It may be that the account was not set up properly. You may have to delete the account and start over. I think it makes a difference what your Internet Provider allows. With my IP the below settings are what I use for my email account. Most of time when you set it up you have to go back in and change, at least check, these settings.

Went you set it up make sure under your Server Settings > Security Settings> Connection security: is None and Authentication method: is Password, transmitted insecurely. Bear in mind, this is what works for me. It may not for you. Just a possible solution.

You cannot change your actual email password from Thunderbird. All you can do is remove the stored passwords. You need to work with your email provider to change your email password. Go to their web mail or email help page and look for a link to reset your password. Once you have a working password you need to remove and replace the stored passwords in Thunderbird. Here is how to do that.

http://thunderbirdtweaks.blogspot.com/2011/07/pssswords.html

There are other things that can cause the password error message. It might be your antivirus software getting in the way or incorrect server settings like mentioned above.

thanks to both answers, but i can't delete the passwords as Mozilla won't let me see the passwords without my password working. I can still get mail at verizon, but i've been using the mozilla mail for several years, no problems, even changed the password last year. i would hate to have to set up a new account...i would lose things i have saved in the old one, but i guess that's the way of virtuality.

Your email password has nothing to do with accessing your stored passwords. Restart Thunderbird with your add ons disabled and see if you can see the stored passwords then.

Towards the bottom of this article it tells you how to clear out a master password. The master password is completely different from your email password but one of the side effects of clearing the master password is removing any stored email passwords. You could try this and see if they clear out.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Master_password

my master password is being rejected.

Then follow the instructions I posted earlier.

i tried everything. my verizon email works, but not with mozilla anymore. thanks

What was said before about removing your account was related to your Thunderbird E-mail account. You don't have to create a new account with verizon. you could write the password in a wordpad or MS-Word in cleartext and verify that its correct. Then mark the passwort (without any spaces before and after the passwort, very important) and the paste it into the password field. That way you would exactly see what you have typed instead of only seeing astrix all of the time. Also check if the username is correct.

Tools > Options > security > Passwords tab click on 'Saved Passwords' click on 'show Passwords'

There will be two lines - mailbox (incoming), smtp (outgoing) highlight these lines click on 'Remove' click on 'close' click on ok to save changes to options.

Close and reopen Thunderbird. It will prompt for password. Enter the same password you use to access the webmail account. select the option for password manager to remember the password and click on ok.

thank you but i ended up deleting the email account. i wasn't allowed access to the tools or security or anything. it got to be nothing but a big pain!! but again, thank you for trying to help!

For the last few days on two computers with Thunderbird, my password is rejected two or three times, and then I hit Cancel and I get right into my e-mail, no problem.