In order to help you, please post here your Thunderbird Troubleshooting Information:

Thunderbird menu: Help: Troubleshooting Information (If you cannot see the Thunderbird menu, press the Alt key or F10 key on your keyboard to show the menu, OR click on the three-line-icon)

Click the "Copy text to clipboard" button. Do not check box "Include account names"! Then paste (Ctrl-V), the text into your response here.

Okay....

 Application Basics

   Name: Thunderbird
   Version: 45.7.0
   User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64; rv:45.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/45.7.0
   Profile Folder: Show Folder

             (Local drive)
   Application Build ID: 20170124052806
   Enabled Plugins: about:plugins
   Build Configuration: about:buildconfig
   Memory Use: about:memory

 Mail and News Accounts
   account2:
     INCOMING: account2, , (none) Local Folders, plain, passwordCleartext

 Crash Reports
   http://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/bp-0a09136e-a6d1-4a30-81c8-4d1222131015 (10/15/2013)

 Extensions
   Lightning, 4.7.7, false, {e2fda1a4-762b-4020-b5ad-a41df1933103}

I see you replied to two other people today with a similar issue with ATT. Now I am really thinking it is ATT's issue even though they say it isn't.

The info you posted doesn't show the settings for the account, e.g. gmail, verizon, comcast etc., so we can't tell if you are using the correct settings. In any case, you could get this issue with setting up an account (cannot verify...) if either the settings are incorrect, or the new password is rejected due to 2-step verification, or even if your security program (antivirus, firewall) is interrupting the setup.

Once the account is set up again, the sudden stoppage of emails could simply be due to a corrupted message blocking downloads through TB. If that's the case, you should access the account through webmail and delete messages until the culprit is removed and normal downloading resumes.

Yes, there is a problem with AT&T today. I've tried to help two other people with it today.

It is possible that the problem was a bad email clogging the download because at first the problem was Thunderbird would connect but kept saying there were no emails to download which was absolutely not true.

After trying over and over to fix it and spending hours on the phone with ATT I finally just deleted my email profile (big mistake now I think, especially if this is an ATT issue!) with the intention of trying to add it back in and hopefully that would correct the problem.

However once I tried to add it back in, it finds my configuration, but says the password is not valid.

Then I spent more time on the phone with ATT...reset password and confirmed that the new password was working via signing in to my account on their site and then also signing in to my webmail (different websites).

Then I went back to Thunderbird and again tried to add my email account back in and same thing...it rejects the password, which at this point I know for sure is correct.

So because of the password issue it cannot even get to a level where it will even try to download the emails.

Make sure you have no old passwords stored in Tools/Options/Security/Passwords/Saved Passwords, and disable your anti-virus while setting up the account.

You may just need to give up today, and hope that AT&T has fixed the problem by tomorrow.

One of the people here with the same problem with AT&T says their problem was solved in the same way as you have done. They are in the minority.

@sfhowes.....Okay just tried that...I deleted the old password (which was not incorrect) and still same problem.

"configuration could not be verified - ...."

@bruce...Okay thanks. I guess I will try waiting until tomorrow. Although that is what I said yesterday when the problem first appeared!

Thank you both for trying to help me.

I don't even know what email client to use if I can't get this to work. I have always used Thunderbird. I have never even opened Outlook in my life and I am not excited at all to have to resort to it.

With this issue with AT&T's e-mail servers, I would be surprised if another e-mail client worked while at the same time Thunderbird did not.

Still not working.

I am going to set up two other test email accounts. One with ATT and one with another ISP and see if those will connect to Thunderbird.

But for day to day purposes I cannot change my email. So if I cannot get Thunderbird to work I need a new email client. I am looking at EM client. Any comments or other suggestions?

This is NOT what I want at all. I LOVE Thunderbird and until this issue have been very happy with it. For well over ten years or more. Before that I used Netscape. I just don't know how to get around this issue and I need to use an email client. As it is I have lost all of my emails and my address book.  :(

Thank you.

We still don't know what settings you are using to set up the account, such as incoming and outgoing server names, ports, connection security, authentication type, user name etc. Even if TB 'finds' the settings, they cannot be guaranteed to be the correct ones.

Other ATT users are facing the same issue (more and more), and it doesn't seem to depend on the specific desktop program. The fact that ATT seems to rely on Yahoo for email service is all I need to know - to make me switch email providers if I were an ATT customer.

You can try other programs like Mailbird, eM Client, Postbox etc. and see if they are any better at setting up your ATT account.

Is it safe to post all of that information here? I did go through all of the settings with ATT customer service when I was on the phone with them to make sure they were correct. The incoming and outgoing names, ports, authentication, etc.

I downloaded and set up EM client and it is not able to connect either so this is definitely ATT issue.

I would love to leave them. We cut our home phone and cable service with them and the only thing we have left with them is the internet service which I held on to because we need internet service of course, but also because of the email address which I have had for more than 25 years and have a lot associated with it. It is so old it is still a Bellsouth address.

I am very frustrated.

Yes, it is safe to post it, as explained above (but omit everything below 'Important Modified Preferences'). Replace your email address with username@att.net if that's what's required for User Name (some servers distinguish between username@domain and username).

If you get an account with gmail, outlook.com, aol or gmx, they can all be set up in TB, and you can probably have any of them collect mail from your ATT account - although you probably won't be able to send mail from the ATT account.

Okay thank you...I followed your advice and I set up a gmail account. I was able to have it connect and download to TB. I was able to forward my ATT emails to gmail. So at least that solves the problem with emails from now on. I don't love the solution but I am sure as time goes on I will be fine with it. I do like that I will have access to my emails from all of my devices and there seems to be such positive support for Gmail webmail maybe I will grow to like it. I saw that as soon as I sent up a folder and filter in TB it immediately showed up in Gmail so that is nice.

Now I need to figure out how to download the old emails still on the ATT server and where I can put them. I cannot get them into TB of course. I saw something about Mailstore Home. Any feedback on them?

Or I guess I can set up Outlook and download them just use it for storage for all of my old emails.

Any advice about these options?

Instead of forwarding mail from your AT&T account to Gmail, it might be better to have Gmail get the e-mail from the AT&T account: Check emails from other accounts

In this case, MailStore Home will only help you if the e-mails are already on your computer. It can be used to directly download e-mail from an account, but given the issues with your account, that may not work. As you said, you tried another e-mail program, and it wouldn't work for the account either.

If you can get another e-mail program to work, then probably Thunderbird will work then also. If not, then you can use MailStore Home to transfer the e-mails from the other program to Thunderbird.

MailStore Home is an e-mail archiving program that is free for home users. It can be used to archive e-mail from many different e-mail programs and even webmail. It can also be used to export the archived e-mail to many different e-mail programs, thus making it a good e-mail converting program also.

Once archived, your e-mail can be viewed in MailStore Home just like an e-mail program.

I haven't used MailStore, but it claims to be able to collect Gmail and Yahoo accounts, so you might be able to download your ATT mail through the program. It can also export mail to formats that should be easy to import to TB with ImportExportTools.

I assume you used the Gmail Mail Fetcher to automatically collect ATT mail. If the number of old messages in the ATT account is not too great, you could simply forward them to your Gmail from the ATT webmail portal.

sfhowes: MailStore Home can import and export directly from/to Thunderbird, as well as other programs.

See my screenshots.

I have no affiliation with MailStore at all. I just like that it has such a great ability to convert e-mails from one program to another, as well as archive. And MailStore Home is free for home users.

No I decided to forward not fetch! I am forwarding my emails from ATT to Gmail. It just felt safer for some reason.

The number of old emails in the ATT account is over the 15 GB limit in Gmail so I cannot get them into Gmail.

I will try the Mailstore and see if it will connect with ATT and I can download.

I don't mind archiving the old emails in Mailsource as long as I have access to them when I need them.

I will update you on how this next challenge goes!

It appears at least some users can now receive mail on ATT, but not send:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1156635#answer-960135