I had installed an add-on to allow me to reorder the appearance of my accounts

What add-on?

It screwed up my account preferences evidently.

What does this mean? And how is it related to the add-on you mentioned?

I have tried to create a new email account, and TBird insists that it's an old Yahoo account.

Please explain in detail

• what you did
• what happened
• what you expected to happen

[I had installed an add-on to allow me to reorder the appearance of my accounts] "What add-on?"

I believe that it was named "Manually Sort Folders"

[It screwed up my account preferences evidently.] "What does this mean? And how is it related to the add-on you mentioned?"

I know that the issue is related to the add-on, because the issue occurred after my first installation and usage of the add-on.

What it means is that the file

/home/[user]/.thunderbird/pxkenz3n.default/prefs.js

seems to be a .js file that it relies on a certain order of things to correctly match up email addresses to account info (servers, display names, passwords, etc.) and that it is out of order. What I currently have are a number of mixed up combinations that cause the selecting of an email address from the FROM: field seems to mix up items.

I suppose that I could spend hours manually verifying line-by-line that all match up but the naming conventions make it very difficult for me to know what

The add-on has apparently screwed up some important order between account information pointer and account name.

Here's how I know that things are messed up.

Create a new email message. On the "From:" field, select the menu that allows you to select which account will be used as the sending account. Addresses are grouped and are mixed.

What I'd expect is:

a@domain.com - a@domain.com b@example.com - b@example.com c@somewhere.ca - c@somewhere.ca d@aplace.co.uk - d@aplace.co.uk e@example.com - e@example.com f@anotherdomain.com - f@anotherdomain.com

What I get is:

a@domain.com - e@example.com d@aplace.co.uk - d@aplace.co.uk

e@example.com - e@example.com f@anotherdomain.com - f@anotherdomain.com ... c@somewhere.ca - c@somewhere.ca

b@example.com -c@somewhere.ca

[etc.]

I've just tried to create a new email account, call it g@newdomain.com and in the end it insists on selecting the information from y@yahoo.com to test to see if the account data is a valid.

I could send a screenshot, but I don't want to publicly reveal the list of my email accounts/addresses. If you can contact me using the address that this mozilla.org address is associated with, I'd send you a screenshot privately and the file that would clearly indicate the issue, as well as the prefs file itself.

I know *where* the problem lies. I don't know how to decipher how the prefs file matches things so that I can rectify it manually. Ideally, there might be some linter, or script of some sort that could help me figure it out.

This line:

"On the "from:" field select the menu."

...makes no sense to me at all. From field? Menu?

What you're describing seems to be a screwed up address book. But I don't understand the context because I don't know what you mean by a "new email".

Please consider what you mean when you say "email". Email address? Email message? Email account? Or something else?

"...makes no sense to me at all. From field? Menu? "

Create a new message. You have the To: field, that you enter the email address to which the message is intended to go. Look above it. There's also a From: field. if you have more than one account, when you click on it will present a drop-down menu for you to select from which account TBird will use to send the message.

No, this is not from the address book.

When I say "Create a new email" I mean File -> New -> Message. I've updated my second response for more clarity.

I believe that it was named "Manually Sort Folders"

I do have that add-on installed as well. It can sort the accounts in the folder pane. However I doubt it would screw up things. At least it didn't for for me. The sequence how accounts are displayed in the folder pane is indeed set in prefs.js.

On the "From:" field, select the menu that allows you to select which account will be used as the sending account. Addresses are grouped and are mixed.

I doubt this has got anything to do with the add-on. From: email addresses are grouped by account, not in alphabetical order. When there are multiple addresses grouped together, they are probably identities belonging to the same account. I don't think there is anything screwed, it's a 'feature'.

I doubt this has got anything to do with the add-on.

The add-on is only tangential. Someone asked "Which one?" I answered. The problem is that my prefs are messed up. I need to fix them. I don't know how to fix them.

I have one email address per email account. I should not have an account that reads a@gmail.com and display the address as y@yahoo.com.

Thunderbird should not be testing an example.com account's credentials upon account creation against someotherdomain.com account.

I don't think there is anything screwed, it's a 'feature'.

Trust me, this is not the product of a feature, the prefs are screwed. I know they're screwed. If I sent them to you, you'd look at them and think "yes, they're screwed." If I sent you the screenshot, you'd nod your head and say "That's screwed." Trust me. They're screwed. Doesn't matter how they got screwed, they just are. And I need to fix them, one way or another.

What I need to know is:

a) Is there some sort of linter or utility that will help me parse out the prefs?

b) Is there a quick way of rebuilding my prefs without having to re-enter all of my 26 email accounts info, including passwords and without losing access to my mail, attachments and address books?

c) Is there some clear description somewhere of how the prefs work, how they're ordered so that if there's no automated alternative, that I can waste a tedious afternoon grinding it out but getting them fixed?

PS: And when I say "fix them manually" I mean to edit the prefs.js file with a text editor. If I can figure out how it's arranged and how to identify the absolutely generic names in relation to the actual account, I can grind it out.

kaylemistwalker1 said

It screwed up my account preferences evidently. I have tried to create a new email account, and TBird insists that it's an old Yahoo account. I select some account names, and the email that pops up belongs to a different account. Quite annoying when you try to send business email and a novelty domain-name is used.

That really makes no sense to me at all.

Please take the time to explain exactly what you are doing and what it is you consider Thunderbird is doing wrong.

At this point I think it might be you have the wrong SMTP server configured for your accounts. But I am only guessing and trying to read between the lines.

'Sorry folks, the forum initially displayed this a an unanswered topic. wow was it wrong.

I think what we are seeing here are Identities.

In your account settings for say. a@domain.com - e@example.com Click on the identities button and see what identities are configured.

Each email account can have multiple identities configured, each with their own SMTP server. They are "grouped" when they appear in the "from" drop down in the compose window. The primary address will be bold and listed first and the identities associated with the account will be in normal text.

That your prefs may be messed up as to how your think they should appear I do not doubt, But I think blaming the add-on is probably the wrong answer.

I would also suggest that you should not attempt to edit the prefs.js file yourself. It is almost a surefire way to make things worse. There is a config editor for editing preferences, but really account settings are much easier to mange using the GUI. manual editing of them i really only for the expert, and I do not really consider myself expert.

One of the reasons that accounts are so difficult to conceive is Thunderbird gets mail from accounts and sends mail using the identity information and the selected SMTP server.

I think what we are seeing here are Identities.

OK, thank you. We are now much closer to the mark. A whole bunch of tension has just drained out of my body, in large part because I now have better language to use. If I can use the UI to manage this, all the better.

I'll try to speak as systematically as I can, now.

Under my account settings panel, on the left hand side, I see 26 accounts (discounting local folders and SMTP.)

First, I should have 27 accounts, not 26. One is missing from the list. No big deal if I have to rebuild it, it's rarely used.

I name my accounts as such [INITIALS OF SERVICE] - email@address.com

So, for example I'd name an account GM - g@gmail.com, YH - y@yahoo.com MD - m@mydomain.com

And so in the FROM: account select menu, it would appear as

GM - g@gmail.com - g@gmail.com (etc.)

My earlier email was pointing out a lack of knowledge of identities, and was pointing out that some accounts had multiple identities. I didn't understand why the emails were grouped together, and why an email from a different server would appear under this given account.

When I systematically select each account, from top to bottom and click on manage identities, 3 of the 26 that are visible have two identities. One is the account itself, and the second is another of the other accounts, with no rhyme or reason that I can see. Sometimes the default identity does not match the account name, but one of the other identities, one of the other email addresses, the ordering of the identities across the three doubled-identitied accounts seems to be inconsistent.

But I think blaming the add-on is probably the wrong answer.

Note that I have never added new identities to an account. I didn't know what they were, and so, never played with them. It was merely a button that I knew existed and nothing more. There's no way that I've ever accidentally changed it. Thus, this is why I believe that my prefs are screwed up, and as a byproduct of the add-on, as this change coincides with my first installation and use, but that, I think is irrelevant to the issue at hand, now.

On to solutions.

First: on the doubled accounts, that is, the accounts with more than one identity. if I make the correct email address the default for that account, then delete the second identity, will it delete the account associated with the secondary identity? Or is it merely a pointer? If the latter, then I can simply delete it, and each account will only have one identity. This is a good first step.

Second: One of my accounts has an identity whose account is missing on the left hand account list, the 27th that I had not counted. I'm happy to simply rebuild that account, but, seeing as it does not exist in the list of accounts, if I delete it, will it simply delete the identity and leave some mysterious data hanging around my prefs that will interfere with its recreation?

Third: When creating an account, Is there any way to disable the auto-checking of accounts? TBird insists on checking to see if it can talk to the server before it will save the account. I understand the purpose, it's to help newbies, but I find it to be a major annoyance, which finally leads me to

Fourth: I wanted to create a new email account to receive mail from github. It's just a normal account on my server. For the sake of conversation, I'll refer to it as my "github@mydomain.com" account.

I correctly created the account on my server, and when I tried to create the new email account on my client, it consistently failed. The reason? It was attempting to test my github@mydomain.com account against a previously existing yahoo.com account. So, rather than asking github@mydomain.com to validate, it was asking y@yahoo.com to validate with the github username and password.

I know this because it kept returning an error that yahoo.com could not validate my settings. Additional note: I do not have yahoo.com as any of my SMTP servers.

Fifth: let's say that something dramatically screws up for whoknowswhy. Many of my accounts are IMAP. Is it possible to rebuild each account manually, and then to import the email, plus attachments, plus sigs, etc. into the newly recreated account without conflicting with what might be on the server?

Thanks for your attention, folks, I'm grateful for your time and energy. This little bit of clarification that you've offered, I hope helps me better answer your questions. I'm always open to reclarifying at need.

Lets back up a little bit.

Yahoo now require you to enable less secure apps on their web site before you can set up an account in Thunderbird.

Interestingly they will not allow us to use the updated authentication that would bypass this. Perhaps being hacked in not the worst of their problems.

Now open the troubleshooting information on the help menu. Got multiple outgoing servers defined for single accounts showing there? The identities show up as outgoing servers in the Mail and New Accounts. I think it makes easier reading that the main account screens With the guts of the details on one line for each account..

please post the Mail and News Accounts information. it would be much easier to be talking about real things. And I would not be guessing.

In addition to what Matt said:

Thus, this is why I believe that my prefs are screwed up, and as a byproduct of the add-on, as this change coincides with my first installation and use

The 'Manually Sort Folders' add-on has no visibility of Identities. And one needs to deliberately take action to change anything, the add-on doesn't change things by itself.

Why did you install it in the first place? After installation, did you use it to change something? If so, what?

if I make the correct email address the default for that account, then delete the second identity, will it delete the account associated with the secondary identity?

Before you attempt any changes, make sure you do have a full backup of your Thunderbird profile folder.

Identities belong to a certain account. There is no relationship to another existing account. An identity shares the same password with it's parent account, but not with a different account.

When creating an account, Is there any way to disable the auto-checking of accounts?

Use 'Manual Configuration'. https://support.mozilla.org/kb/manual-account-configuration

Many of my accounts are IMAP. Is it possible to rebuild each account manually, and then to import the email, plus attachments, plus sigs, etc. into the newly recreated account without conflicting with what might be on the server?

There is no import. Per definition, with IMAP you get what's on the server. That is the whole point of using IMAP.

Note, using an IMAP server does not necessarily mean you do have a backup of all your messages. Make sure to have an offline copy on your disk, which can be backed up locally. https://support.mozilla.org/kb/imap-synchronization

Yahoo now require you to enable less secure apps on their web site before you can set up an account in Thunderbird.

This is not relevant, unless you're merely mentioning it as a point of interest. I was not setting up a yahoo account. What is relevant is that I was setting up an account on example.com and it was testing against the wrong server, which is part of the problem.

Got multiple outgoing servers defined for single accounts showing there? The identities show up as outgoing servers in the Mail and New Accounts.

Yes, in fact I do. Three of them.

I think it makes easier reading that the main account screens With the guts of the details on one line for each account..

It does. That's very handy, thank you.

Here is the dump, with the following notice: I have obfuscated my domain names, thus when you see "mail.[domainname].com" understand that the square brackets is merely a way of indicating an obfuscated name for the purpose of this public dump. There are no brackets in my settings.

 Application Basics

   Name: Thunderbird
   Version: 45.5.1
   User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:45.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/45.5.1
   Profile Directory: Open Directory

             (Local drive)
   Application Build ID: 20161130103116
   Enabled Plugins: about:plugins
   Build Configuration: about:buildconfig
   Memory Use: about:memory

 Mail and News Accounts
   account1:
     INCOMING: account1, , (none) Local Folders, plain, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , smtp.cgocable.ca:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account3:
     INCOMING: account3, , (imap) imap.googlemail.com:993, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , smtp.gmail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account4:
     INCOMING: account4, , (imap) imap.googlemail.com:993, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , smtp.cgocable.ca:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account6:
     INCOMING: account6, , (imap) mail.[mistwalker]:143, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordEncrypted
     OUTGOING: , smtp.cgocable.ca:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account7:
     INCOMING: account7, , (imap) mail.[mistwalker]:143, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordEncrypted
     OUTGOING: , smtp.cgocable.ca:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account8:
     INCOMING: account8, , (imap) mail.[mistwalker]:143, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordEncrypted
     OUTGOING: , smtp.cgocable.ca:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account9:
     INCOMING: account9, , (imap) mail.[mistwalker]:143, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordEncrypted
     OUTGOING: , smtp.cgocable.ca:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account10:
     INCOMING: account10, , (imap) mail.[mistwalker]:143, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordEncrypted
     OUTGOING: , smtp.cgocable.ca:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account11:
     INCOMING: account11, , (imap) mail.[mistwalker]:143, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordEncrypted
     OUTGOING: , smtp.cgocable.ca:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account12:
     INCOMING: account12, , (imap) imap.gmail.com:993, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , smtp.gmail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account13:
     INCOMING: account13, , (imap) imap.googlemail.com:993, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , smtp.gmail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account14:
     INCOMING: account14, , (imap) imap.gmail.com:993, SSL, OAuth2
     OUTGOING: , smtp.cgocable.ca:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true
     OUTGOING: , smtp.gmail.com:465, SSL, OAuth2, false

   account15:
     INCOMING: account15, , (imap) imap.gmail.com:993, SSL, OAuth2
     OUTGOING: , smtp.gmail.com:465, SSL, OAuth2, true
     OUTGOING: , smtp.cgocable.ca:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, false

   account16:
     INCOMING: account16, , (pop3) mail.[customdomain].com:110, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordEncrypted
     OUTGOING: , smtp.gmail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true
     OUTGOING: , mail.[customdomain].com:587, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext, false

   account18:
     INCOMING: account18, , (imap) mail.[personaldomain].ca:143, plain, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , smtp.cgocable.ca:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true
     OUTGOING: , smtp.cgocable.ca:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, false

   account19:
     INCOMING: account19, , (imap) mail.[customdomain].com:143, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , smtp.cgocable.ca:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account20:
     INCOMING: account20, , (imap) mail.[customdomain].com:143, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , smtp.cgocable.ca:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account21:
     INCOMING: account21, , (imap) mail.[customdomain].com:143, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , smtp.cgocable.ca:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account26:
     INCOMING: account26, , (imap) mail.[customdomain].com:143, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordEncrypted
     OUTGOING: , smtp.cgocable.ca:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account27:
     INCOMING: account27, , (imap) mail.[customdomain].com:143, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordEncrypted
     OUTGOING: , smtp.cgocable.ca:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account28:
     INCOMING: account28, , (imap) mail.[customdomain].com:143, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordEncrypted
     OUTGOING: , smtp.cgocable.ca:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account29:
     INCOMING: account29, , (imap) mail.[customdomain].com:143, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , smtp.cgocable.ca:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account31:
     INCOMING: account31, , (imap) [personaldomain].ca:143, plain, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , smtp.cgocable.ca:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account32:
     INCOMING: account32, , (imap) mail.[customdomain].com:143, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordEncrypted
     OUTGOING: , smtp.cgocable.ca:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account33:
     INCOMING: account33, , (imap) mail.google.com:143, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , smtp.gmail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account34:
     INCOMING: account34, , (imap) mail.[mistwalker]:143, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordEncrypted
     OUTGOING: , smtp.cgocable.ca:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account35:
     INCOMING: account35, , (imap) imap.gmail.com:993, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , smtp.gmail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

 Crash Reports
   http://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/bp-371373e1-31aa-4705-890b-efd6e2160301 (16-03-01)

 Extensions
   Manually sort folders, 1.1.1, true, tbsortfolders@xulforum.org
   Silvermel and Charamel XT, 2.0.1, true, silvermelxt@pardal.de
   Zombie Keys, 2.18, true, zombiekeys@bolay.de
   Messaging Menu and Unity Launcher integration, 1.3.1, false, messagingmenu@mozilla.com

 Important Modified Preferences

   Name: Value

     accessibility.typeaheadfind.flashBar: 0
     browser.cache.disk.capacity: 358400
     browser.cache.disk.filesystem_reported: 1
     browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value: 358400
     browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run: false
     browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max: false
     dom.max_chrome_script_run_time: 0
     extensions.lastAppVersion: 45.5.1
     font.internaluseonly.changed: true
     mail.openMessageBehavior.version: 1
     mailnews.database.global.datastore.id: f44793c2-e8ba-4e96-9c80-fd177bf28a0
     mailnews.database.global.views.conversation.columns: {"threadCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":"1"},"flaggedCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":"3"},"attachmentCol":{"visible":false…
     mailnews.database.global.views.global.columns: {"threadCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":"1"},"flaggedCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":"3"},"attachmentCol":{"visible":false…
     network.cookie.cookieBehavior: 1
     network.cookie.lifetimePolicy: 2
     network.cookie.prefsMigrated: true
     network.predictor.cleaned-up: true
     places.database.lastMaintenance: 1482899123
     places.history.enabled: false
     places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 104858
     plugin.importedState: true
     plugin.state.flash: 0
     privacy.donottrackheader.enabled: true

 Graphics

     Adapter Description: NVIDIA Corporation -- GeForce GTX 970/PCIe/SSE2
     Vendor ID: NVIDIA Corporation
     Device ID: GeForce GTX 970/PCIe/SSE2
     Driver Version: 4.5.0 NVIDIA 367.57
     WebGL Renderer: NVIDIA Corporation -- GeForce GTX 970/PCIe/SSE2 -- 4.5.0 NVIDIA 367.57
     GPU Accelerated Windows: 0

     AzureCanvasBackend: cairo
     AzureSkiaAccelerated: 0
     AzureFallbackCanvasBackend: none
     AzureContentBackend: cairo
     CairoUseXRender: 1

 JavaScript

 Incremental GC: 1

 Accessibility

   Activated: 0
   Prevent Accessibility: 0

 Library Versions

     Expected minimum version
     Version in use

     NSPR
     4.12
     4.12

     NSS
     3.21.3 Basic ECC
     3.21.3 Basic ECC

     NSS Util
     3.21.3
     3.21.3

     NSS SSL
     3.21.3 Basic ECC
     3.21.3 Basic ECC

     NSS S/MIME
     3.21.3 Basic ECC
     3.21.3 Basic ECC

The 'Manually Sort Folders' add-on has no visibility of Identities. And one needs to deliberately take action to change anything, the add-on doesn't change things by itself. Why did you install it in the first place? After installation, did you use it to change something? If so, what?

The only reason that I mention the add-on is that I was asked which one. Maybe that's not it, that's fine, I'm merely noting the correlation.

The intention of using it was to place my most used and most urgent accounts addresses at the top of the left hand list (such as my business accounts, or active project accounts) rather than to have them appear by order of creation and have to scroll through a mixed list of important/less important. Business and important accounts at the top, accounts that I access infrequently at the bottom, for less attention priority.

Thanks for the rest of the answers which I won't quote, merely to save time.

Rather than to extend this thread much further, I've decided that I'm simply going to have to bite the bullet and rebuild the profile. I have a final question that I'd like to confirm the answer to: does the default account order display in the order in which an account was created? In other words, if I want my business and important project accounts to appear first, do I create them first? Or is the sorting done differently?

The only reason that I mention the add-on is that I was asked which one.

That did sound pretty much different in your OP:

It (comment: the add-on) screwed up my account preferences evidently.

Anyway ...

The intention of using it was to place my most used and most urgent accounts addresses at the top

Did you actually implement this using the add-on?

Rather than to extend this thread much further, I've decided that I'm simply going to have to bite the bullet and rebuild the profile.

Up to you. A few comments wrt the Troubleshooting Information though.

• a couple of the Gmail accounts use OAuth2 authentication, others don't. OAuth2 authentication is recommended for Gmail.
• INCOMING: account33, , (imap) mail.google.com:143, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext

Does port 143 actually work?

• None of your other IMAP accounts uses TLS for the incoming server.

I wouldn't want to access my mail insecurely anymore.

• Why an Outgoing server for 'Local Folders'?

does the default account order display in the order in which an account was created?

I'm not sure. The add-on takes care of that for me. Account type also plays a role (IMAP accounts show up first, then POP).

Is your problem simply the one shown in the image in this thread? https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1152005