Hello

Please give some info about your Thunderbird version. If it's an antiquity, it may have problems with new servers if your EarthLink server has been updated recently, so in this case try to update (do backup first).

If your Thunderbird is recent, look at your account config and compare it to the earthlink configuration.

If all fails, go to Thunderbird advanced configuration, set mailnews.pop3.loglevel to 'All' in the config editor (Settings / General) and open Tools / Developer Tools / Error console, try to get a mail then copy / paste the changes that appeared in the Error console in a new post on this forum. If necessary, hide personal information by pasting first in an editor (try to not mangle the rest).

Hello gp, thanks for the reply. I've been working on it yesterday and today. I'm learning all about Thunderbird. To answer your question, I'm using the latest Thunderbird version 102.4.2 (32 bit) on Windows 10. MailWasherPro is version 7.12.67. I also see my emails on my Verzion Motorola Z2 cell phone using software PCX29.159-21-3 with the configuration updated on January 6, 2022.

While looking for the latest Thunderbird version I discovered that there was an update on November 7th, the same day things went haywire. Seems like more than a coincidence.

The other interesting thing is that someone (perhaps one of the Earthlink techs) set up a second Earthlink account with the same name but using IMAP instead of POP. The new emails are coming into the new account.

I can't find anything like Options or Configuration or any of the things mentioned in the articles Cannot receive messages, Cannot send messages, or Config editor. I might as well be reading Greek!

Now that I'm seeing new messages on my phone, in Mailwasher, and the new IMAP Earthlink account, dare I change my old Earthlink account from POP to IMAP?? I'm afraid I'll really mess things up if I do it without help. Obviously if the Thunderbird update on Nov. 7th made things stop working it would be best if the bug could be fixed. I really don't know what I"m doing here so your help is greatly appreciated! Thanks, jerfitzg

Someone did setup a new mail account in your Thunderbird installation on your own computer and you don't know how it happened and who did it ? if an external person is changing stuff on your computer using some sort of remote software, you should have given explicit authorization.

About something called 'Options', I don't see anything like this word in my message. I said to look in 'Settings'.

You can't change an account type from Pop to Imap. You have to create a new Imap account then delete the old Pop account. By default, the 'remove message data' checkbox is UNchecked, and you have better keep it that way else you will lose all old messages.

Be aware that by switching to Imap, you are leaving all messages on the ISP server. If there are low limits to the amount of mails that you can keep on the ISP server, you will have to manage this yourself, for example by downloading messages from the server on a local folder if you want to keep them then delete them from the server. On the other hand, if you don't bother with backups, data will (probably) be safer on the ISP mail server than on your computer.

Yes, it would have been the Earthlink tech. I gave permission for remote troubleshooting and watched as the cursor moved around. I would not normally allow it, but this is way beyond my ability!

I got the Options idea from the Thunderbird articles. I've been in all the Settings tabs I could find but was not successful. Everything seems to be set as it should be and nothing has changed recently.

Now I'll have to absorb what you told me so I can decide how to handle it. Do you have any knowledge about the November 7th update and why it might have messed up my access? Has TB changed servers recently? Grasping at straws, I know, but.... I'll return later and thanks again.

if you don't want to make the effort to debug the problem, so be it. Just delete your Pop3 account (don't delete the data when asked, the default is not to delete it) and keep using the Imap account that your ISP created for you.

gp, when I was working on it yesterday I saw an email in the imap account that I wanted to keep and blithely moved it to the pop account. Every page in every folder immediately turned into the Inbox page of the imap account. I thought I lost all my emails and was afraid to even turn off my computer so called my local guru who worked with me to solve the problem. When he deleted the imap account all my pop folders returned to normal. Unfortunately I've just gotten to retrieving my incoming messages from MailWasherPro (it's working just fine) but they're not coming into my pop account. From what I saw of imap I don't want it. It does not suit my needs at all. I want to keep the pop account but need to find out why the TB upgrade on Nov. 7th destroyed my system! So, I have now spent about five days working on the problem and it appears to be a TB issue.

I'm still getting the Host contacted, sending login information message when I say Get Messages.

Well, if you want the problem solved then go back to my first reply, read it, apply it to enable debugging and report the error console here.

It is now fixed and back to the pop server which suits my needs. I had my local computer guru work on it. Thanks for your help. Jerfitzg

We have 3 pop accounts and no imap.