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Cannot set up imap accounts in thunderbird

Matthew Kostura
Matthew Kostura
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I am migrating my Thunderbird accounts to another computer. The new computer is Windows 10, the old Windows 7. I installed Thunderbird and then tried to connect to my three imap accounts. All failed. The error is that the server configuration cannot be verified...check username or password. All of the usernames and passwords are correct. Likewise I attempted to manually connect the accounts but that failed as well. I have checked and I am using the correct server, security service and ports. The values given are exactly those on my old computer which is not having any issues. As a check I have connected the accounts using two other email clients: Outlook and eM Client and both worked fine.

I also tried to copy my entire Thunderbird profile over to my new computer but that failed to solve the problem. The instant that Thunderbird attempted to connect with the servers it failed. I should note that I have 3 POP accounts and they all worked fine. in Thunderbird. I would hope that I do not have to go that route.

I certainly do not want to migrate to Windows Mail or to Outlook but this is a very strange problem. What might be the issue?

I am migrating my Thunderbird accounts to another computer. The new computer is Windows 10, the old Windows 7. I installed Thunderbird and then tried to connect to my three imap accounts. All failed. The error is that the server configuration cannot be verified...check username or password. All of the usernames and passwords are correct. Likewise I attempted to manually connect the accounts but that failed as well. I have checked and I am using the correct server, security service and ports. The values given are exactly those on my old computer which is not having any issues. As a check I have connected the accounts using two other email clients: Outlook and eM Client and both worked fine. I also tried to copy my entire Thunderbird profile over to my new computer but that failed to solve the problem. The instant that Thunderbird attempted to connect with the servers it failed. I should note that I have 3 POP accounts and they all worked fine. in Thunderbird. I would hope that I do not have to go that route. I certainly do not want to migrate to Windows Mail or to Outlook but this is a very strange problem. What might be the issue?

All Replies (2)

Corey 'linuxmodder' Sheldon
Corey 'linuxmodder' Sheldon
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Do you have several profiles in C:\Users\,yourusername>\AppData\Mozilla\Thunderbird\ ? Also attempting to connect to the imap server via a webmail client works y/n?

Also did you attempt to remedy this with the auto-detect feature for the email accounts in question?

If so, or doing so also fails please go to the Menu > Help > Troubleshooting Info and select 'Copy to Clipboard' and share the contents of the clipboard copy on the pastebin of your choice (some options include pastebin.mozilla.org, gist.github.com, or even a screenshot shared via imgur.com or picpaste.com)

Matthew Kostura
Matthew Kostura Question owner
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Thanks for your help. I was able to solve the problem with some difficulty. The bottom line is that there was a certificate conflict with my security software (GData). Ultimately I uninstalled Thunderbird and GData and then reinstalled Thunderbird first, activated all of the accounts then reinstalled the security software. Once the IMAP accounts attempted to connect to the servers prompts for the security certificates came up. At that point it was easy to accept the certificates and connections to the servers were successful in all cases. . It was frustrating to be sure. I was perplexed why the certificate prompts never happened while I set the accounts up in the first instance, particularly when I used a manual account configuration. Certainly this is a source of improvement for the TBird community. Negotiating these certificates should be a transparent process during account setup.