Unable to get iCloud mail account syncing with Thunderbird (68.10.0) in Mac OS 10.13.6 (High Sierra)
I cannot get iCloud Mail to work in Thunderbird. I have followed the instructions given in this archived post: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1174729, using these settings:
SERVER SETTINGS (IMAP) Server: imap.mail.me.com port 993 Username: the name part of the email address before the "@" character.
Connection security: SSL/TLS
Authentication Normal Password
OUTGOING SERVER SMTP SERVER: Server name: smtp.mail.me.com PORT 587 Connection Security: STARTTLS Authentication Method: Normal Password Username: Username as above (I have also tried it using the full username@icloud.com)
My iCloud password does not work in the dialog, as expected. I created an app-specific password from iCloud and entered this in the password dialog, but it does not work either. Every time Thunderbird tries to connect, I get this popup (titled "Thunderbird"): "The current operation on 'Inbox' did not succeed. The mail server for account " followed by the 1st two letters of my iCloud email address and then "...". The rest of the error message is truncated and irritatingly, there seems to be no way to recover the full text (it cannot be selected, it does not appear in any log file, and it does not appear in the Error Console (under Tools/Developer Tools).
There is no issue with accessing iCloud Mail using Mail on my Mac, or accessing it via a web browser. The problem is not with authentication, but synchronization, because when I archived all of the messages in my Inbox using iCloud mail from a web browser, and then clicked "Get Messages" in Thunderbird (which previously produced the aforementioned error message), I do not get an error. And when I try to send a message from my iCloud account in Thunderbird, I get this error dialogue: "Your message was sent but a copy was not placed in your sent folder (Sent) due to network or file access errors. You can retry or save the message locally to Local Folders/Sent-<myaccountname>@icloud.com." Or it can work, although it doesn't show up in my Sent mail folder on Thunderbird, even though it does in the destination account. And finally, I tried the solution proposed by this post
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3880703?answerId=3880703021#3880703021
in Apple's Discussion pages, which involves trying to create the default folders used by Thunderbird in iCloud, then merging them. Folders created in Thunderbird do appear in iCloud, and vice-versa, but I haven't had any luck getting their contents to sync.
I've tried deleting and recreating the account in T-bird (and deleting the corresponding ImapMail/imap.mail.me.com folder in my Thunderbird profile multiple times; that does not fix the problem.
I have not tried under previous versions of Thunderbird, or of the Mac OS, so I don't know whether this is version-specific or not.
All Replies (2)
A followup on this posting ... I decided to try installing Thunderbird on a similar MacBook Pro also running High Sierra and what I thought would be the same version of Thunderbird (on the MacBook Pro with the problem, Thunderbird said it was "up to date" with 68.10.0).
However, the version available for download was 78.0.1, and when I installed that on the other MacBook Pro and went through the standard procedure to add an existing e-mail account, just entering my iCloud e-mail address and the app-specific password generated by iCloud, the folders and mail appear to have synced without issue in this new version without issue.
I'm not sure why Thunderbird didn't recognize that it is out of date (I have it set to update automatically, and under Preferences/Advanced/Updates, clicking "Check for Updates" produced "Thunderbird is up-to-date"). As I recall, this isn't the first time it has failed to update itself properly. I will try updating on the original machine where I had the problem, and will post if there is still an issue, but in the meantime, I didn't want anyone to waste any time on this, since updating seems to be the solution.
Further followup - deleting the iCloud account in Thunderbird 68.10.0, and removing the ImapMail folder, restarting, then migrating to Thunderbird 78.0.1, and adding the account under the new version did not solve the problem on the Mac with the issue. None of the folders sync.
I checked the settings on the Mac where adding the account worked, and ensured they are the same - still doesn't work.
I tried replacing the ImapMail folder from the working installation on the other computer. That caused existing mail to display properly, but new mail did not sync. I then tried deleting the account, but leaving "Remove message data" unchecked, and then adding the account back. Thunderbird did not recognize the old mail, and created a new Imap mail folder (imap.mail.me.com - 1).
I was able to change the path back to the existing imap.mail.me.com folder in the Local Directory path dialog in Server Settings, but the Inbox still does not sync. Repairing the folders (e.g. recreating the .msf files) does not help. In fact, when I repaired the one for the Inbox, no mail shows up in it, even though there are messages there.
Finally, removing the account, quitting T-Bird, removing the ImapMail folder, changing my AppleID password, and generating a new application-specific password, then restarting T-Bird and adding back the account does not work.
Is there some other file outside the ImapMail folder that is the issue, perhaps?