By 'changing your account', I assume you created a NEW account for IMAP, and did not attempt to modify the POP account. So the POP account should be immaterial here. Maybe if you share more information, someone here can assist. Thanks.

ok. thanks. i think thunderbird automatically created the imap inbox. but whenever i hit send and receive it was asking me to put in my gmail password and I did but it never moved past t hat point. it just did "connecting" (or something). for several minutes. that is too long.

so i went and looked at modifying the pop account (and there are places that tell you how to do it). but maybe that is the problem.

i will try again.

i must say I find that the thunderbird major updates are always quite challenging to understand and implement. while I'm not a computer genius, I fell pretty confident in my skills.

Think about what you want and why you are doing this. POP downloads and stores everything in your computer, and the stored emails may not still exist anywhere else. This used to be handy when email providers limited the amount of stored email you were allowed. However if you delete the POP account in Thunderbird you could lose all that history. IMAP stores everything online and your Thunderbird 'views' it and only downloads emails when you want to open/save them. Everything stays on the online server, which is useful if you use multiple devices. You cannot change a POP to an IMAP, as David said. You can add new IMAP account settings so that Thunderbird can access the same email account using IMAP, while keeping the POP account settings to preserve your history. If you really want to transition to IMAP, you might want to copy all the old messages to Local Folders first, so that the POP account can be deleted, OR keep the POP account settings but set it so that it never checks for new email and use only the IMAP to fetch new messages. You mentioned Thunderbird updates - you are not required to change to IMAP by Thunderbird. However if Thunderbird lost your settings during an update it might prompt you to set up a new account. If that is what happened, and you do not intend to change over to IMAP, that is a different question! Maybe you just need to direct Thunderbird to use your old profile settings. Back to David...

Thanks for all the feedback.

the discussion about pop vs imap -- isn't that just intellectual conversation? I received an email that google will no longer support "less safe" apps and that everyone had to move over to imap.

now that I'm on imap, this is a complete pain in the butt.

I have a great connection, but it takes forever to read emails and search for emails.

I have to be missing something...

did I not need to go to imap if using google? I don't have a google email, i just use it to process my emails. should i move my email?

There is obviously miscommunications out there. Google continues to support POP accounts, but with OAUTH2 security. I know this because I just created a POP setup for one of my gmail accounts. I regret that you have been led to believe otherwise.

did you hear me just scream??

so I can just go back...

I hope there aren't any weapons readily available to you. I'm just the messenger here... But the good news is that you found out early. But I'm confused. You say you do not use Google email? Then I'm not sure what the problem is.

I agree - POP and IMAP are the user's choice. Gmail has settings that allow you to turn on the option(s) you want. You can even run both - IMAP on one device and POP on another if you so wish. https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7104828?hl=en-gb OAuth, 2 factor authentications and 'less secure apps' is a separate topic, having to do with how Thunderbird is set up to allow access to your Gmail account. That does not prevent you using POP as the method by which emails are downloaded/stored. Thunderbird itself is not a 'less secure app' - current versions are quite capable of being set up to meet Gmail's requirements. In your case you already have your account set up as POP in Thunderbird. So you need to make sure POP is turned on in Gmail, and that the POP account in Thunderbird is able to connect with 2 factor authentication. Over to David.

I have another 'get back to first principles' question. If Gmail is not your email service, what is your actual email account? We are confused why you are using Gmail at all, if that is not the originating email account. From what you said it sounds as if you might be forwarding from another email, to Gmail to 'process' your email, then downloading to Thunderbird. Is that correct? If so, why not connect Thunderbird direct to your actual email account instead of through Gmail? Sometimes people set something up in a hurry and forget that there might be other options, like the IMAP or POP question, so ask: what 'processing' do you want to happen between your actual email account and Thunderbird?

thanks everyone.

it is all back to where it once was ...

My email is through network solutions but it got botched up too much. So i still have a unique address (myname dot us) but it goes bounces off netsol and heads to me through gmail.

I probably should send it back to netsol and save the $5 bucks/month.

anyways, i put the pop back and it all is fine now.

Thank you.

I'm glad all is okay. Will you please now mark this closed. That will remove it from the open issues list. Thank you.