To start, click the menu button in upper right to then click 'new account' The following two URLs give more details. In the initial setup screen, I suggest NOT providing password until prompted for it.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/automatic-account-configuration

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/configuration-options-accounts

Hi David Thank you for the link to the configuration-options-accounts. This is exactly what I was looking for as I was struggling to get my email accounts set up. Unfortunately it seems that Thunderbird and my web hosting are not compatible, and this is why I an getting problems. We were using Outlook and the email services started to fail a couple of weeks back. I discovered that new systems were implemented by the hosting company. At that time I was using "identities" for our admin / sales / support and a few direct mailboxes for me and two other people. I was informed by the hosting company that using an alia (identities) are no longer supported, only actual mailboxes. They advised me to upgrade to Outlook 360 but I did not wish to rent software just for emails, address book and calendar, so I decided to use Thunderbird in the knowledge that it is up to date and I installed v128 Nebula. It looks like Thunderbird allows identities (aliases) but not multiple mailbox accounts and this has scuppered me! I was trying to set up multiple accounts and was confused that they would not appear in the folders pane no matter what I tried. I was very confused that after setting up the incoming server under 'Server Settings' I would go to the 'Outgoing Server (SMTP)' and do the configuration. Then I was not able to go back into the incoming server settings to set up a new account. The number of times and ways I tried to do this you would not believe! However the information you pointed me to is most useful and I think explains the problem. Your help is very much appreciated Regards Greg

All you need to do is click the 'new account' link from menu button. That takes you to a pane where you enter the basics and thunderbird will automatically define incoming and SMTP servers if from a well-known provider. You can then go back to the main pane and select the 'new account' link to create more accounts. I am unclear on your actual steps. More detail is needed if you're still having difficulties. Thanks, david

Hi David, Yes, I would agree with you but what happens is that the new account will send once and then all future sending fails no matter what. I even tried changing the password on the hosting control for the mailbox and trying again but it makes no difference. Also, again I cannot access and check the smtp because Thunderbird does not respond after the initial setup. I am thinking the problem is that Thunderbird uses "identities", as I was using "aliases" in Outlook, and my new hosting servers no longer allow this and block outgoing log in. It looks like I will have to resort to one mailbox without identities for all of us. We will all have to work under the "admin" mailbox. (Perhaps we should ditch our current hosting company!) Thanks Greg

I'm going to uninstall and reinstall Thunderbird and start from scratch with the one account It has not helped that I have been messing around with all the passwords and configurations

Maybe if you share what your accounts are. For example, is it one account with multiple identities, or similar? Knowing that will make it easier to assist.

Hi David Thank you for getting back I'm going to re-install Thunderbird and start again, and make a note of what is happening and not happening. I am sure I can get one account working but at the moment it is a mess. Bottom line is I have eight mailboxes on the email servers at the hosting company under one domain One mailbox is a catcher and five of the mailboxes are on re-direct to that one collection mailbox (We were using POP3 but I have set up imap at the moment on the instructions from the hosting company.) After I re-install Thunderbird I will set up three accounts and see how I get on. Using the instructions you pointed me to will make me more confident with the configuration I need.

I still find it peculiar that when I set an account up I can go to 'Account Settings' in the folder pane, click on 'Server Settings' to see the incoming imap configuration, then click on 'Outgoing Server (SMTP) and configure the outgoing, but Thunderbird does not allow me back into the server settings! However I will monitor everything after a re-install so that I can be more confident about what is going on.

Again, thank you for your help it is very much appreciated Regards Greg

By redirects, are these alias accounts? If so, you should set up just one account. I encourage you to explicitly document each key press you do when leaving SMTP server and are refused access to server setting. For example, if I edit an SMTP server setting and click OK, I can then see the account settings pane and the server setting link is visible and all I do is move the mouse and click it. What happens when you do that?

Hi David I tried adding a new account and turned off my internet security before I clicked on 'Done' Thunderbird appeared to pause while searching for something like "looking for contacts" but I clicked 'Finish' and the account set up perfectly. I can switch into Outgoing server and back, no problem Clearing all the accounts and starting again is now working every time and I have four accounts set up and working. Our domain website, fabricat.co.uk, is very old and we don't bother about it anymore, however it always throws up a security warning if you try to visit and I took a guess that this is the problem when Thunderbird goes to to set up an account, and my internet security blocks the Fabricat domain. Hopefully the accounts will work correctly and after I add them and do a few emails to test them.

Please accept my apologies for taking up your time but I would not have got this going without your direction so I very much appreciate your help Regards Greg