Updated Windows & suddenly Thunderbird will not accept passwords on 2 g-mail accts (university acct is fine).
Sorry – I must be getting tired. I submitted to Firefox, when I should have submitted to Thunderbird. Can you please forward to the appropriate team? Here is my question, edited now to reflect that I meant Thunderbird:
I have 2 g-mail accounts and 1 university account, all of which I access using Thunderbird (which I love!). Today, Windows updated itself, and Thunderbird forgot the passwords on my g-mail accounts and would not accept the passwords when I typed them in; my university account was unaffected. Following instructions I got off the web, I deleted the old passwords from the 2 g-mail accounts and restarted Thunderbird; no luck. Somewhere along the line, I clicked Help, and Thunderbird automatically updated itself, but that did not help either. What to do?!
PS – I tried to add troubleshooting information, as instructed, but I got "we cannot find the page you're looking for." "These manual steps" and "educated guesses" did not work either. So: my current browser is the latest edition of Chrome, and I am using Windows 7 Professional (64-bit).
TYVM, Opticist
Modified
Chosen solution
Yes, make sure your two gmail smtp setups have distinguishable names. (Airmail's picture #2).
Then check which name appears in each individual account's outgoing server settings (Airmail's picture #1.)
I generally use the account's email address as its name or description. Or I add "pop" or "imap", as appropriate, if I need to set up an account using both protocols. (Usually only for research or testing purposes; there is generally no value in having an account set up twice. )
Read this answer in context 👍 1All Replies (20)
You will probably get better answers if you post this question on the Thunderbird support forum.
If you are connected to the accounts using the IMAP protocol, you can try removing the accounts from Thunderbird and then adding them back manually. If you are connected to the accounts using the POP3 protocol, then you can do so, but will lose your emails that are saved to the computer.
But that is the extent of my comfort zone on Thunderbird, so I think the Thunderbird support team would be of greater help to you.
Thanks very much for the effort! As I admitted, I sort of conflated the names Firefox and Thunderbird (I use both), and I did not see any easy way to withdraw the question. Anyway, it is Imap, and I was hoping to avoid having to delete and reinstall the accounts. I will resubmit my question to the Thunderbird team. Regards, Opticist
I see my question has been rerouted to the correct team; sorry for being confused! I found a similar question that had not been answered, and they said to go to Help - Troubleshooting Information, and then copy text to clipboard. Shall I paste that text here?
Yes. Click in the reply window and press control+v.
It won't let me send so much data, so I will cut out some stuff about an obsolete printer:
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Go to account settings and change the Authentication Method from Normal Password to Oauth2 for both IMAP and SMTP servers.
Dammit - I may need an app specific password, but I have not got time to play with it right now. Pls do not do anything till I get a chance to try that and report back.
Sorry - we crossed in the mail. I will change the acct settings as you instructed.
Change to OAuth2 worked on the incoming server but not outgoing. I made the change under Server settings - Security settings. Server type is Imap Mail Server.
I had to both change the authentication method and apply an app specific password, and everything seems OK now. I made a mistake on 1 account, but I think I can fix it by changing the password. Many thanks for the help and the patience! Opticist
I spoke too soon. I have 2 gmail accounts on Thunderbird. I somehow conflated Account3@gmail.com with Account1@gmail.com when getting an app specific password. Now, whereas Account3 receives mail, when it sends mail, that mail is identified as having come from Account1. Since Account3 is supposed to be anonymous, I have to change it back. I cannot find anywhere in the settings for Account3 that suggests Account1. Whenever I try to get an app specific password for Account3, it says enter the password for Account1. Account3 sends correctly from the browser. Any thoughts?
I do not believe you need the app specific password when using oauth2. It has been a while since I set mine up but I remember just changing the Authentication to Oauth2 and a logon to Gmail came up. I signed in with my normal gmail password and it saved a token in Thunderbird password manager. But that is not your issue. Gmail demands a dedicated SMTP server for each and every one of your accounts. If you try to use just one SMTP setup for all accounts then everything you send looks like it is coming from that one account. Go into the SMTP server setup and make sure you have a dedicated setup for each of your accounts and they are assigned correctly to the right account.
If I remember right, I needed an app specific password when I went to 2-factor authentication. That is why I thought I needed one now. At any rate, everything worked fine before, and I think I conflated the 2 accounts when I got the app specific password - somehow Google decided to switch me to my default account, and I did not notice. I have no idea now how to get it back. (Each account has its own account name, its own e-mail address, and so on, which is what I think you mean by "dedicated Smtp server." ) So I am stuck!
Incidentally, when I look at my passwords, I have a long, complicated string instead of what I think is my password. That password works on another computer. Is that long string what you mean by a token?
This is where is picture is better than words. One image shows the two different places inside Server Settings to create/edit SMTP servers and the other place to assign them to accounts. The other image shows the create/edit screen. All gmail accounts will be the same except for the description, important for you to know which is which, and the username, important so gmail will not change the Sent from address.
Let me make sure I understand. I have 2 outgoing server settings, besides my university's. Like yours, one is shown boldface, called Google Mail, and labeled "Default." The other is also called Google Mail and has the same smtp.googlemail.com. Do I need to change "Google Mail" to something else for the second (nondefault) account? If that is what you mean, I can do all the rest.
Chosen Solution
Yes, make sure your two gmail smtp setups have distinguishable names. (Airmail's picture #2).
Then check which name appears in each individual account's outgoing server settings (Airmail's picture #1.)
I generally use the account's email address as its name or description. Or I add "pop" or "imap", as appropriate, if I need to set up an account using both protocols. (Usually only for research or testing purposes; there is generally no value in having an account set up twice. )
Modified
It was somewhat confusing, and I had to get an app password, but it seems to have worked. Many thanks to you and airmail! Opticist
I think I have everything working now, but 1 item (among many) I do not understand: When I reveal my passwords (Tools - Options - Saved passwords) instead of seeing my gmail password I see a long unintelligible string. Previously (and now on my university account) I saw the actual password. Is everything OK?
That is the token gmail assigns when using oauth2.
Yes, I thought something like that but did not know where it came from. All is well now, and thank you once again!