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Moved from windows 10 PC to macbook pro and Thunderbird prompts me for a password when sending and getting email

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  • Last reply by jakata

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As Title states, I was using Thunderbird on a windows 10 PC, and installed Thunderbird on a macbook pro running High Sierra. I successfully transferred the Thunderbird folder with the profile in it and everything works fine on the mac, but Thunderbird keeps asking for a password every time I get mail, or send mail. After searching, and reading other posts related to this issue I went into Tools and Account Settings and changed "normal password" to "no authentication" on the outgoing server. (Connection security is STARTTLS). Still have the password prompt coming up every time I get mail or send mail. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks.

As Title states, I was using Thunderbird on a windows 10 PC, and installed Thunderbird on a macbook pro running High Sierra. I successfully transferred the Thunderbird folder with the profile in it and everything works fine on the mac, but Thunderbird keeps asking for a password every time I get mail, or send mail. After searching, and reading other posts related to this issue I went into Tools and Account Settings and changed "normal password" to "no authentication" on the outgoing server. (Connection security is STARTTLS). Still have the password prompt coming up every time I get mail or send mail. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks.

Chosen solution

There is an issue where profiles copied between Windows and Linux can't store passwords properly, due to the difference between \ and / in path names. I don't know if this is the problem in your case, but you could try the solution: delete or rename the pkcs11.txt file in the profile folder, then restart TB. To open the profile folder, Help/Troubleshooting Information, click Open Folder, close TB before making changes. At the same time, set the authentication to what is required by the account provider.

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Chosen Solution

There is an issue where profiles copied between Windows and Linux can't store passwords properly, due to the difference between \ and / in path names. I don't know if this is the problem in your case, but you could try the solution: delete or rename the pkcs11.txt file in the profile folder, then restart TB. To open the profile folder, Help/Troubleshooting Information, click Open Folder, close TB before making changes. At the same time, set the authentication to what is required by the account provider.

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Thank you sfhowes ! I deleted the pkcs11.txt file, and everything works now.