Need create a second gmail imap account using my credentials but a different email address (hence two imap.gmail.com)
Let me start by stating that I'm aware of the possibility to set up a separate POP account, but this is not an alternative, I need have two IMAP accounts.
As some of you may know when getting a domain thorough googles Domains offering, one have in certain set-up situations use a gmail.com email address which is connected to the domain name, and used as credentials in OAuth2 or when creating or using an app password (from google security using the gmail.com address).
I have a dedicated domain name, let's call it "mydomain.com" which was acquired from and is hosted at Google Domains. When setting up the email account the email address it will be "somethingelse@mydomain.com" and the OAuth2 user and pw is taken from "myname@gmail.com" (which of course is different from "somethingelse@mydomain.com"). This is perfectly legit and used in many other email accounts, among other Outlook (Mac/Windows/web) and Mac OSX mail program without any problem.
The issue with Thunderbird, as I understand, being that myname@gmail.com is connected to "imap.gmail.com" stored at /home/myname/.thunderbird/yu9vjdct.default-release/ImapMail/imap.gmail.com, meaning that I get a "Incoming server already exist" message and hence unable to set up a second account using the same incoming server "imap.gmail.com" ("myname@gmail.com"), but for this other email address "somethingelse@mydomain.com".
Question is; it NOT as simple as stopping/closing Thunderbird and renameing "/home/myname/.thunderbird/yu9vjdct.default-release/ImapMail/imap.gmail.com" (NB! Name of thunderbird version may vary of course) to something else, since I have tried and does mot change the error message, obviously it appears that Thunderbird is set up to only use one and only one of the same "imap" account.
So my question is wheter possible att all do this in Thunderbirde aka solutions ( not using POP, as stated above) or is this simply a (probably an intentional) program feature (and not a "bug"?).
Thanks in advance for support.
Best wishes from a rainy Stockholm Fabio
Modified by Fabio
Chosen solution
Hi everyone, I have found the solution to the problem. Fact is, as above stated, that Thunderbird indeed only provides the possibility to use one and only one server account name and user name combo.
However, I found a slightly hidden setting on the Account Setting page named "Manage identities" (see attached screenshot) whereby one can add one or more additional email addressees (identities) connected to a specific server account name and user name. The name of the account remains the same , but you can actually choose the email address when composing emails. Thanks all for support! Stay safe (doctors say that Covid-19 risk is at minimum when sending emails/computing, alone of course!)
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Before you add the second account, change the Account Name to a unique name in Tools/Account Settings, select the account in the left pane. TB defaults to using the email address as the Account Name, which causes the error message. Setting distinct Account Names for each account, and distinct Descriptions for the outgoing smtp servers, allows multiple accounts using the same servers, e.g. imap.gmail.com and smtp.gmail.com, and makes it easier to associate the correct smtp with each account in the Outgoing Server (SMTP) drop-down (in the same window as Account Name).
Hi and thanks @sfhowes for quick reply. Sounds promising, could you please elaborate.
Fact is that I already had changed the Account name as I'm used to do since same happening in other email clients (eg using the email address as Account name), so this is not the cause of this problem. I now also changed the SMTP name slightly so it will not be the same as for the new account. Sorry to say I'm still getting the "Incoming server already exist" warning and not able to add this new account. I have of course to keep the server names (eg imap.google.com and smtp.gmail.com) as I will otherwise not be able to access the gmail-based account. How have you done for making this function?
Thanks again in advance for all support.
Go into 'Offline' mode
- 'File' > 'Offline' > 'Work Offline'
then set up the account
- File > New > Exisitng Mail account.
- Enter the name, email address and password. click on Continue.
this time it cannot check server because all is offline.
- Click on 'Advanced Config' button to open Account Settings window and check/enter all settings and manually change the 'Account Name'.
- click on Ok.
Exit Thunderbird. Let background processes complete and restart Thunderbird and it should restart in Online mode.
Hi Toad-Hall and many thanks for instructions, these worked quite fine, with one caveat, it seems one must also disconnect WiFi/Ethernet since Thunderbird still fetches parameters from the ISPDB even when in off-line mode (the autoconfiguration seems still be online), done that I was able to create the account and restarted in on-line mode.
Server name was fine to set to imap.gmail.com, however not so when I set the account name to myname@gmail.com , since it complains that the server name (imap.gmail.com) AND the user name (myname@gmail.com) already exist, which is in fact correct since I'm already using it for my base gmail account. Thunderbird actually automatically renamed the user name (to the email address provided). Btw the OAuth2 started and I was able to log in etc. when using the "somethingelse@mydomain.com" as user name, but did of course fail in the end because the gmail user name was not the one supposed to be.
Any further idea what else to do ?
Many thanks for support.
Chosen Solution
Hi everyone, I have found the solution to the problem. Fact is, as above stated, that Thunderbird indeed only provides the possibility to use one and only one server account name and user name combo.
However, I found a slightly hidden setting on the Account Setting page named "Manage identities" (see attached screenshot) whereby one can add one or more additional email addressees (identities) connected to a specific server account name and user name. The name of the account remains the same , but you can actually choose the email address when composing emails. Thanks all for support! Stay safe (doctors say that Covid-19 risk is at minimum when sending emails/computing, alone of course!)
