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3 Thunderbird email acctounts but only 1 user's password works

  • 6 replies
  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by sbaig

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We use three separate T'bird email accounts: mine, spouse's, and one for technical data. A catastrophic failure of Windows 10 required a "professional" shop to get our system going again. The shop re-installed Thunderbird and somehow got all three separate email accounts to display in a single left-side column. ( Turning off the "Global" mode seems to not be a cure for our problem.) When I wish to send an email from my account and my SMPT server shows my wife's email address as the user name then I'm required to know her email password (which I don't) or the email server throws an exception and fails to process my email. My wife, however, can send email from her T'bird account with no problem. If I change the user name in my SMTP box to my email address I can send email but now my wife can't send email because she doesn't know my account password (as far as I know  :-) ). Similarly for our third email account: only one user name and password can be active in the SMTP settings to send email from any of our accounts. Ideally we wish to separate our three accounts so each will work as they used to, with its own name and password. Images are available if requested.

Your assistance in unwinding this problem will be appreciated.

We use three separate T'bird email accounts: mine, spouse's, and one for technical data. A catastrophic failure of Windows 10 required a "professional" shop to get our system going again. The shop re-installed Thunderbird and somehow got all three separate email accounts to display in a single left-side column. ( Turning off the "Global" mode seems to not be a cure for our problem.) When I wish to send an email from my account and my SMPT server shows my wife's email address as the user name then I'm required to know her email password (which I don't) or the email server throws an exception and fails to process my email. My wife, however, can send email from her T'bird account with no problem. If I change the user name in my SMTP box to my email address I can send email but now my wife can't send email because she doesn't know my account password (as far as I know :-) ). Similarly for our third email account: only one user name and password can be active in the SMTP settings to send email from any of our accounts. Ideally we wish to separate our three accounts so each will work as they used to, with its own name and password. Images are available if requested. Your assistance in unwinding this problem will be appreciated.

Chosen solution

The first picture shows the smtp server for C@bellsouth, and should be used by the C@bellsouth account. The second shows that A@bellsouth is sending on the smtp with the A@bellsouth user name. That should work for A as long as the password applied for smtp A is the same as the one used by A@bellsouth.

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Tools/Account Settings, select an account in the left pane, then look at Outgoing Server (SMTP) in the lower right pane. Each account should send through an smtp server that uses the same user name/password as the selected account. Mixing incoming and outgoing server credentials, or sending from all accounts through the 'Default' smtp server, leads to the kind of things you are experiencing.

You may already have all the necessary smtp servers defined in Outgoing Server (SMTP) at the bottom left of Account Settings, but if not, add what is missing and assign them to the accounts so that account A sends on smtp A, account B sends on smtp B etc.

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Thanks for your prompt reply. I think I understand what you have written.

Each of the three email accounts (A, B, C) uses - as far as I can tell - the same SMTP Outgoing Server: AT&T - smtp.mail.yahoo.com, the only difference being the user name. The SMTP Server address is the same for all three accounts, and is the default outbound server. If account A is opened, to send mail from Account A the SMTP user name must be A@SMTP or the mail server throws a failure exception. Then, if I want to send email from Account B its outgoing SMTP already has the user name from the previous email from A. That is, the last used SMTP server name gets assigned to the emailer of choice, i.e. the username is sticky across all three accounts. I tried duplicating the outgoing SMTP's for Accounts B and C and not make them the default, but that didn't work, either. I can assemble some images of each Account setup if that can help.

Sincerely,

Stephen Baig

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It's OK to use the same server, smtp.mail.yahoo.com, but if sending from account A, it must be using a server that applies the same user name and password. So, in Tools/Account Settings, Outgoing Server (SMTP) at the bottom of the left pane, there should be yahooA, yahooB, yahooC, all with identical settings except for the User name. The passwords are stored in Tools/Options/Security/Passwords/Saved passwords, and there should be entries for each smtp, with the passwords matching accounts A, B and C. If the passwords are incorrect, delete them and enter the correct ones when prompted the next time youu send. Finally, as mentioned above, set each incoming account, A, B and C to send on smtp A, B and C respectively.

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Some of my Account settings still seem not to be correct. I've taken the liberty of attaching two screenshot images that might explain to you what I'm not yet doing correctly.

Thank you for your continuing help.

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Chosen Solution

The first picture shows the smtp server for C@bellsouth, and should be used by the C@bellsouth account. The second shows that A@bellsouth is sending on the smtp with the A@bellsouth user name. That should work for A as long as the password applied for smtp A is the same as the one used by A@bellsouth.

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Thanks for your help!