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I can't send email in Thunderbird and I have tried all suggested fixes I can find!

  • 11 replies
  • 3 have this problem
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  • Last reply by PaulReeve

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I moved Thunderbird from my old MacBook Pro to a new MacBook Pro (I have done this before with no problems). I updated Thunderbird on both laptops before I did this - to version 31.0 The new machine's running Mavericks 10.9.4

I started to notice intermittent problems with sending email - this seemed to free up when I opened up my BT email account (the account that 'feeds' Thunderbird) and then resent the email in Thunderbird. This 'fix' has now stopped working and all I continually get when trying to send is the message:

'Send Message Error The message could not be sent because connecting to SMTP server mail.btinternet.com failed. The server may be unavailable or is refusing SMTP connections.' (etc.)

I checked with both Mozilla and BT forums/help pages, then went to Thunderbird>Tools>Account settings>Outgoing Server(SMTP)>Edit

I then changed the settings to those recommended by both BT and Mozilla: Server Name: mail.btinternet.com Port - 465 Security - SSL/TLS Authentication - normal password User Name - (my user name)

I also tried many variations (including the original settings) Server Name: mail.btinternet.com Port - 587 Security - none Authentication - password transmitted insecurely User Name - (my user name)

I tried deleting my password and then doing the above all again. I tried turning the router off and back on and doing the above all again. Nothing - apart from not being able to send email Thunderbird's working fine with incoming, I really think I've tried everything I can. Can I delete my prefs - will this help? Is there anything I've missed? I've wasted 4 hours and it feels like 4 days! Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I moved Thunderbird from my old MacBook Pro to a new MacBook Pro (I have done this before with no problems). I updated Thunderbird on both laptops before I did this - to version 31.0 The new machine's running Mavericks 10.9.4 I started to notice intermittent problems with sending email - this seemed to free up when I opened up my BT email account (the account that 'feeds' Thunderbird) and then resent the email in Thunderbird. This 'fix' has now stopped working and all I continually get when trying to send is the message: 'Send Message Error The message could not be sent because connecting to SMTP server mail.btinternet.com failed. The server may be unavailable or is refusing SMTP connections.' (etc.) I checked with both Mozilla and BT forums/help pages, then went to Thunderbird>Tools>Account settings>Outgoing Server(SMTP)>Edit I then changed the settings to those recommended by both BT and Mozilla: Server Name: mail.btinternet.com Port - 465 Security - SSL/TLS Authentication - normal password User Name - (my user name) I also tried many variations (including the original settings) Server Name: mail.btinternet.com Port - 587 Security - none Authentication - password transmitted insecurely User Name - (my user name) I tried deleting my password and then doing the above all again. I tried turning the router off and back on and doing the above all again. Nothing - apart from not being able to send email Thunderbird's working fine with incoming, I really think I've tried everything I can. Can I delete my prefs - will this help? Is there anything I've missed? I've wasted 4 hours and it feels like 4 days! Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Chosen solution

Good. When your problem has been fixed mark the thread as 'Solved' please. Thank you.

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What error message do you get?

Have you checked with BT? It may actually be a problem at their end.

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Error message as above and below:

'Send Message Error The message could not be sent because connecting to SMTP server mail.btinternet.com failed. The server may be unavailable or is refusing SMTP connections.' (etc.)

BT won't deal with this - they redirect me to a 'partner' who want to charge to discuss the problem. Nice, eh!

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Can you post your Troubleshooting Information? Help (Alt-H) - Troubleshooting Information

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I'm looking at it and it's formatted. How can I get it to you in a way it's legible (if I copy and paste it into this box it becomes pretty messy)?

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4 x screen shots coming up

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mail.btinternet.com:1

This certainly won't work. Adjust the port setting to 465.

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mail.btinternet.com:1

This certainly won't work. Adjust the port setting to 465.

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Adjusted to 465. Slightly different now - I sent a test email to an address I couldn't check and to an address of mine I could check. Thunderbird tells me both have been sent. However, I received the alert attached (a different one to the previous one) and the email I can check hasn't received my test email.

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Switched over to 'Normal Password' rather than 'None' and it seems to be working at last (for the moment!)

Why it had switched to 587 then 1 rather than 465 for Port I'll never know but thanks for your prompt!

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Chosen Solution

Good. When your problem has been fixed mark the thread as 'Solved' please. Thank you.

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Lots of testing and it's holding up!

Many thanks, Paul.