Troubleshooting Mozilla Thunderbird Incoming E-Mail Problems
Most e-mail addresses today use the POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) Internet protocol for receiving e-mail. With POP3 your e-mail is held on a mail server. You can download your mail to an e-mail client. Typically, the e-mail is deleted from the server when it is downloaded, but it can be set up to retain the e-mail messages.
An alternative Internet mail protocol is IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol). IMAP provides some enhanced capabilities and is useful for dealing with large volumes of mail that may need to be organized. Most hosing companies today use POP3. If you are not sure about your situation, ask the ISP or hosting company. The e-mail documentation they provide will usually tell you which protocol you are working with.
Most of the configuration issues with receiving e-mail can be resolved in the Server Settings section for each e-mail address in Thunderbird. Each e-mail address is configured separately.
- Select Account Settings from the Tools menu.
- Select Server Settings under the e-mail address you wish to troubleshoot.
The section that you want is at the top of the right-hand side.
If anything in this section is incorrect, you will not be able to download your e-mail. After making each change, click the OK button on this screen, close Thunderbird, re-open Thunderbird, and try to download your e-mail messages once again. If you do not have detailed instructions from your ISP or hosting company, this is a trial-and-error process.
The first thing to check is the Server Name. This identifies your mail server. You will need to get this information from your hosting company or ISP. Most mail servers are identified by using a subdomain preceding the domain name, such as mail.tech-evangelist.com. Some use other subdomain names, such as ipostoffice.tech-evangelist.com. Once again, the only way to know is to find out how your mail server is configured.
Next, check the User Name. Sometimes this is the entire e-mail address and sometimes is is just the account name, which is the portion of the e-mail address to the left of the @ sign.
The third item to test is the Security Settings. Most mail servers do not use a secure connection, so Never would be checked. I’ve seen a few that use TLS (Transport Layer Security), which is a type of secure connection. If Never didn’t work, try TLS, if available. There are also a few e-mail servers that use SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) for secure connections. Secure connections encypt the messages as they are downloaded, which prevents others from intercepting your messages. I have an AT&T e-mail account that requires SSL. When you click the SSL radio button, the port number will change.
You can also try checking the Use Secure Authentication box, but thus far I have never had to do that when setting up an e-mail account.
There is a very small possibility that your ISP or hosting company is using a non-standard port. Thunderbird does allow you to change the port, but you should never do that unless instructed to do so by your ISP or hosting company. If the port is wrong, you will not make the proper server connection.
If none of this works, make sure that you do indeed have an active Internet connection. If your browser can access the Internet, you should be able to retrieve your e-mail.
By now your problems receiving e-mail should have been resolved. Most of the time when I’ve run into issues setting up new e-mail accounts in Thunderbird, the issue was an incorrect User Name or Security Setting. Remember to save the settings each time you make a change by clicking the OK button. It is also best if you shut down and restart Thunderbird to make sure that your changes are reloaded. After that, test it again.
January 28th, 2008 at 9:46 am
Thanks for this info .. had to do a search on google to find this
March 12th, 2008 at 4:30 am
One of my friends send a mail to me.But the mail I recieved in a corrupted format (some tables and attachments were missing) while my other friends recieved in the correct format. He tried to send the mail two three times but still the problem persists. What will be the actual reason?
March 19th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
It sounds to me like the message and attachments could be getting corrupted during your ISP’s spam filtering. I have seen large attachments become corrupted consistently with some ISPs.
It is possible to have a problem with attachments with Thunderbird because Thunderbird does not store attachments as separate files. Attachments are embedded into the stored message. If there are any unusual formatting codes or characters in the attachments, it is possible that Thunderbird could not deal with them correctly. I have never seen a problem like that, but it is possible. You did not mention whether your friends are also using Thunderbird.
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:53 am
Hello, Thanks for the article. My problem is that I have about 15 e-mails that keep coming up from 2006. I delete and trash them but they stay in my system and come back every few weeks. Any suggestions. Thanks. G.T.C.
April 3rd, 2008 at 8:09 am
Hi George
That’s a strange problem. I don’t have an answer as to why they keep appearing, but I may know why they are not being permanently deleted.
Did you know that Thunderbird and many other e-mail clients never actually delete e-mails unless you take another step to remove them from the system? When you delete an e-mail, Thunderbird flags the e-mail so that it does not appear in your accounts. The e-mail still exists.
Try this. After you delete the e-mails, run the Empty Trash and then the Compact Folders routine in the File menu. That removes the deleted e-mails from the system.
Let us know if it works.
April 11th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Hi,
I have had a Thunderbird free email account for a few years now. I did have some problems with incoming/outgoing mail, and this was resolved by a computer expert no longer available. No problems until today, however, as I am unable to access email. Not sure why.
1. When I attempt to access mail, a box appears requesting my password. I provide the password.
2. A new box appears reading: Sending of password did not succeed. Mail server ………responded: Login failed.
3. Another box appears reading: Please enter a new password for user ……. on……. I create a new password.
4. Message #2 is repeated.
I did read through your information on incoming mail problems, and everything appears to check out as far as server info. I changed the Security Setting from Never to TLS with no luck. Can you suggest something further for me to do? Is this a bug of some kind, perhaps?
Thanks,
Anne
April 12th, 2008 at 5:27 am
Hi Anne
I assume you are talking about using the Thunderbird free e-mail client. Thunderbird doesn’t offer free e-mail accounts.
What you are seeing appears to be a classic problem with a hosting company that has changed their mail server configuration or is experiencing a problem. I’ve see this happen dozens of times.
The best thing you can do is to report the problem to your ISP. For some reason they almost always deny that there is a problem until they find it and fix it. Most of these problems mysteriously clear up in a few hour or a day. Make sure your account configurations are set back to the way that they were or to a new configuration if your hosting company acknowledges a change.
You could also have a problem with a firewall on your PC that is blocking outgoing messages.
I’ve worked with software systems for over 20 years. They just don’t stop working unless something has changed. The problem with e-mail clients is that they interact with multiple systems on your PC, with your hosting company’s e-mail server, with the recipient’s email server, etc.
April 12th, 2008 at 8:06 am
Thanks for your response. I’ll follow your directive and see what happens….. and yes, I am using the Thunderbird free email client.
April 15th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
I cannot get Thunderbird’s Message Filters to delete unwanted e-mails from my POP3 server. The Filter Log tells me that e-mails have been deleted from my POP3 server, but they still arrive in Thunderbird’s Inbox.
I have Thunderbird version 2.0.0.12, running on Windows XP Pro (SP2). I am able to delete unwanted e-mails from my POP3 server using Outlook Express, so I assume the problem is somewhere in Thunderbird.
Any help is welcome. Thanks!
April 16th, 2008 at 6:28 am
Hi Allan
The Delete from POP Server feature in Thunderbird’s message filters does not seem to work very well. Theoretically, the filters merely filter spam and then either delete them or place them in a spam bucket that you designate. Filters strictly deal with incoming messages, which are not filtered after they are received.
In order to delete messages on your server, check the settings for the Server Settings for each e-mail account. Go to Tools, Account Settings, then choose the Server Settings under an e-mail account. Make sure that the Leave Messages on Server box is unchecked. Do this for each account.
If you have this box checked because you are trying to store messages on the mail server and only delete the spam messages, this setting may be overriding the Filter setting.
April 28th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Hi
I am trying to use Thunderbird to access my free yahoo mail. I used freePOPs to help do this. I don’t get any errors when I sign in, but it says there are no messages on the server. I am able to send messages though. Any idea why I can’t get my mail but I can send it? Thanks for the help.
April 29th, 2008 at 5:35 am
Hi Dave
I am not familiar with freePOPs, but is sounds like you are not connecting to the server properly. Inbound e-mail problems do not always give you an array of error messages like outbound e-mail does. It is common to see no error messages at all when a connection is not being made when trying to download e-mail messages.
You may have to try different combinations of the Server Name, User Name and Security settings until you get it to work. One or more of these three is likely causing the problem.
You might want to check out Yahoo’s page that deals with setting up POP3 accounts with Thunderbird. It gives you all of the configuration info. Can I POP my mail into a different email client (like Outlook or Thunderbird)?. From reading this, it sounds like you need a Yahoo Mail Plus account. The standard Yahoo Mail account does not offer POP access.
July 2nd, 2008 at 6:48 am
I have just bought an Asus EEE with Thunderbird. It has downloaded emails fine from Tiscali, but I can’t find the button to ask it to leave messages on the server when downloading. I can find the Server Settings page but nothing relevant on it.
I would be really grateful if anyone can help!
July 31st, 2008 at 9:56 am
Thunderbird has eaten some of my mail - one I didnt open, 6 i opened ( and printed)
2 separate occasions… of course I cant tell if it’s eaten more than I know of.
Could this be a virus? I looked in the trash-not there. THANKS
August 21st, 2008 at 11:07 am
Continue to get “Alert” message when trying to retrieve mail: “Unable to write the e-mail to the mailbox. Make sure the file system allows you write privileges, and you have enough disk space to copy the mail box.”
I have no idea what this message means or how to correct it. I am at a loss.
August 21st, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Hi Joe
It looks like you have a permissions problems. Did you recently restore Thunderbird files from a CD? Files and directories copied from a CD are flagged as Read Only and you cannot modify them or write to the directories until you remove the Read Only flag. If you didn’t restore files from a CD, then somehow your directory permissions changed.
I assume you are working with Windows. You need to find your Thunderbird file directories (not the program directories). If you have not changed anything with Thunderbird, our changing Thunderbird’s file location article will help you to find it.
Right-click on the main Thunderbird file directory and select Properties. Make sure read-only is unchecked and click OK. A Confirm Attribute Changes dialog box should pop up. Select “Apply changes to this folder, subfolders and files.” Click OK. That should clear up the permissions problem.
September 4th, 2008 at 5:30 am
I cannot get large files via Mozilla Thunderbird., which blocks all other mail from coming in.
Message comes up “incoming server timed out” I don’t find any place in account settings to change this. Any help appreciated. I have to go to verizon’s terrible mail program to delete that e-mail w/o reading or seeing attachment. so I can then receive the other mail.
September 4th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Hi Dick
You didn’t say whether or not you are on a high speed Internet connection. This type of problem is common with a dial-up connection. A slow connection can really bottleneck your downloads.
The problem might be with your ISP. Many ISPs set a limit on the size of attachments that they allow and others limit the connection time.
There is a place to set the connection timeout in Thunderbird. You might want to try changing it. It is buried and a little hard to find.
Tools > Options (The Options dialog box should open)
Select the Advanced tab
Select the Network & Disk Space sub-tab (the sub-tab is easy to miss)
The default connection timeout is 60 seconds. You might want to try doubling or tripling that number to see if it helps. Make sure that you shut down and restart Thunderbird before you test it.
Another solutions might be to install a download manager Add-0n for Thunderbird called DownThemAll!
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/201
I have not tried DownThemAll!, but it has a 5-star rating and the comments people have left make it look like the perfect solution for your issue.
Let us know if either of these fixes the problem.
September 21st, 2008 at 11:55 pm
I’m having a half a problem. I get the message that my password failed, but only on incoming mail. I can mail OUT from that account (I have two running on Thunderbird, one with no problem at all, both on the same ISP) but not recieve mail.
I get prompted for my password every time, but it gets rejected.
any advice for me?
Thanks in advance
September 22nd, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Hi Margaret
It is possible that you do not have your User Name set correctly. I think you can get the password prompt it either is incorrect. If the User Name is not set correctly, you might be trying to access a different account.
Check the Server Settings under the account that is not working and compare it to the one that is working. Sometimes you have to use the account name with the domain name, as in margaret@thedomainname.com, and sometimes you can just use the account name. Also check the Security Settings to see if they are the same.
Something has to be different if one is working, but the other is not. You might also want to try deleting the password for the problem account and then check the box to save it when it prompts you for the password.
Hope this helps.
September 24th, 2008 at 7:00 am
I am having the same problem Joe had as described on Aug 28. I am on a Mac Book Pro. Thunderbird is set to Global Inbox. My local folders total over 5gb. I want to save my inbox,and upgrade TBird (im on 1.0.7) but I am worried if I create a new folder I will lose my last 2 years of messages. I have checked permissions and they all say I can “read and write”.
When I try to retrieve new messages this pops up “Unable to write the e-mail to the mailbox. Make sure the file system allows you write privileges, and you have enough disk space to copy the mail box.” For 2-3 weeks prior I was getting an “unable to connect to the server” message although my messages would still come in. I also have an G5 and that is continuing to receive emails with no problem.
Any suggestions? Thanks!
September 30th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
I can receive new emails but when I go to open them, OLD emails show up in the veiwing box. It will headline the new one up above, then show the old one down below. It’s often ‘mails from last year, different ones. I went on help and tried what they suggested… into Inbox, then properties then clicked ‘rebuild Index’. It takes about 1/2 hour then brings back everything I’ve deleted for the last hour, BUT I can now read the new emails. THEN as soon as I get new emails, they got back to reading as OLD. So to read any new ones, I have to rebuild index every time. What can I do to fix this? It started after 9pm last night.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Hi Adrienne
If it is taking that long to rebuild an index, you must have a massive number of old e-mails in the files.
Thunderbird, and many other e-mail clients, never delete old e-mails unless you take special steps to clean out the old messages. The procedure is detailed on my Thunderbird Tips page. Thunderbird files can quickly become enormous because all attachments are embedded in the messages.
To physically remove all of the old messages and attachments that you thought you had previously deleted, select File, Empty Trash. Then select File, Compact Folders. This deletes all of the messages flagged as deleted in the data files.
October 4th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
I am having intermittent problems with downloading email on Thunderbird. When I open Thunderbird, it says “downloading x no. messages” and the time bar runs for a short time and then disappears but still shows that it is downloading messages and nothing happens. If I go to my ISP box on the internet, look at my account, then reopen Thunderbird, most times it will download email normally.
I have deleted and compacted folders, read suggestions above to set up accounts and have still had no joy. As the problem is only occasional, it is driving me nuts.
Does anyone else have this problem and can you suggest a way of fixing it.
thanks
October 9th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Hello,
Thunderbird threw a couple of new problems at me today. I’ve been working on correcting them all day and have read numerous posts here. I did go through all three of my email accounts on Thunderbird…all will receive mail, however, problem number one is:
Suddenly, I am getting a SMTP error, therefore, mail cannot outgo.
This error reads:
Sending of message failed. The message could not be sent because connecting to SMTP server xxxxx.com failed. The server may be unavailable or is refusing SMTP connections. Please verify that your STMP server setting is correct (I have changed nothing) and try again, or else contact your Network Administrator.
This error occurs with all three Thunderbird accounts. However, incoming mail is not a problem, except…
One of my accounts just began asking me for my password today. This account is not password protected. To be certain, I did go and ask for passwords to be displayed…this account does not contain a password. It is a new account that I set up just a few months ago and never put a password to it. Also, earlier this morning, before T-bird suddenly began asking for the non-existent password, this account was accepting email. Now that it is asking for the password, which I cannot provide a non-existent password, it will not display mail, therefore, I do not know if it is receiving mail. I did have the presence of mind when the SMTP error kept occurring, to move all inbox emails to another folder. Shortly after that, the password request occurred. Given that this account will no longer display email, I am grateful that, indeed, I did move the entire inbox.
My questions are, how do I correct the SMTP error and how do I get T-bird to stop asking for a password on an email account that is not password protected?
Also, my computer and my husband’s used to be networked together. He has recently relocated to another state. This is probably a dim-witted question, however, is it possible for our computers to still be networked together and therefore allowing him to tweak my email program?
Thank you very much.
Annie
October 15th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Hi Annie
There isn’t any obvious answer to the SMTP issue. There are dozens of things that can cause that problem, but the chances are good that either something changed with your ISP or something, such as a firewall, is blocking the connection. This is a “poke and hope” troubleshooting issue where you just have to keep trying things until you discover what is causing the problem. Go over everything mentioned in this post again to see what works.
This issue with the password may be a security issue. Passwords are normally required to access anything on a server. Why would you set up e-mail accounts with no passwords? It is a very fundamental security issue. Without a password, any junior level hacker can get into your e-mail accounts. Try adding passwords to the e-mail accounts and then use the passwords when Thunderbird requests it. It is not actually Thunderbird that requests the password. The password request comes from your e-mail server.
I can’t give a definitive answer regarding ex-hubby being able to access your PC. It may depend upon how they were networked. If he is a different state and on a different ISP network, it would be very unlikely that he could access your PC.