Serious problems with Thunderbird accounts parameters (mix up or automatically changed)
Since several weeks, I have a bunch of problems with Thunderbird when sending/receiving e-mails. I'm using five accounts (mail adresses) - two Outlook/Hotmail, two Gmail, and another one Proximus-. Once a week there is parameter mix up between the different accounts (server names In/out, SMTP definition, names, authentification method, (password), connexion security (STARTTLS,...). One account got the parameters of another account, users names are mixed up, server names are mixed up, security and authentification parameters are changed, so that it's not possible to send or receive any mail. Even when changing/restoring manually any parameters, it changes those of another account. It's becoming a big mess and it takes me a while to restore this situation, trying to find back the correct parameters at the wright places. The first time I got this case, I had to cancel one user account and re-create it, losing all my messages...A real disaster !!
I'm using Thunderbird for a while and I never experimented this kind of things in the past. Is it linked to the new version update ?
Can anyone help me ? Thank you very much. March 27, 2021
All Replies (3)
Do you have each account set to send on an smtp server that is attached to the same provider as the sending account, and has the same User Name? Do you have some 3rd-party app that regularly 'cleans' the TB profile folder, like CCleaner or Privazer?
The user names are different for the same provider. For example, Gmail, my wife and I, have our own user name (person1@gmail.com and person2@gmail.com) dedicated to the same server name smtp.gmail.com. It often occurs that the user names are scrambled (intercnaged) -person1 set to profile of person2 and vice versa) - and other parameters changed (how ???) Example : "Normal password" is set to "OAuth2" (?). Same problem occured for the users linked to the server Hotmail/Outlook. (smtp.Office365.com) It's true that I'am sometime using Ccleaner but I don't understand why, when I try to re-set the parameters manually, it's continuing to be scrambled. For the Hotmail/Oulook user profile, I had to find out, and set, an other SMTP server name to distinguish both users- : smtp.Office365.com and
smtp-mail.outlook.com For Gmail, I only can use smtp.gmail.com, as far as I know.
It'very strange and it makes me really mad !! Thanks for your help.
What you are probably seeing is gmail's automatic switching of User Names: if account A (doesn't have to be a gmail account) is sending through a gmail smtp that is defined with User Name G, then recipients will see that the message is sent from gmail account with User Name G. So, you have to set up a smtp.gmail.com for each of person1 and person2, and set person1 to send on the smtp with person1's User Name; same for person2.
Same with Hotmail accounts: set up an smtp for each account, all on smtp.office365.com on 587, STARTTLS, normal password authentication, but each with a distinct User Name. With gmail accounts, each smtp is smtp.gmail.com on 587, STARTTLS, OAuth2 authentication, User Name = gmail address for the account.