I-Thunderbird Community Forum

Two nights ago I uninstalled ExpressVPN from my system at the instruction of one of their "support" people. My computer immediately lost the ability to access half of the websites I tried to visit and Thunderbird wouldn't send or receive email. I rebooted and that fixed every issue, but since then, Thunderbird no longer checks for new messages for any of my accounts. If I manually instruct it to check, it downloads the messages with no problem. I don't use any add-ons, and I'm using the latest version on a Windows 11 PC. I have already tried deleting global-messages-db.sqlite, repairing each mail folder from within Thunderbird, clearing the cache, and running an install of the latest version. I have also tried changing the setting for each mail folder to alter the interval for message checks by a minute just to see if that would jog it, but no luck. I've looked at various other help threads for this and am out of ideas. Thanks in advance for any help.

How can I duplicate below in TB / BetterBird ?

We all know and see from left side of TB / BettreBird open app screen is the list of email accounts one has. In Outlook 2016 and onwards one can add just the Inbox of each mail account I have to a list called 'Favourites' and this resides above all the mail accounts and displays as a list of all the 'Inboxes' only. This means I just have to click on each respective inbox an it displays just that....all the mails in the Inbox. Currently I just have the list of account names where, when a mail is received and the corresponding circled number of mails shown I have to open the account to see the drop down then select the Inbox to get to the list of emails.

I am sure I am missing the solution.

Thanks for assistance.

I must be doing something wrong. I am new to thunderbird, migrated from Eudora since I can't send mail with Eudora anymore.

I tried to configure Thunderbird as much as possible like Eudora, but ... it doesn't receive nor send mail. On the surface it looks fine, it seems thunderbird logs into the server, it seems it sends mail and checks for new mail, only I don't receive anything, nor send anything even though it looks it does. So what am I doing (or is going) wrong? (I can still receive mail with Eudora and today I checked and received 54 mails, none with Thunderbird)

Three weeks ago I attempted to migrate my TB profiles from a 2014 mini-mac to a 2024 mini-mac. I thought I did a better job of backing up my profile using CCC than I actually did. In the migration to the new Mac I lost all my subfolders from the last 20 years. Apple created a new Profile and 2 restoration Profiles on the new Sequoia based mini-mac. I wasn't familiar with these and panicked. I copied those files, took them back to the original mac and tried to follow Toad-Hall's method of restoring the subfolders recommended to bmack1 on 23/11/22. However, I failed to carry out the step of going up two levels in the path of the Library to copy the entire "Thunderbird" file and only copied the Largest restoration file. This in turn, "contaminated" the 2014 original Thunderbird mail profile and only an Inbox and Trash subfolder remained. Today, after 3 weeks of searching and reading the generous contributions of this community, I came across a post explaining that the "sbd files" will show the subfolder headings I created in the original sought after Profile. And I found it!!! My problem is I have re-read Toad-Hall's method of re-installing the original Profile and tried to carry that out to the letter by placing the old Profile within a Thunderbird folder and switching it with the current one. But it's still listed as the "Restoration qqg...file" and probably shouldn't be, but I don't want to go any further and risk losing it because I feel I almost have it. So any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank You.

The receiving and messaging has been intermittent over the last few days. The latest message came in at 07:45 this morning

David Malin ([edited[ @davidmalin.com), phone [edited from community support forum]

Hello,

I just switched to Thunderbird from Outlook and so far it seems nice but one problem when I click on the get messages cloud icon on the top left of the screen I receive no incoming messages. Now if I go to one particular email account (I have 8 email accounts) and right click and left click on get messages, new messages come in.

So my questions is, why doesn't all my mail come in when I click on the get messages icon? Am i misinterpreting this?

Thank you!

Hello,

We ARE on version 145.

I spend an ENTIRE DAY following this information, especially that section regarding to "alternative method for manual transfer between Windows 10 and Windows 11 computers"

[https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/moving-thunderbird-data-to-a-new-com...]

IT DOES NOT WORK! I may not be doing something (I could not find it), but in this consideration, I'm wondering WHY it's left there? Does it work for 144. Can I FIND 144?

Thanks, Lizzie's mum

An alternative method for manual transfer between Windows 10 and Windows 11 computers

This section assumes you have a default Windows installation and will work on computers upgraded to Windows 10 from previous Windows versions.

   Locate the master profile folder on the source computer as above.
   Locate the master profile folder on the destination computer as above.
   Note out of interest that your username (indicated by ~ below) on the two computers might be different due to legacy issues, but it will make no difference with a manual transfer as below.
   Close Thunderbird in both computers.
   On the source computer, copy the Thunderbird folders in both Windows(C:)/Users/~/AppData/Roaming and Windows(C:)/Users/~/AppData/Local to your transfer media, in separate folders so you do not overwrite them.
   On the destination computer, remove (or rename if you need a data backup or to preserve an old profile) any Thunderbird folders in the destination folders Windows(C:)/Users/~/AppData/Roaming and Windows(C:)/Users/~/AppData/Local directories.
   Copy from your transfer media the correct Thunderbird folders into the two folders above to replace the ones you have removed or renamed.
   Restart Thunderbird on the destination computer and test it, noting that your inbox tab should be identical to source, but that other tabs may have opened with Thunderbird messages.

I have several email accounts that don't work well for me. Since Firefox has been my primary browser for over twenty years, I turned to Mozilla. I like your company's open source method and people-based philosophy. So I signed up for Thunderbird just now from your website. But I am not all that tech - savvy (I'm a baby boomer who started using personal computers at age 34 in 1984, and internet in 1990.) I'm 76 years old.

Is there someone who could walk me through setting up my new Thunderbird email account, and then moving my emails and address book from my current email server on Rackspace? And also disconnecting Apple Mail as my default outgoing mailbox, and set up my new Thunderbird account in its place?

I'm willing to pay for some help!

I have been using Thunderbird to access my comcast emails. I never had a problem with it. However, this afternoon, just out of the blue Thunderbird cannot download my emails, the following message popped up: "Login to server mail.comcast.net with username xxxxxxx failed." Then Thunderbird asks for a new password. When I enter the still correct password, it displays the same error message. I did not change anything in the settings before this error message popped up. I tried ChatGPT to get some answers, but whatever I changed it had no effect. I am attaching a screenshot of the server settings (I have of course removed my username). I would be grateful for any advice as to how to fix the issue. Thanking you.

Yesterday I opened Thunderbird to find that it was trying to download 8205 emails. 15 emails actually downloaded, there were no messages in SPAM folder. The notification at the lower right showed 300 more had 'downloaded' before I shut off the internet, went into Safe Mode, ran a virus check to find no threats found. No SPAM was recorded in Thunderbird when I went back online. There were, however, several files with large attachments so I don't know if this is a glitch regarding data vs. actual number emails because when I checked for updates (see attachment)

I discovered that since Version 115.4.2 I HAVE NEVER BEEN NOTIFIED OF UPDATES OR *FAILURE* TO UPDATE. AUTOMATIC UPDATES have been turned off and will remain turned off due to nearly dialup speed lack of bandwidth. I will abandon Thunderbird for having a fatal programming defect before turning on automatic updates.

My actual email provider did not show 8205 additional emails so I am concerned about a possible malware backdoor. Today 15 emails downloaded while the little notice at lower right said it was trying to download 113 ghost emails. I shut off Thunderbird and came here to post the problem. I will update Thunderbird, but need to know if there is a temporary file cache or some other hideyhole that the ghosts (or some attacker) might be storing godnosewhat so that I can either quarantine or delete them?

I had to install Windows 11 fresh because of multiple issues with my PC (I upgraded from 10 to 11 6 months ago). I installed Thunderbird fresh, and am trying to get it to see my existing data with is on my D drive. I browsed to the folder in Account Settings, but it's not showing up. I have years of mail and don't want to lose it.

There are too many options in the help for me to know which are actually related to my situation. I thought I was ready to do this, but am surprised at how difficult it is compared to the last time I did something similar.

Any help, even just pointing me to the right place to look for help, is appreciated!

Thanks!

Hello, When I first built this Linux Mint laptop I just grabbed the first Thunderbird install I saw, never realizing it would never update, now understaning how this works I want to install the flatpack version so I can be up to date. what is the best way to attack this, can I just install the flatpack and it will capture all my mailbox settings or do I need to start from scratch?

Thanks in advance Guy

To be clear, I seriously doubt the problems I am encountering are TB's fault! The problems may be my fault since I've grown older, I've tended (believed) using new versions of software present my mind a BIGGER challenge than using the older software/version I have been successfully using? I'm still using Version115.10.1

After our ISP chose to start using Zimbra Oct. 7, 2025 and their tech support could not assist me in getting TB working the had me remove POP3 settings for TB and change to IMAP with their software.

FINALLY someone helped me get TB working with IMAP. For 3 days grrr. Now the ISP says I need to use their web mail, Zimbra.

So might downloading the current TB version and somehow get the In box, all the folder contnets etc. over - into the new TB help?

I was going to backup everything tonight, now I have little to NO hope, without help!

THANKS & remain WELL plus be SAFE!

Robin

A search showed that others have experienced this same error message, but as far as I can tell, they all were unable to access their email. These messages began appearing about a month ago. They pop up in Troubleshooting Mode. They did not in Windows Safe Mode. AVG and ZoneAlarm are not the culprits.

Having highlighted a selection of text; Choose Format, Text-Color, Choose a color, and applied it. One would expect we could highlight an other section and do Shift+Ctrl+Z to apply the same change to the new selection. Why is this not an option? Next option: we hightlight a string of text, and do ALT+o, c; we get the 'Text Color' dialog, now do ALT+L to choose 'Last-picked'. But now to complete the action, we need to press 'Tab' four times to reach 'OK'. Why isn't ALT+o or ALT+k mapped to clicking 'OK' ?

I have about (20) such formats to make, and this is ridiculously tedious. Please consider providing a function that lets us repeat previous formatting change on current selection.

I've tried this with both the Mac (Sonoma) version and the Windows (11) version. Thunderbird can't connect to the server. I've been setting up these accounts for years in Apple Mail, and I know the settings.

I was able to set up an account from a different email provider, however.