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I have totally screwed up server setting and passwords

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My fault entirely. I have used Thunderbird for years. Currently I use it to access three gmail accounts and one hotmail account. One of the gmail accounts has a calendar. Some time ago I had to make a change to add some google generated passwords to one account. I can't remember why. I do know my current userids and passwords and can access the accounts from both windows and android so a swift resolution is not critical. I lost access to one gmail account through google's recent change. So I decided to review everything.

I have made multiple changes (silly boy!) in Server settings, Outgoing server and passwords. Now I keep getting asked for passwords although no clue as to which ones. Please point me to an article that takes me through a full manual configuration, although if it is possible without losing old emails, deleting the current accounts and configuring them automatically.

My fault entirely. I have used Thunderbird for years. Currently I use it to access three gmail accounts and one hotmail account. One of the gmail accounts has a calendar. Some time ago I had to make a change to add some google generated passwords to one account. I can't remember why. I do know my current userids and passwords and can access the accounts from both windows and android so a swift resolution is not critical. I lost access to one gmail account through google's recent change. So I decided to review everything. I have made multiple changes (silly boy!) in Server settings, Outgoing server and passwords. Now I keep getting asked for passwords although no clue as to which ones. Please point me to an article that takes me through a full manual configuration, although if it is possible without losing old emails, deleting the current accounts and configuring them automatically.

All Replies (4)

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I know little of hotmail, but have suggestions for Gmail.


Here are the basics:

- change your security authorization to Oauth2 (do this for the incoming server settings and also for the Outgoing (SMTP) server - two places - remove the password entries for the account (remove the entire entries both incoming and outgoing)

 (that is at Tools>Preferences>Privacy&Security - click 'saved passwords'   Then click 'show passwords'  then highlight the rows with incoming and outgoing gmail servers and click DELete. )

- check to ensure that TB is set to accept cookies (that setting is just above the Passwords section) - Google will then step you through the authentication process for your PC.

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Many thanks David, Worked perfectly for my three gmail accounts. I still have two problems.

I have a calendar associated with one gmail account. When I open the calendar I see a one month view with all the correct entries. I can only see this month. The left hand pane tells me all calendars are disabled. If I click on enable I get a pop up box prefilled with my email address. When I enter the correct password I get into a loop.

I still need help with hotmail, but perhaps I should research that myself first.

Thanks again, Alan

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I was glad to assist. I know little to nothing on TB calendars, as I use Google. Good luck with hotmail.

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David, Thanks for your help. Now fixed calendar so only hotmail to go. I used the button to mark the issue fixed but it doesn't work. In Firefox it just hangs with a blank screen. In Chrome I get error 405.