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Cannot send or receive email from any of my accounts

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Updated Tbird to v45.6.0 on 2017-01-02. I have 6 email accounts coming in to the global Local Folders common account. As of a few days ago, I can't send or receive emails from any of these accounts. When I try to send, I get an error message "could not get password . . " When I try to poll the various servers to get email, each of the accounts shows as connected, but DOES NOT PROMPT FOR PASSWORD, and eventually times out and moves to the next account in line, and the same result happens. I can get and send email from each of the accounts if I go directly to their webmail email sites, instead of using Tbird. I have tried restarting Tbird in safe mode, and my laptop (Win7 Pro) in safe mode with networking, but no joy. I am using Norton Security Suite (from Comcast) (I know, I know...). I have disabled inbound and outbound email antivirus scanning: no joy. I have checked the firewall permissions, and have blocked and then allowed Tbird in these permissions; no joy. I have briefly turned off the firewall and then started Tbird; no joy. Reinstalled v45.6.0 over the top of the existing installation; no joy. Two curious items: (1) for 5 of the 6 email accounts, I have Tbird remember their passwords. But when I go into Tools/Options/Security/Passwords and look at the saved passwords, there are NO entries. (2) I have a single, renamed (i.e., non-default) Profile. But when I look in my profiles folder, there are TWO profiles, one is xxxxxxxx.SPBTbird, and the other is xxxxxxxx.SPBTbirdORIG. If I delete the first of those profiles and rename the ORIG one to remove the ORIG, Tbird won't start b/c it says it can't find a profile. Really stumped here, and would much appreciate some help and advice. Thanks in advance.

Updated Tbird to v45.6.0 on 2017-01-02. I have 6 email accounts coming in to the global Local Folders common account. As of a few days ago, I can't send or receive emails from any of these accounts. When I try to send, I get an error message "could not get password . . " When I try to poll the various servers to get email, each of the accounts shows as connected, but DOES NOT PROMPT FOR PASSWORD, and eventually times out and moves to the next account in line, and the same result happens. I can get and send email from each of the accounts if I go directly to their webmail email sites, instead of using Tbird. I have tried restarting Tbird in safe mode, and my laptop (Win7 Pro) in safe mode with networking, but no joy. I am using Norton Security Suite (from Comcast) (I know, I know...). I have disabled inbound and outbound email antivirus scanning: no joy. I have checked the firewall permissions, and have blocked and then allowed Tbird in these permissions; no joy. I have briefly turned off the firewall and then started Tbird; no joy. Reinstalled v45.6.0 over the top of the existing installation; no joy. Two curious items: (1) for 5 of the 6 email accounts, I have Tbird remember their passwords. But when I go into Tools/Options/Security/Passwords and look at the saved passwords, there are NO entries. (2) I have a single, renamed (i.e., non-default) Profile. But when I look in my profiles folder, there are TWO profiles, one is xxxxxxxx.SPBTbird, and the other is xxxxxxxx.SPBTbirdORIG. If I delete the first of those profiles and rename the ORIG one to remove the ORIG, Tbird won't start b/c it says it can't find a profile. Really stumped here, and would much appreciate some help and advice. Thanks in advance.

All Replies (1)

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Thank you for the thorough and effectively communication of your issue, and what you have done to try to fix your issue. Unfortunately that is rare here, so when I see it, I'm astonished, and grateful. Also, very happy to help!

Since you have done so much troubleshooting already, I think that the best thing to do right now is for you to Create a new profile in Thunderbird for testing. Set up one e-mail address in it and see if it works properly. If it does, then that means that your main Thunderbird Profile has problems (is corrupt), and the best thing to do is to import your stuff from the old profile to the new profile.

It will be some work, but it will be worth it.

You might also benefit from reading and following the advice in this article. It gives pointers on how to keep Thunderbird working as best as possible. Keep it working - Thunderbird