost the same errors from both. I generated app password for Yahoo mail, and put it in when setting up new account. For connection security: SSL/TLS For authentication method: tried with Normal password, Encrypted password, and OAuth2 However, I am seeing the expected authentication window pop up when trying the OAuth2. For all three authentication method: errors are always the same --- unable to connect to your IMAP server. I've followed another instruction to change maximum number of server connections to cache into 1 or 10. Error messages were the same imap one. So, what should I do/try for next?

I have three calendars that I use on one of Tbirds installed on one of my PCs. I can export two of them but not the third one. If I click on the third calendar in the left column then select export, nothing happens. When I do the same with the other two, a dialog box opens where I can change or add the ICS file and its destination folder. If I try using Events and Tasks to export, the same thing happens. It is a mystery to me. Does anyone know of a fix for this? I am using Tbird 102.11.0 (64-bit) release.

I am the tech admin at my school and one of my user's hard drives is totally full. I ran a sorted disk space command and found that the folder ~/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/5itb4j1n.default/ImapMail/imap.googlemail.com is 57GB. The hard drive is only 120 GB! Needless to say, I need to get this off the computer. It is a MacBook Air M1 running OS Sonoma 14.1.1 (can't upgrade because no disk space!)

The user accesses her Gmail through Thunderbird. There are messages in her Thunderbird history that are not available to her in Gmail because she integrated Thunderbird previously with her Yahoomail (before we switched to Google for our mail server). So we cannot delete Thunderbird because she needs it to be able to access old emails.

I'd like to know some options for having her continue to use Thunderbird (because she likes its layout) but without Thunderbird downloading and keeping a copy of every message/attachment that arrives.

I also want to know the best way to backup her existing Thunderbird and then be able to access it in the future, so that if she does need to access her historical archive of email messages, she can.

I was running an older version of Thunderbird (don't ask the version because the About screen now shows 115.3.1) that had a bland color scheme (best way to describe it) that I downloaded about 6 months ago. When I first opened TB today (before attempting an upgrade) I got a screen talking about the benefits of 115.3.1 and showing colorful screens with more options than I had with the current TB. With TB open, I went to Help > About Thunderbird and the screen showed an upgrade to 115.3.1 was available. I believe I clicked Upgrade (but the upgrade may have started on its own) and the new software downloaded. I saw a message saying I had to restart to complete the upgrade and assumed that meant restart my PC. I closed all applications and restarted the computer. Opening TB, I get the same old bland screen, definitely not 115.3.1. Going to Help > About Thunderbird now gets me the message that "Thunderbird is up to date." What did I do wrong and/or what should I do to get 115.3.1 installed and functioning? I'm running Windows 11. Thanks in advance.

My old Windows 7 PC laptop died. I used Thunderbird with a personal profile gmail address I will call Profile 1, and another email address I created from my online website that no longer exists, and I will call it Profile 2. I'm now running Windows 11 on a new PC. I downloaded a new Thunderbird program on the new PC. I attached the old Win 7 hard drive to the new PC and used Mozbackup to restore my old profile using my previous .pcv file backup. Profile 1 restored, but with emails only back to 2017. Profile 2 was not restored at all. Please help. Thank you.

I am completly confused with migration, I want to move T/bird as I have it in Win 10 to a new machine with Win 11.

None of the articles make sense, the link to the "profile folder" takes me to a big list of things not recognised here:

C:\Users\R-LT-NOVA\Downloads\tfr data

The R-LT etc is the name of this machine.

Thunderbird is working fine but there is nothing under users>AppData>Roaming>Thunderbird although a "prifile" there does seem to point to the file above.

Thanks in anticipation.

I've been forced to use Windows so I installed Thunderbird 119 on Windows 11. (Please note that I've been using Thunderbird for 20 years on Mac and Linux and am happy how it's set up on those platforms)

I think the UI on Windows sucks and I want to have the same setup and same GUI on the Windows version of Thunderbird.

How do I copy all the settings or config or whatever from the version I am happy with (Mac) to the Windows 11 version?

PS the biggest piss off is threaded views within the message pane and the missing buttons at the top of the message pane. I don't want to see all the past replies in the Message Pane and have to scroll down down down down where I accidentally found the send button. This 115+ UI isn't prime time yet.

Hi all I recently bought a new laptop that has to be exchanged as it's faulty. I had no problem moving my profile from my win 10 laptop to the new win 11 one, however I now need to put all my emails back to my old laptop and although I can go through the import procedure when I restart Thunderbird none of the new emails are there. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I'm trying to set up a bellsouth.net (ATT) account using the instructions at https://kb.uwm.edu/uwmhd/page.php?id=109671. The account setup flows perfectly until it's time to choose the Authentication Method for the Outgoing Server where the choice for OAuth2 is missing (see pic). Why isn't the OAuth2 option showing up? I'm using the most recent release of Thunderbird. Thank you.

I installed Thunderbird yesterday and tried to connect my work account, which is a Google workspace gmail account with the organization's domain instead of gmail.com. I set the servers as smtp.gmail.com and managed to select OAuth2 for authentication (this was difficult and required me to set the port at 465). I went through the permission process with Google, which now acknowledges (in a very warning sort of way) that Thunderbird has access to my account. I even sent an email from Thunderbird, which showed up in the sent folder on the gmail account and was received by the sent to account. However, I see only an empty inbox and empty local Trash and Outbox folders in Thunderbird. It's just not syncing anything (or maybe downloading anything?) from the gmail account. I need it to sync all my mail folders and my calendars as well, so two big problems need to be solved before I can use Thunderbird at all. I sure appreciate any help I can get!

Hi, sorry to ask, but my E drive (where I keep data, etc) died. I do have backup and have the whole Thunderbird\Profiles folder. I watched the YT video, but I don't get it. It should just be easy to point the whole folder to it. All my stuff on C is fine, so it does come up with the email accts and the address book. I did try to do an Import, but got errors. Please Help! I am an OLD IT guy, so I am not stupid. It should be easier than this! I will attach 2 pics. Maybe someone will take pity on me...LOL.

FYI, I use an Over 10 year old W7Prof Installation, migrated thru about 3 pc's, on an i-5 (yes, I am lazy And Love W7) and my 1TB hard drive is over 12 years old (yes, I know...don't ask), And It DIED. So you can imagine what I been going thru since last Sat!!! WHAT A MESS AND BRAIN STRAIN!

Also, I HATE Gmail Web Mail!!!

Oh, and I have donated before. I had Windows Live Mail forever, but when Googley put the OAUTH PW mod in, I had to switch. I do like T-Bird. Sorry to write so much...Thanks again...

THANKS, Sam in FL