Can't download Gmail messages into Thunderbird. Server changed from IMAP to POP.
I've successfully used Gmail with Thunderbird for years. I prefer to download mail to my PC, in Thunderbird. Yesterday (November 30, 2020), this stopped working. I see my email just fine in Gmail in a browser. And my secondary email account (not Gmail) still works as always, in Thunderbird.
In looking around for a solution, I saw that Gmail must be configured with IMAP. When I looked at my Thunderbird account settings, the Gmail account server was set to POP. Compared this to my husband's account on his machine, and the server was correctly set to IMAP.
Why did this spontaneously change on my machine, or maybe in my Gmail account? I've got Thunderbird 78.5.0.
Found suggestions to fix this by creating a new account in Thunderbird for my existing Gmail email address. So far so good: (See Setup dialog.jpg)
Hit Done. Got this. (See Unable to log in.jpg)
Looking at all the settings: (See Configure manually.jpg)
Have been hunting for information on this. I see I'm not the only person to experience this, but nothing has worked.
I DO NOT have 2-factor authentication on yet. That was mentioned in many suggestions.
It was suggested to clear saved usernames and passwords in Thunderbird, but I don't have any. It was suggested to clear cookies and cache in Firefox, and I have done that.
It was suggested to have "less secure apps" on in Google/Gmail, and I have turned that on now, but it has made no difference.
I supposed I should be grateful that I still have access to my email at all. But this unexpected change WHICH I DID NOT MAKE, and after this had been working for years, is beyond frustrating.
Chosen solution
You can use either pop or imap. You cannot change an account defined in Thunderbird from pop to imap. To use email address as imap in Thunderbird that is already defined in Thunderbird as pop, then you must create a new account in Thunderbird as imap.
If however your only objective is to fix not getting incoming mail for an existing account, and you are using ESET/NOD32 security/AV, then probability is very high it is causing your problems. According to ESET forums, you should temporarily disable SSL on ESET until they solve the problem per https://support.eset.com/en/kb3126-disable-ssl-filtering-in-eset-windows-products?ref=esf - the problem is being reported by dozens of users https://forum.eset.com/topic/26517-problems-with-thunderbird-and-imaps/ https://forum.eset.com/discover/
You might also inform them of your difficulty.
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Chosen Solution
You can use either pop or imap. You cannot change an account defined in Thunderbird from pop to imap. To use email address as imap in Thunderbird that is already defined in Thunderbird as pop, then you must create a new account in Thunderbird as imap.
If however your only objective is to fix not getting incoming mail for an existing account, and you are using ESET/NOD32 security/AV, then probability is very high it is causing your problems. According to ESET forums, you should temporarily disable SSL on ESET until they solve the problem per https://support.eset.com/en/kb3126-disable-ssl-filtering-in-eset-windows-products?ref=esf - the problem is being reported by dozens of users https://forum.eset.com/topic/26517-problems-with-thunderbird-and-imaps/ https://forum.eset.com/discover/
You might also inform them of your difficulty.
Thank you for the reply. Looking at timestamps, I think you were replying to other people's queries just as I was posting my own.
I agree now that my GMail account in Thunderbird didn't spontaneously transform from IMAP to POP. When it failed to download messages, I looked at the server settings in Thunderbird, saw POP, and thought that was the cause of failure. But, this account was added to Thunderbird many years ago, well before Google started using Gmail with IMAP. In my panic, I misinterpreted what I was seeing.
The problem really was the issue with ESET. After reading this, we saw that my husband couldn't receive his GMail messages either (and he does have his account configured as IMAP). We've temporarily set the SSL protocol to ignore for Thunderbird, and all is well. Thank you for your help.