Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

changed e-mail host and now Thunderbird is complaining about a certificate for domain that has nothing to do with the pop server

  • 2 tontu
  • 1 am na jafe-jafe bii
  • 1 view
  • i mujjee tontu mooy Gary

more options

I have had a domain for several years that I used to forward e-mail to a free account I've had for decades. A while back the free account dropped its pop server and became web mail only, so I created a real e-mail account in my domain. The new pop server was simply mail.<domain name>.com:995. I updated the account in Thunderbird to use the new servers (I ended up forwarding e-mail from the old free account to the new one - reversing the original flow).

I've just changed my hosting company and have recreated my e-mail account with the new host and updated the Thunderbird account to point to the new servers.

I can send e-mail through their smtp server as smtp.<domain name>.com:465 but when I try to receive e-mail at pop.<domain name>.com:995, which their documentation says is correct, I get an error message about an invalid certificate for my free account's old pop server!

When I use the alternate pop server name of pop.<hosting company>.com:995, I get my e-mail. This makes the problem not urgent but it is annoying.

What I can't figure out is where is Thunderbird getting the old account server name from? The maildir actually still used the name of the old server (pop.<free account host>.net) so I tried renaming it (renamed the folder then restarted Thunderbird and pointed the account to the name of the maildir) but that didn't help.

Any suggestions?

BTW: I'm running Thunderbird 78.14.0 on Debian/Bookworm

I have had a domain for several years that I used to forward e-mail to a free account I've had for decades. A while back the free account dropped its pop server and became web mail only, so I created a real e-mail account in my domain. The new pop server was simply mail.<domain name>.com:995. I updated the account in Thunderbird to use the new servers (I ended up forwarding e-mail from the old free account to the new one - reversing the original flow). I've just changed my hosting company and have recreated my e-mail account with the new host and updated the Thunderbird account to point to the new servers. I can send e-mail through their smtp server as smtp.<domain name>.com:465 but when I try to receive e-mail at pop.<domain name>.com:995, which their documentation says is correct, I get an error message about an invalid certificate for my free account's old pop server! When I use the alternate pop server name of pop.<hosting company>.com:995, I get my e-mail. This makes the problem not urgent but it is annoying. What I can't figure out is where is Thunderbird getting the old account server name from? The maildir actually still used the name of the old server (pop.<free account host>.net) so I tried renaming it (renamed the folder then restarted Thunderbird and pointed the account to the name of the maildir) but that didn't help. Any suggestions? BTW: I'm running Thunderbird 78.14.0 on Debian/Bookworm

Gary moo ko soppali ci

Saafara biñ tànn

Stans' reply didn't actually solve the problem but did manage to remove my account from Thunderbird. When I recreated the account and pointed it back to correct maildir, things worked.

Jàng tontu lii ci fi mu bokk 👍 0

All Replies (2)

more options

If you want to get rid of all traces of the old free account's server name entries, open the prefs.js file in your profile folder using a text editor of your choise and replace the old with the new, after Quiting Tbird first. You can also manage Thunderbird's certificates via Preferences and get rid of the inapplicable certificate.

more options

Saafara yiñ Tànn

Stans' reply didn't actually solve the problem but did manage to remove my account from Thunderbird. When I recreated the account and pointed it back to correct maildir, things worked.