I-Thunderbird Isithangami Sokwesekwa

I have Thunderbird working in the IMAP protocol on both machines and I can see the same emails in both Inboxes. If I delete an email on one computer it appears in the Deleted folder in both machines. So far, so good.

However I sometimes want to store an email in a local subfolder, so I move it from my Inbox to another folder on one machine. If I go to the other computer the email has disappeared. Is there any way to make it appear in the same folder on both machines?

I don't know the correct terminology to describe my question. Extensive searching with various wording in several places gives answers to other questions. I have the same Thunderbird Mail account on two Linux computers. I can read and write messages from different email accounts on both devices and other mail clients with no problem. Changes made in one place are reflected everywhere else I have the same account. What I want to know is if I can have a new account added to Tbird on one computer automatically added to the other one. When I upgraded the OS on my desktop computer and installed Thunderbird, and signed in with my profile details, the left pane was empty. In order to start using it, I had to manually add each email account as if for the first time. I had thought that the information in the Tbird app on my laptop (same profile) would sync with the other computer, but it seems that's not what synchronize means. I've added a Blogs and Feeds folder to each of the computers, but when I add a new RSS Feed, it's only found on the computer I was using when I added it. Searching seems to suggest there is a way to do this with some complicated third-party mediation, but I use Thunderbird because it's simple to open any message right at my fingertips. Isn't there some way I can copy everything in my Thunderbird account from one computer to the other with just a few clicks?

I am trying to create a subfolder in one of my existing email subfolders; whatever name I try to give it, it doesn't work. If I name the subfolder "test" it works. If I try to then rename the subfolder to the name I want to give it ("accelerator program"), it gives an error message that it cannot be renamed ... I find this all very weird. I have many folders and sub folders already to organize my mails, and this has worked for many years and now it suddenly doesn't work to make a new one ... any suggestions ? Is there a limit on the total number of (sub) folders one can create in Thunderbird ? Many thanks for your suggestions or advice.

I back-up my Thunderbird profile folder every week.

I noticed that this week it was less than 50% of the size it was last week.

Upon inspection this appeared to be due to the IMAP folders being much smaller this week. I had to wait for some of the email attachments, which I thought were stored locally, to download.

After a while and after opening as many of these IMAP folders as I could, I checked the size of my profile folder again and it's now about 75% of the size it was last week.

I'm a bit unsettled as the reason I use a desktop-based email client is to act as a temporary local backup for my webmail (IMAP) including email attachments until I get the time to sort through them... but it seems that many of the attachments have disappeared in the last few days (well, I can see them but if I want to open them I have to wait for them to download).

I'm also a little concerned since my profile folder has shrunk to below 50% of what it was and then, in the last few hours has grown to 75% of what it was...

Thunderbird did update itself in the last few days so I wonder whether this changed things?

Things I've tried:

1) Opening & closing thunderbird a few times.

2) Rebooting whole desktop PC several times.

3) Checking Thunderbird's 'Synchronisation & Storage' settings (which seem to be as they should be if I want everything to be downloaded & stored locally)...

I'm thinking of removing and then re-adding my webmail account to Thunderbird to see whether that will rest things a bit

Any thoughts or suggestions?

As of 6/6/22 and since, I have been getting an error message from Thunderbird as it tries to log into my gmail account. The message says "Login to account xxxx@gmail.com failed..login to server imap.google.com with username xxxx@gmail.com failed. Retry, Enter New Password, Cancel

This arose on two computers. For many years I have used a portable version of Thunderbird. When this problem started, one of the two computers had the latest version of Thunderbird from PortableApps.com, so oAuth2 might not be the problem. The other computer has portable version 60.9.1. Again, both show receipt of messages through 6/6/22.

Both copies of Thunderbird also have setups to accounts at Fastmail.com; both of those Fastmail setups continue to work fine. My firefox support email is in one of my Fastmail accounts, so I will receive any email reply from you. Both computers also have years of messages in local folders in their respective copies of Thunderbird. It is the gmail account that is the problem.

Now: As an experiment, I just installed a new copy of Thunderbird--not my usual overlay to my existing accounts--on one of the computers--and set up just the gmail account anew. Lo and behold, the newly set up old gmail account works in the newly installed Thunderbird. That does not suffice, however, since I need to keep my local folders integrated, and I need to continue being able to transfer messages from one of my fastmail accounts to the gmail account.

I would very much appreciate help in fixing this problem. (For what it's worth, I do give regular donations to Mozilla).

Thank you, Larry Scott

I set my gmail accounts to use Oauth2 like I was supposed to. When I try to get gmail messages, I get a pop-up window that is supposed to request google account credentials, but instead it is a blank window that does not allow any kind of input. Thus I can not seem to login to my google account to access my gmail. If I close this blank window, thunderbird gives me "Authentication failure" message. Any idea what is wrong?

Hi, I am aware of the changes Google made circa the 30th May 2022 which affect my ability to get emails from gmail via Thunderbird. I have several gmail accounts each account being on a seperate PC. I successfully changed the sign in proceedure on all but two computers by changing the Authentication Method in Server Settings from Normal Password to AOuth2 following guidlines I found on the internet, signed into the relevant Google Account and gave permission for Thunderbird to access the relevant gmail account. This is the problem I am experiencing on the 2 computers mentioned above:= I followed the same proceedure, changed the Authentication Method to AOth2 and Thunderbird presents me (on opening) the necessary Google Window for me to sign in to my Google Account. The correct email address is already shown in the Email/Phone Box but when I select "next" to enter my password, the Google Window re-appears but with the email address blank ie. it does not take me to the passweor page. If I fill in the email address and again select Next, the same thing happens ad infinitum. I know that it must be Thunderbird that is preventing the login to my Google Account because I have no problem logging into my Google Account if I complete the Google sign in page from my browser. It is exactly the same problem on the 2 computers each with its own different gmail email account. Any ideas? Thank you

A week or so ago my gmail account(s) stopped working on thunderbird. Eventually I just deleted them from thunderbird. After some searching, I went to google, went to my account and got an account password to use for a mail client on my computer. I started a new email account in thunderbird for my gmail account. Thunderbird, latest version 91.10

After adding in name, email, password and clicking 'done' it opens up a non-menu'd browser of some kind to log into my gmail account. In that browser I add my email and hit submit...it then reloads to the same page asking me to log in. Thus, I can never log in to my google account in that browser, thus can never set up a gmail account in thunderbird, thus cannot use it at all.

I have no clue what browser it is, but might be a firefox? No idea. I use firefox and have cookies on and such. However, not knowing what the thunderbird browser is, no menu bar to change any settings...and boom...

I can no longer use thunderbird for gmail. I cannot even keep the information in thunderbird since it won't save it until I finish the log in to google..which is impossible.

Don't want to go back to outlook, but This is unusable. Is there anyway to troubleshoot that log in browser it pulls up? I have disabled anti virus, ad blocking software, even took off security protocols that I could with firefox (thinking that might be the browser it uses)...

spent a day on it.. there has to be a solution..or its off to outlook (ugh.)

I have two gmail accounts in Thunderbird. One will send and receive perfectly. The other account receives but will not send emails and keeps asking for a password when doing so. Both use the same SMTP settings of course. This happens if the account is setup IMAP or POP3. The password is valid as the account will login online though any browser and also with windows 11 email app. I have removed and re-inslalled the rogue account several times but to no avail. Even copying the password from the browser password cache and pasting into Thunderbird does not work. Any ideas?

After years of using Thunderbird, looks like I may have to change. updated to ver 91.10 Now Thunderbird requested the new password and I was able to download messages. Then I tried to send a message and again Thunderbird requested my password. It did not accept the password. Now when I try to receive messages my password is not accepted and I get the error message Login to server imap.gmail.com failed. The choices are Retry, Enter New Password and Cancel. I enter the new password and get the same error. help. Don't want to change emails after all these years.

Hi, Hopefully someone can help me. I can receive emails to my exemail.com.au email account no problems. But I cannot send emails from that account using Thunderbird. I can send and receive just fine using my phone. I have been through tech support at Exetel, and they have confirmed that everything looks right as far as they are concerned, and they told me to contact Mozilla to see if there is something else I can try. Attached is a screenshot of my smtp settings. An error pops up when I try to send an email. It says that the message could not be sent because the Outgoing Server was lost in the middle of the transaction. Try again.

Every so often google randomly blocks one or more of my gmail emailaccounts, and when I use Thunderbird I just get a message saying email and password not recognised, or not accepted, or email address has been refused. It happens from time to time randomly and last time I had to set up these weird passwords generated by gmail. This time I just can't find an answer as to why 4 of my accounts give me the same error. I can log into them fine on the web, using gmail, but Thunderbird isn't allowed to connect yet I can connect to other accounts which are configured identically. Can anyone help?

Hi all,

I was looking at emails (local storage, not on an IMAP server) when I accidentally pressed "K". When I did so, the email was still visible, but the left-most column (which for me is the "Thread" column) showed a red-circle with a horizontal white bar on it. At the bottom of the preview pane, there was a message saying:

"Replies to the thread *EMAIL-SUBJECT-HERE* will not be shown".

I've searched and found that the "K" short-cut is: "Newsgroups: Ignore or Unignore Thread" Source: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/keyboard-shortcuts-thunderbird

...but obviously, I wasn't in a Newgroup... I was in a regular email account!

The result of this is, the email I accidentally pressed K on has now disappeared. It isn't in the Deleted folder (or anywhere else I can find)... it's just gone.

I've done a little testing since. If I press "K" again before switching to a different, then this toggles the red-circle/white-bar in the Thread column, and the email no longer disappears.

But my question is: Can I get back the email I accidentally press "K" on?

Thanks in advance!

Peter.

Hello. I have transferred all my thunderbird emails to the new laptop I purchased for when we go away.. I am using my desktop daily and the lap top maybe once a month.. How can I set the lap top to stop all my emails while I am at home using my desk top. At the moment all my emails are downloading to both desktop and laptop and each week I have to open the lap top and delete all the emails that are there but I have already read and deleted on my desk top .. Hope you can help me set the lap top not to receive emails unless I turn the setting on when I go away.. Thanks Noel

As the headline says:

I have got a bunch of spam messages which I am currently investigating for certain reasons. The spammers have set the "Date:" header far in the future (e.g. 2026-01-04), and the "Date" column in the message list as expected shows these weird dates.

However, the "Received" column in the message list as well shows the same weird dates although the topmost "Received:" header in every message is correct.

Here is an excerpt from the header section of one of those messages which shows the "Date:" header and all "Received:" headers (sorry that I couldn't find out how to format the following passage as code):

Date: Thu, 14 Jan 2026 03:38:55 -0800 Received: from deliver ([unix socket]) by morn (Cyrus 3.0.8-Debian-3.0.8-6+deb10u5) with LMTPA; Fri, 05 Mar 2021 12:17:37 +0100 Received: from pop.example.com [a.b.c.d] by morn.dep01.example.com with POP3 (fetchmail-6.4.0.beta4) for <user@localhost> (single-drop); Fri, 05 Mar 2021 12:17:37 +0100 (CET) Received: from server.spammer.com ([e.f.g.h]) by odysseus.example.com (8.15.2/8.15.2/Debian-14~deb10u1) with ESMTP id 125BHDIJ001425 for <user@example.com>; Fri, 5 Mar 2021 12:17:13 +0100 Received: from imap-director-5.dovecot.xion.foo.bar (i.j.k.l) by imap-backend-28.dovecot.xion.foo.bar with LMTP id [an22] (envelope-from <bounces+XmuZjwsANPH/dOCq73______________3@mail.randomcharactershere.com>) for <to>; Thu, 14 Jan 2026 03:38:55 -0800

Please note that there are other headers between the ones shown above. I have removed these other headers. I did not change the order of the headers shown above.

Of course, I am aware that the last "Received:" header causes the problem. But this at once leads to the question how TB chooses the "Received:" header from which it extracts the date / time to display in the "Received" column.

As far as I know, SMTP servers and other software involved in the transportation of messages must put their own "Received:" header (if any) above all other "Received:" headers, so that we can reproduce how the message hopped through the net by reading all "Received:" headers from bottom to top. That is, the "Received:" header which reflects delivery to the IMAP server my MUA is connected to always must be topmost.

TB obviously does the opposite (consider the bottom-most "Received:" header the most recent one, i.e. the one whose date should be displayed in the "Received:" column), or it is trying to be overly smart (sort the "Received:" headers by their date, consider the "Received:" header with the "highest" date to reflect the last hop, and consequently display that "highest" date in the "Received:" column). Both would be wrong.

Could anybody please show me how to get around that situation? Is there an extension which does it right? Is it correct that (according to the SMTP RFCs) each software component must put its "Received:" header (if any) above all other "Received:" headers as the message flows through the net?

Thank you very much in advance!

P.S. As a bonus, could somebody please explain how to format something as code here?

I heard recently GMail switched to OAuth. I changed the STMP settings to OAuth for receiving. Now Thunderbird 91.10 can read the emails. However, I cannot change the settings for outgoing because there is no OAuth option there!

Long time user of Tbird. Currently running it on ArchLinux. I have many email addresses handled individually in Tbird 91.10.0 64bit.

Recently I noticed that new accounts on IMAP don't get the Send /Attach buttons, or anything else on the composition toolbar. The toolbar is visible, at least the bottom 10 pixels of it, unless I uncheck it through ALT V T O, but no buttons. Things I have tried: Everything here: https://appuals.com/send-and-attach-buttons-missing-in-thunderbird/ plus renaming xulstore.json so that it recreated. Attached are screenshots, where you can see window with Comp toolbar visible on a POP account. And one where it is just about a 10px line on a new IMAP account.

I have thunderbird 91.10.1everytime it turns on it says cant update click to download something like that. But when I manually check it's up to date, I have reinstalled it but it still does this? It's set to check and auto update what going on and how do I fix this?? Iam running the latest version of Windows 10.