Thunderbird Community Forum

Why does it take 30 minutes or more before Thunderbird downloads the new messages for the day. Most of the time Thunderbird will not download new message for 30 minutes or more. And some times it will let me know i have new messages and not download them Pleas help. I must have missed some indicator

Thank You Richard Merrell <redacted>

Hi There, I've added some Gmail accounts successfully but with others I'm getting an authentication error even though I'm using the correct credentials e.g. e-mail and password, Thankyou for your time, Regards John

I have an email account with multiple identities (aliases), some of which I would like to add under the same OpenPGP key that I'm using for the main identity. I couldn't find any option in the OpenPGP Key Manager in Thunderbird which would allow me to add identities to the key. How should I go about doing this?

On my laptop, I was easily able to add a second email account, same domain. When I now try on my new desktop, I click add account, it goes to the accounbt hub with the details, and sit spinning a wheel forever.

The second account is known to Thunderbirt/Mozilla, and has been used for a few years.

The domain is with IONOs, same as the first account.

What process should I be using and why is this not working?

How can I move these emails out of the input folder by accessing the data directly? Alternatively, is there a way to 'reset' these emails? I have archived emails from Mar to Jun 2025.

This is not the first time this glitch is occurring. Only my primary address seems to have this bug.

I have created a new IMAP account where previously I had a POP3 account. The IMAP acct now fetches email from the same GoDaddy server account as the POP3 account used. I want to continue using the same Local Folders location as before, in order to maintain and update the large amount of selectively retained email permanently stored there.

Previously with POP3, I had redirected Local Folders from the default location on the C: drive to a different location (K:\...\Thunderbird\Local Folders) on a data drive. Under Account Settings > Local Folders, Thunderbird still points to the desired data drive directory (K:\...\Thunderbird\Local Folders). Does this mean that the new IMAP account will also use the redirected Local Folders location or will it use the Default location on the C: drive listed after creating the IMAP account? I ask because under Account Settings > Server Settings for the IMAP Mail Server, the "Local Directory" entry points to C:\Users\MCM\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\......

Perhaps the "Local Directory" is not related to the "Local Folders" location?

Thank you for helping with this somewhat confusing situation.

Michael M.

Hi,

Have used Thunderbird on OSX for many many years, with many different accounts.

(Had about 10+ accounts back in the days - phew!)

Now - my main account is Gmail, but I also have an iCloud-account.

These have been working well, but as of yesterday, I suddenly can't create or even see previously created folders on my iCloud account.

They show up just fine if I log in with a browser (total is 7 sub-folders, Trash excluded).

The really frustating thing is that I do in fact see three of the seven folders in Thunderbird. And this is after deleting the account with message data, and re-installing the account (and yes, using an app-specific password in my Apple ID settings).

All folders shows up just fine in Mail.app - but for reasons (message filtering, etc) I really like to be able to use Thunderbird as my mail client on OSX.

First screenshot: iCloud sub-folder list Second screenshot: Thunderbird sub-folder list

Any help/tips/workarounds are greatly and humbly appreciated!

TIA

my current ISP, Livingston Communications is closing it's offices and all services. Are you a service provider or do I need to go over the Netscape or something? At 83 all this tech stuff can be confusing. Please help or advise. Thank you

I opened Thunder today and there was no header for messages. I can double click on the message and it opens a second window to view the message. I want to be able to see the message in the folder. Is there a fix?

Can I get a actual Thunderbird email account, if so how & where do I do that. I have had firefox and thunderbird for many years and would like to have an actual thunderbird email account if that is possible but I never see an option for that anywhere on your menu or services. ?Sincerely, Agnes (Maggie) Wellens

I made a mistake. I set Local Folders / Disk Space to Deleted Messages older that 180 days, thinking that it would put them in trash were I could go through them and save the important ones after resetting Disk Space. Imagine my surprise when I discovered the trash was empty. Is there any way to recover these messages?

I have an old email with windows live mail and want to migrate it to thunderbird since windows live mail has been discontinued for a while. Every time i try and set it up and migrate it, it doesn't seem to find the email server (most likely due to windows live mail beings ancient) and then I need to manually set it up. But even after trying to follow guides, I still have issues. Firstly, it says the hostname is invalid even though it contains only valid characters. I seriously wouldn't even know where to start. Would it just be easier to make a new email. Any help would be appreciated.

How can I install Thunderbird on an external USB drive for my Mac, and, import an mbox to it (or a bunch of mboxes?) that also lives on that external drive? And keep this email account data disconnected from the original account it came from, that is, do NOT have it sync with Gmail? Perhaps it's best if I describe my situation and the result I'm trying to achieve.... (sorry for the length of this question; I'm trying to be precise and comprehensive at the same time 😬)

Situation: 1. Used macOS Mail for years, to manage a Gmail account 2. Recently used takeout.google.com to download the mbox for this account, which turned out to be 91.01GB (!) 3. I tried using macOS Mail on another computer to open it, and it's not happening; file seems too large; I get an error message saying the Mac's memory has been used up and Mail has stopped working 4. I'm currently waiting for a subsequent Google Takeout download that I expect will consist of many, many mbox files (each mbox corresponding to its own label, according to How to Download/Export Emails with Google Takeout) 5. I have limited space on my computer and would like to avoid accommodating 91.01+GB of historical email data

Desired result: 1. I'm basically trying to create a back-up of all my Gmail emails so that... 2. I can delete a bunch of them, reorganize them, etc. using my macOS Mail program, while being confident that... 3. I can always return to the easily accessible and searchable emails in Thunderbird

Add'l Thoughts/Specific questions: 1. Can I install and run the macOS version of Thunderbird on an external USB thumbdrive by simply dragging the TB app icon to the external drive to start the installation process? 2. Assuming TB has successfully been installed on the external drive, how do I make sure TB knows that the data from the mbox(es) I import should "live" on the external drive as well?

Thank you so much for reading and in advance for your advice.