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I am unable to set-up new accounts in TB

  • 11 cavab
  • 1 has this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by Phil.s

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I am unable to set-up new email accounts in TB as it does not save or send the password that I enter in Add Mail Account. So I never get past the testing phase. The email provider checked their logs and said they my email settings are right, but they are not getting a valid password. So I set up an account with a different provider and hit the same problem. I wonder if my password file could be corrupted? By the way, five of my six existing accounts in TB work OK, but one does not seem to remember the password.

I am unable to set-up new email accounts in TB as it does not save or send the password that I enter in Add Mail Account. So I never get past the testing phase. The email provider checked their logs and said they my email settings are right, but they are not getting a valid password. So I set up an account with a different provider and hit the same problem. I wonder if my password file could be corrupted? By the way, five of my six existing accounts in TB work OK, but one does not seem to remember the password.

All Replies (11)

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Before setting up the account in Thunderbird, try to verify your account password using webmail.

Who's the email provider for the account you're trying to set up in Thunderbird?

Does the new account wizard come up with the correct server settings as per your email provider instructions?

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Thanks for the reply. I have tried IMAP accounts with krystal.co.uk and 123-reg.co.uk. Both accounts work with Webmail, Outlook,my iPad and my Android phone. The detected settings (in all) are not quite correct and need to be entered manually with the provider's specified settings. I had a couple of corrupted mail folders in TB after a disk crash last year, which is why I wondered about a corruption somewhere. These are the first accounts I have set up since the crash, but that might be a red herring.

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I am unable to set-up new email accounts in TB as it does not save or send the password that I enter in Add Mail Account. So I never get past the testing phase.

What error message do you get?

The detected settings (in all) are not quite correct and need to be entered manually with the provider's specified settings.

What are the provider specified server settings you used? Please post them here.

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I've uploaded an image showing the error message and the settings for Krystal. I have to use the server address directly because the domain name is elsewhere. Krystal tech support confirm the settings are correct but their logs say they are not getting a valid password. These same settings work fine on all other programs I tried as mentioned. I got the same error message when I then set up a test email account on 123-reg using a different domain I own (which is at 123-reg).

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If the wizard fails to pick the correct server settings you'll have to use Manual Setup. https://support.mozilla.org/kb/manual-account-configuration

I wonder if my password file could be corrupted?

That's possible. For the time being, just leave the 'Remember password' option unchecked. You can still check that option later.

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Yes, but after many many attempts I have only managed to persuade it to save the settings once. Then TB connected to the faraday server and just sat there. It didn't ask for a password. So I eventually deleted the TB email account and since then every time I try to set up an account the Done button is greyed out, as in the picture above. I can't count the number of times I have had to re-enter all of the settings in TB. If I get time next week I will fire up an old laptop, install TB as a new installation, and try that.

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OK. I have installed Thunderbird on an old Win7 laptop, entered the settings as in the pic above and it connected immediately and showed email. So the problem is definitely with the Thunderbird installation on my Win10 PC.

Any ideas please? I really want to avoid deleting TB and re-installing as I don't want to lose emails in several POP3 accounts.

At the moment my workaround is simply to use Outlook for emails in the new accounts, but that's not desirable :)

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Is the email address your real email address? Testing@ does not sound likely. You would need to use your email address or one that exists which you have a password to access it.

I notice the astonabbottspc.org website links up to aston-abbotts.co.uk and many of the people have an email address which is name@aston-abbott.co.uk

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Hi, thanks for the response. The testing address is set up at the astonabbottspc.org domain and works with everything else: iPad, Android, Outlook and a brand new TB installation. It just won't work on my own TB installation as TB won't save or send the password. The two domains are linked, but separate. Five other people have addresses at astonabbottspc.org and they can all access them.

It is ONLY on my main PC Thunderbird installation that I can't add new accounts. Therefore I still believe I have a corruption in my TB set up, for reasons I outlined earlier in this thread.

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Please try this. Make a note of all your current passwords - just in case :) They should be stored and visible here: Menu icon > Options > Security > 'Passwords' tab Clickon 'Saved Passwords' click on 'Show Passwords'


In Thunderbird Help > Troubleshooting Information click on 'Open Folder' button a new window opens showing contents of your 'profile name' folder.

Exit Thunderbird now. Locate and delete this file:

  • pkcs11.txt

Restart Thunderbird. Attempt to create imap account entering and requesting to remember the password.

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Thanks, but I'm afraid it didn't work. I tried creating 3 email accounts afterwards - two at Krystal and one at 123-reg - all with the same failure as above.

I keep thinking I must be doing something stupid, but then it worked first time with Krystal when I used a new TB installation on my laptop yesterday.

I am using 60.6.1 by the way. I did re-install it today over the top of the current location, just in case.

My profile folder is under AppData/Roaming. I notice there is a TB cache folder under AppData/Local. Is there any way of clearing the cache data - and might that help?