Thunderbird Community Forum

New user - I recently moved thousands of messages from my inbox to a local folder.

At some point, Thunderbird asked me to compact folders and I said yes. I noticed today that I am now missing about 13 years worth of messages from my local inbox folder.

Since I moved them, it deleted the messages out of the original inbox (I also logged into that account via the web and they are not located in the trash on the server either). There are now only a handful of messages there.

Does compacting mean that messages are deleted? Everything else I read said specifically that it would NOT delete messages. Any tips on how I can recover some really important messages? (It deleted about 13 years worth of messages from early May 2026 back to mid-2013, so there are recent messages in there I really need!).

Steps already taken: I tried using "repair folder" and that did not work. I do not have any automatic filters set up. I tried locating my Profile, and moved the "msf" files to my recycling bin, as I read that deleting the msf file would rebuild the index and display emails that had disappeared. Nothing changed. This was new for me so perhaps I did something wrong? I haven't emptied the recycling bin yet so the files are easily retrievable if necessary.

Trying to setup Thunderbird for wife’s new laptop… Her 4 separate email accounts with auto setup for the IMAP server info without issues. One account however will not – VERY frustrating as this works fine on her old laptop. Thunderbird setup now appears to have an extra (4th) field required when setting up the account: Usually, its just name, email address and password. I see there’s now an extra box titled ‘Your Login’ being required for auto login. I have no idea what this field should be set to. Also, when I attempt to do a manual setup for the account, the port numbers and server names shown on the internet are completely different to those used on auto, and still get rejected. Doesn’t help that MS trying (and succeeding) to confuse us with all this “Outlook vs Outlook Classic vs Outlook.com”. My wife is unable to continue her work until I get this sorted:-( PLEEEAAASE can someone help me setup this xxxxxxx@outlook.com email account in Thunderbird as an IMAP account?

I have a small office with 5 stations to access our one email account and we'd used thunderbird for years, but the lack of integration between the stations meant we changed to Outlook and of course that's a shitshow, so I'm coming back to ask you my self (rather than the tech guy) if there's a way to set up thunderbird so that if desk 1 opens and responds to email 17, that all the desks can see both that it happened and access the responce that desk 1 sent.

We have an IMAP email account hosted locally (as in, not a gmail account, or the like).

I'd be more than happy to pay for a piece of software that I could use. I've used Thunderbird (and Eudora) for decades and I'd like to continue to support it. But moreover, I'd like an email server that doesn't limit my account size (I use email for "corporate history") and one that would allow my individual staff members to see everyone's activity in the email server.

I had most recently (like 6 months ago?) been using thunderbird. My Tech guy said it was the most current version, but I couldn't tell you what it was.

We run on Windows -- most on 11 but a couple still on 10 until I can take the time to set up the new computers.

Hi,

My mail account was recently migrated to office365, and I saw that Thunderbird v145 and later supports this natively without the use of a plugin.

However when I follow the instructions to set this up I don't see the Account hub in the same way that's shown in the article.

https://blog.thunderbird.net/2025/11/thunderbird-adds-native-microsoft-exchange-email-support/

instead I see the one attached.

I've tried this on both Linux (ubuntu 24.04) and Window 11 both with my original profile and a completely blank installation. On Linux I've used both the Canonical supplied Snap (from the monthly/stable channel) and the download directly from thunderbird.net.

Any help appreciated.

How do you look down through your emails and select multiples to delete? the answers I've found involve highlighting and deleting a bunch in a row. What about when there are a couple of keepers in the mix?

I can see that there has been a reply or a messages was forwarded and when I right click for the menu "Open" may not even appear at times. When it does appear "Open in Conversation" is not always presented as an option even though there has clearly been conversation as I can locate reply's in the Sent folder. Sometimes it's there but when selected it opens a tab that only shows the email and none of the conversations. It's hit and miss and I can find no rhyme or reason. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also, I would love to Testflight Thunderbird on Apple. Thanks, Sue

SIMPLIFY THUNDERBIRD IT IS EXCESSIVLY COMPLEX. I CANNOT EVEN SEE HOW TO MOVE MESSAGES FROM THE INBOX TO THE RELEVANT FOLDER IN MY LIST. I PERSONALLY BELIEVE FIREFOX AND THUNDERBIRD ARE OVERCOMPLEX AND NEED SIMPLIFIED. SIMPLES. WHY CANT I COPY AND PASTE THE VERSION NUMBER. BLOODY ARESHOLES . AS I SAID IT IS BLOODY OVERCOMPLEX. AT THIS POINT I AM CONSIDERING GIVING UP ON WHAT IS CLEARLY AN OVERCOMPLEX PIECE OF SOFTWARE THAT REALLY DOESN'T LOOK GOOD EITHER AND THERE IS NO OFFICIAL SUPPORT SO WILL HAVE TO LOOK FOR AN ALTERNATIVE. COMPLETE WASTE OF SPACE TOO MANY COOKS SPOIL THE BROTH COMES TO MIND THIS IS WHAT WE HAVE HERE

I have just transferred my website to crazy domains and in order to set up email they need DNS records for thunderbird. I dont know how to access this. Could you please provide these for me.

I successfully set up three of my Google Gmail addresses on Thunderbird. I tried to set up my fourth and primary Email address, which is on a Spectrum server, using the absolutely correct address, user name, and PW. Thunderbird will not accept it, saying there is an "authentication error", but not identifying what it is. How is it possible to fix an error, if no precise error is specified? Thanks for any help anybody can offer.

Phil (cpliechty@gmail.com)

A few days ago I lost all of my saved email messages, plus "sent" emails, and "deleted" emails. I had important information stored there for future use. I am hoping to be able to retrieve it. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

Two identical spam emails came in, and I deleted both from my Inbox. Both had attachments. Deleting them moved them to the Trash folder. When I went to the Trash folder, I found both emails had been combined into one file. Is that "threading"? I don't want any emails to be combined together EVER. Previously I had checked the "Unthreaded" box in Settings; so if this was threading, why did it happen?

Another question: I couldn't find anything to do with this combined file but to delete it. Did the act of deleting it also delete the attachments, which probably contained viruses?

This "threading" business has been going on for years now. I always check the options that supposedly disable it, but then it keeps happening.

I am trying to add an email address to thunderbird it is an outlook email address [edited]@outlook.com I have checked the address and the password and both are correct however thunderbird says that the configuration is incorrect and will not accept it. also I have it open in another browser window will that cause problems ?

I am using Mail Merge to send messages, and want to have the date in the body of the message change to the date I actually send the email. Or I have a draft email that I eventually send. Is there a field that will insert today's date (to compensate for me forgetting to change the date manually)?

Unable to add personal Hotmail/Outlook.com account via IMAP with OAuth2 Hi, I'm unable to add my personal Microsoft account (@hotmail.com) to Thunderbird via IMAP despite trying every solution I could find. My setup:

Thunderbird (latest version), macOS Sequoia 15.6.1 Account: personal @hotmail.com

What I have tried:

Manual IMAP configuration with both smtp-mail.outlook.com and smtp.outlook.com as outgoing server OAuth2 authentication — the Microsoft login window opens, I successfully log in, but Thunderbird still throws "Unable to log in at server" Enabled cookies for all Microsoft domains (outlook.com, login.live.com, login.microsoftonline.com) in Privacy & Security settings Enabled 2FA on my Microsoft account and generated an App Password, then tried with Normal password authentication — same error Toggled the experimental Account Hub off and on, tried both the new and old account creation flows Restarted Thunderbird multiple times between attempts

What works: My institutional Microsoft 365 account (@hnu.de) connects and syncs perfectly with identical IMAP/OAuth2 settings. The issue appears to be specific to personal Hotmail/Outlook.com accounts. Has anyone successfully connected a personal Hotmail account recently? Any help is appreciated.

I use Thunderbird to store loacally some email from gmail and delete it from the online server.

Until october last year it was working flawless, to day I need to read an old email and I discovered that locally since october of some email is only stored the subject and somtime I only have the ticker that increase in the stored email email, but there is either not title or subject. I didn't change any setting in my computer or in the antivirus,, the only thing is that I perform the update of thunderbird as usual. Is it possible to recover these emails or they are gone forever?

Best regards

送受信メールが表示されなくなりました。 テストメールの送受信は問題なくできていますが、thunderbirdメールソフトには表示されません。 XserverにWEBメールは生きています 表示されない問題を解決するためにAIに聞いたところ、「受信トレイ→右クリック→最適化」を実行したが、それまで表示されていた過去の受信メールがすべて消えました。 本体からメールが消えたのかAIに改めて聞いたところ、画像の「INBOX」の状態になり、消えてしまった可能性が大きいとの回答でした。 ウィルスバスターを導入しているので、それが干渉した可能性も考えられます

対策として「アカウントを削除して、新たに設定しダウンロードを提案されました。この方法で復活するでしょうか

https://g.co/gemini/share/6a7da4881c86

This happens erratically, not every time. Annoying when trying to select a message to delete and the one before or after or both also deletes at same time. Now I have to go and retrieve it back to inbox. Checked in settings and cant find a solution. Also looked in pad and mouse settings to no avail. Seems to have started in last 2 or 3 months, can't be specific of time line.

My correspondents keep getting shuffled and applied to the wrong subject line in the inbox. It was suggested that I right-click on the folder, select "properties" and then "repair." That clears it up, but only for a matter of hours. Plus, any emails that I have open get closed and then I have to find them again.

One person who suggested that I right-click the folder and repair it said if that didn't work, there was a more technical fix. I need it!

Help!

Okay. So, I changed my email password on my email server, HIS.COM (Heller Information Services, a local email server company in Bethesda, MD.) I am able to access my email on webmail, (which I hate to use), on both my laptop and on my desktop. Yesterday, I could access it on my desktop, but not my laptop. Just now, I was trying to uninstall and install Thunderbird on my laptop and it would keep just rebooting my old non-working program. Then, the worst possible thing happened. By screwing around on my laptop program, I somehow knocked out my desktop Thunderbird, and it no longer works. I am happy to pay for help. I just made a donation. I need someone to call me and walk me through this. I think I changed something that I cannot change back.

You cannot email me. It DOES NOT work

Gerald Weaver [edited phone# from community support forum]