Gmail will assign new passwords on a new PC. Set up the account, but OMIT the password. When you attempt to connect to gmail account you will be prompted for your gmail web password and gmail will then generate a password unique to that PC.

I have a failing Windows 7 laptop. The C: drive is failing and the TB profile is corrupted. I can get onto one of my gmail accts, but it doesn't recognize pwds for any of my others - the same problem is true for non-gmail accounts. They have been disappearing at intervals & only one still works. How do I get the pwds TBird is saving for my accounts if they haven't been corrupted? They were all POP, SSL/TLS, Normal Password.

I am trying to move to a never-used Windows 10 tower, downloaded the new ThunderBird, but when I try to install existing accounts, it needs the pwd - and that's the problem. I was able to install the only one I know (this time as IMAP, SSL/TLS, Oauth2) and it worked. It refreshed my account with all previous emails and archives.

So, how can I either find the pwds from the old Win 7 laptop or delete the pwds & update to new ones so I can save the existing emails? I've had these email addresses for years and years and don't want to abandon them.

You can reach me at jnovack@acm.org (separate account with the Association of Computing Machinery).

I tried with one and it didn't even show the OAuth2 option on the RECEIVE password setup dropdown list. This is weird since it shows it on the SEND list and the first one I successfully recreated DID show OAuth2 as a RECEIVE option. If I choose "Normal Password" I still get to a point where it asks for a pwd and, even if I leave it blank, it just prompts me to cancel, try again, or enter new pwd. It won't take a blank field.

The irony is that I've been a top-line consulting s/w developer for over 4 decades and, when consulting to Microsoft, actually wrote part of Exchange, Extended MAPI and Outlook in the early '90s when they were developing them. I've been using Thunderbird on at least a dozen home and work machines for many years, yet this has me ready to turn my computer into a boat anchor.

The snag seems to be that these .gmail accounts are already known to Google (though they don't accept the pwds associated with accounts.google.com in the Firefox lookup). I can go into Google Mail on the web and get in with those Google account pwds. It's only TB that's blocking me.

No, Thunderbird isn't blocking you. You would have the same experience with any other email client. To verify, I just clicked file>new>existing email account, entered a dummy name, a dummy gmail address, entered nothing else, and Thunderbird was able to confirm account and Google immediately prompted me for a web password. Once entered, it establishes a unique password in Thunderbird for you. (obviously, I didn't follow through, since it was a dummy account.)