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Cannot retrieve IMAP mail from Gmail using Thunderbird

  • 4 ردود
  • 2 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • آخر ردّ كتبه christ1

DougElliott
DougElliott
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My overall goal is to switch over from POP3 to IMAP without losing my previous messages. So I just created in Thunderbird an IMAP version of my POP3 Gmail account. I have been led to believe this is permitted and, clearly I don't want to wipe out my POP3 account (and all of its messages on my local system) until I know the IMAP works. So now I have two "accounts" defined in Thunderbird with the same email address: one is pointing to Gmail POP3 and one to Gmail IMAP. Now, any attempt to retrieve mail from IMAP results in the error "the mail server for account <xxxx>@gmail.com responded : Unknown command <gibberish string>". (See error image attached.) The gibberish string is different each time I try it.

I have enabled IMAP in my Gmail account config.

I have searched the web for similar problems and none of the proposed solutions work for me.

Other data: using latest Thunderbird on Windows 10. Any clues?

My overall goal is to switch over from POP3 to IMAP without losing my previous messages. So I just created in Thunderbird an IMAP version of my POP3 Gmail account. I have been led to believe this is permitted and, clearly I don't want to wipe out my POP3 account (and all of its messages on my local system) until I know the IMAP works. So now I have two "accounts" defined in Thunderbird with the same email address: one is pointing to Gmail POP3 and one to Gmail IMAP. Now, any attempt to retrieve mail from IMAP results in the error "the mail server for account <xxxx>@gmail.com responded : Unknown command <gibberish string>". (See error image attached.) The gibberish string is different each time I try it. I have enabled IMAP in my Gmail account config. I have searched the web for similar problems and none of the proposed solutions work for me. Other data: using latest Thunderbird on Windows 10. Any clues?

All Replies (4)

DougElliott
DougElliott صاحب السؤال
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Looks like the image didn't make it into my question. I'll try again.

christ1
christ1
  • Top 25 Contributor
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Please post your Troubleshooting Information. At the top right of the Thunderbird window, click the menu button , then select Help > Troubleshooting Information. Press the "Copy text to clipboard button" and paste the information into your reply.

DougElliott
DougElliott صاحب السؤال
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Troubleshooting (truncated to 10k characters): 

 Application Basics

   Name: Thunderbird
   Version: 52.4.0
   User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.4.0
   Profile Folder: Open Folder

             (Local drive)
   Application Build ID: 20171004092449
   Enabled Plugins: about:plugins
   Build Configuration: about:buildconfig
   Memory Use: about:memory
   Profiles: about:profiles

 Mail and News Accounts
   account1:
     INCOMING: account1, , (none) Local Folders, plain, passwordCleartext

   account4:
     INCOMING: account4, , (pop3) pop.gmail.com:995, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , smtp.gmail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true
     OUTGOING: , smtp.gmail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, false
     OUTGOING: , smtp.gmail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, false

   account6:
     INCOMING: account6, , (pop3) pop.gmail.com:995, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , smtp.gmail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account9:
     INCOMING: account9, , (imap) imap.gmail.com:993, SSL, OAuth2
     OUTGOING: , smtp.gmail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

 Crash Reports
   https://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/bp-5069e4b7-b971-4116-9149-baf170170722 (22/07/2017)
   https://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/bp-34337d76-53a1-4b53-a63a-6c60f2170110 (11/01/2017)
   https://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/bp-ab433662-db4c-42c4-be31-473fd2170110 (11/01/2017)
   https://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/bp-63b73de2-4ad3-400d-ab13-96db12140726 (27/07/2014)

 Extensions
   gContactSync, 2.0.12, true, gContactSync@pirules.net
   Google Search for Thunderbird, 1.0, true, gsearch@standard8.plus.com
   ImportExportTools, 3.2.4.1, true, {3ed8cc52-86fc-4613-9026-c1ef969da4c3}
   Lightning, 5.4.4, true, {e2fda1a4-762b-4020-b5ad-a41df1933103}

 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.apps.reset-permissions: true
     extensions.lastAppVersion: 52.4.0
     font.internaluseonly.changed: true
     font.name.monospace.el: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.tr: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-baltic: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-central-euro: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-cyrillic: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-unicode: Consolas
     font.name.sans-serif.el: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.tr: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-baltic: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-central-euro: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-cyrillic: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-unicode: Calibri
     font.name.serif.el: Cambria
     font.name.serif.tr: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-baltic: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-central-euro: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-cyrillic: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-unicode: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-western: Cambria
     font.size.fixed.el: 14
     font.size.fixed.tr: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-baltic: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-central-euro: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-cyrillic: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-unicode: 14
     font.size.variable.el: 17
     font.size.variable.tr: 17
     font.size.variable.x-baltic: 17
     font.size.variable.x-central-euro: 17
     font.size.variable.x-cyrillic: 17
     font.size.variable.x-unicode: 17
     font.size.variable.x-western: 14
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.appVersion: 45.4.0
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.deviceID: 0x11c0
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.driverVersion: 21.21.13.7306
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.gfx.driver-init.direct3d11-angle: true
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.gfx.driver-init.webgl-angle: true
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.gfx.driver-init.webgl-angle-force-d3d11: false
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.gfx.driver-init.webgl-angle-force-warp: false
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.gfx.driver-init.webgl-angle-try-d3d11: true
     gfx.crash-guard.status.glcontext: 2
     gfx.direct3d.last_used_feature_level_idx: 0
     mail.openMessageBehavior.version: 1
     mail.winsearch.enable: true
     mail.winsearch.firstRunDone: true
     mail.winsearch.global_reindex_time: 1261614790
     mailnews.database.global.datastore.id: ab70c48f-e248-4462-95e0-92db516b008
     media.gmp.storage.version.observed: 1
     network.cookie.prefsMigrated: true
     network.predictor.cleaned-up: true
     places.database.lastMaintenance: 1509079733
     places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 54011
     plugin.importedState: true
     plugins.update.notifyUser: true
     print.print_printer: Canon iP4500 series
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_bgcolor: false
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_bgimages: false
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_command:
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_downloadfonts: false
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_edge_bottom: 0
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_edge_left: 0
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_edge_right: 0
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_edge_top: 0
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_evenpages: true
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_footercenter:
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_footerleft: &PT
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_footerright: &D
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_headercenter:
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_headerleft: &T
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_headerright: &U
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_in_color: true
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_margin_bottom: 0.5
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_margin_left: 0.5
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_margin_right: 0.5
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_margin_top: 0.5
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_oddpages: true
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_orientation: 0
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_pagedelay: 500
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_paper_data: 9
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_paper_height: 11.00
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_paper_size_type: 0
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_paper_size_unit: 1
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_paper_width: 8.50
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_reversed: false
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_scaling: 1.00
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_shrink_to_fit: true
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_to_file: false
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_unwriteable_margin_bottom: 0
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_unwriteable_margin_left: 0
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_unwriteable_margin_right: 0
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_unwriteable_margin_top: 0
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_bgcolor: false
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_bgimages: false
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_colorspace:
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_command:
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_downloadfonts: false
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_duplex: 0
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_edge_bottom: 0
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_edge_left: 0
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_edge_right: 0
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_edge_top: 0
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_evenpages: true
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_footercenter:
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_footerleft: &PT
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_footerright: &D
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_headercenter:
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_headerleft: &T
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_headerright: &U
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_in_color: true
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_margin_bottom: 0.5
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_margin_left: 0.5
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_margin_right: 0.5
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_margin_top: 0.5
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_oddpages: true
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_orientation: 0
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_page_delay: 50
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_pagedelay: 500
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_paper_data: 9
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_paper_height: 11.00
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_paper_name:
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_paper_size_type: 0
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_paper_size_unit: 1
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_paper_width: 8.50
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_plex_name:
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_resolution: 0
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_resolution_name:
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_reversed: false
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_scaling: 0.80
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_shrink_to_fit: false
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_to_file: false

  ...
christ1
christ1
  • Top 25 Contributor
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Your Gmail IMAP server settings look good. I'd also set the 'Authentication type' for the Gmail SMTP server to 'OAuth2'.

Try to start Windows in safe mode with networking enabled. - Win10 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12376/windows-10-start-your-pc-in-safe-mode

Still in Windows safe mode, start Thunderbird in safe mode. - https://support.mozilla.org/kb/safe-mode

Does the problem go away?