How can I reinstall Thunderbird and add accounts from scratch?
After much trouble with the common Authentication failure one email account, I deleted all my passwords as is suggested. Well, then ALL the accounts got the authentication error! I have repeated that and re-logged into all my Gmail accounts but that didn't help. I then proceeded to delete the Thunderbird app, download the latest version and install it. At the end of the 'install', it automatically reloads all my accounts just as they were before and the same problems with authentication persist.
So... how can I uninstall and reinstall and start with adding my accounts one by one instead of them being automatically populated with a new install? I hope that makes sense. I want to start with a clean slate to try to get past this authentication issue.
Otherwise, what am I missing on dealing with the server authentication issue?
Thanks!
Все ответы (6)
Are your gmail accounts POP or IMAP? What is your version of TB, and what kind of authentication is applied, 'normal password' or OAuth2? Reinstalling the app won't help in this case, because the user data is stored in a separate location, the profile folder.
If you want to work with a new profile, Help/Troubleshooting, click about:profiles, and create a new profile. See these topics for advice on setting up the accounts:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1271734#answer-1290332
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1272184#answer-1290567
Thanks sfhowes.
They are IMAP. TB is 68.5.0, just downloaded. As for authentication, it's set to OAuth2 but I don't know about 'required'. That's what TB set it to for the original automatic setup of the email accounts on two different computers.
I'll check out the link about new profiles. I assume I can delete the old/start a new one and that will allow me to rebuild/add the accounts from scratch? I'll wait to hear from you on that before I do anything.
This authentication this is confounding. Nothing changed in the account settings with the new install as it must be using the old profile but yet it can't authenticate to the server. At one point, I noticed the passwords must have been assigned by TB(?) because there were not my google/gmail passwords (but a bunch of random characters). I updated them to my google pws but it still had the authentication issue.
You can create a new profile without affecting the old one, and after you have transferred things like address books and calendars from the old to the new, the old profile can be deleted from about:profiles.
When you add an account with OAuth2 authentication, an oauth:// entry will be stored in password manager, and it will look like a random string of characters. However, you only need to enter the regular account password in the OAuth browser window at initial connection.
sfhowes... OK, well... I tried the safe mode stuff and noted settings but the authentication problem persisted. Perhaps I missed something. Hard to tell. (I have a decades long technical background but sometimes it's all in the details.) So, I did as another chap did and removed all my accounts then removed the app. I then moved 'some' of the TB files in AppData/Roaming out to my desktop in case needed. I reinstalled TB and set up may accounts and everything works fine... except I lost my address book which I had saved off and tried to copy to... well, never mind, it didn't work. I then moved my whole TB profile from one PC to the one I'm working on and it all seems to be OK, including address book etc... I'm now much older than I was yesterday. I will get even older if it starts to malfunction after all this. :-/
Thanks for you help!
sfhowes... OK, well... I tried the safe mode stuff and noted settings but the authentication problem persisted. Perhaps I missed something. Hard to tell. (I have a decades long technical background but sometimes it's all in the details.) So, I did as another chap did and removed all my accounts then removed the app. I then moved 'some' of the TB files in AppData/Roaming out to my desktop in case needed. I reinstalled TB and set up may accounts and everything works fine... except I lost my address book which I had saved off and tried to copy to... well, never mind, it didn't work. I then moved my whole TB profile from one PC to the one I'm working on and it all seems to be OK, including address book etc... I'm now much older than I was yesterday. I will get even older if it starts to malfunction after all this. :-/
Thanks for you help!
What exactly is the authentication error.
Note that oAth requires cookies to be enabled. So if you or some security software you have installed disables it everything fails.
If you have password manager software installed either with your security software or independently this is often a cause of password prompts not appearing as the software overrides the request.