What error message do you get?

Sending of message failed. The message could not be sent because connecting to SMTP server smtpout.secureserver.net failed. The server may be unavailable or is refusing SMTP connections. Please verify that your SMTP server settings are correct and try again, or contact the server administrator.

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

I tried these things:

(1) https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/unable-to-authenticate-to-smtp-server?esab=a&s=deleting+your+SMTP+password+thunderbird+31.0&r=2&as=s (2) https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/manual-account-configuration (3) Checked my server settings

In case it wasn't obvious: Copy and Paste Thunderbird's Help | Troubleshooting Information to your reply.

I am sorry, but it is still not obvious what you want. Do you want me to copy and paste the content from the links above? Please be more specific.

I don't know how else to describe it. Copy the information from the Thunderbird Troubleshooting Information page and paste it into your reply. Can't be that hard.

You do not need to be rude. I thought that copying the link would be sufficient since you can click on it and the jpgs do not copy over.........

Unable to authenticate to SMTP server

After upgrading to Thunderbird 3, some Thunderbird users are getting an error message similar to "An error occurred sending mail: Unable to authenticate to SMTP server ..." when they send email.

This is caused by a bug in Thunderbird 2.0, where SMTP configuration settings that were previously ignored are now being used. Specifically, in Thunderbird 2, if an SMTP server did not require authentication, data in the user name / password fields was ignored. In Thunderbird 3, however, data in the user name and password fields is sent whether or not the server requires the data, causing some servers to reject the connection. Work-Around

To fix this problem, modify the SMTP server settings. Select Tools | Account Settings and then Outgoing Server (SMTP) at the bottom of the account list. A list of the configured SMTP servers will be displayed in the right pane:

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Edit the SMTP account that is reporting the error by selecting the account and pressing the Edit button. Uncheck the Use name and password box (in Thunderbird 3.0) or change the Authentication method to "No authentication" (in Thunderbird 3.1).

8f678baff9cf4619b4da7e0ffbe62cfb-1263602986-913-1.jpg

Manual Account Configuration

When you are configuring an email account, Thunderbird will often be able to do most of the configuration automatically. (See Automatic Account Configuration for more information.) However, you will need to manually configure your account if your email provider is not listed in Thunderbird's automatic configuration database, or if you have a non-standard email configuration. This page will show you the basic settings you need to send and receive emails.

If an account that you created automatically was assigned to a IMAP rather than POP server, see the FAQ Changing IMAP to POP.

To manually configure an account, you will need to have the following details which can be supplied by your email provider. (See ISP Configuration Settings for account settings for common internet service providers.)

   incoming mail server and port (for example, "pop.example.com" and port 110 or "imap.example.com" and port 143)
   outgoing mail server and port (for example, "smtp.example.com")
   security setting for the connection with the server (for example, "STARTTLS" or "SSL/TLS" and whether or not to use secure authentication) 

First, open the Account Settings (Tools | Account Settings). Each email or newsgroup account that has already been configured is listed on the left side of the Account Settings dialog. These accounts correspond to the top-level folders displayed in the "All Folders" list.

e2f8e3847ad5f809e97807318a81f5b7-1263334186-885-1.jpg

Click the Account Actions button and select Add Mail Account.

Enter your email account details and press Continue. Thunderbird will try to determine your account settings based on the domain portion of your email address (that is, the portion after the "@" symbol). Press the Stop button to abort the lookup, then edit the server names, port and IMAP/POP, and then press Manual Configuration to manually set up the the account. Note that it's important that you set server names, port and IMAP/POP before clicking Manual Config. (Alternatively, you can allow the lookup to gather default account details and then manually change the settings later.) Configure the outgoing server

Multiple email accounts can use the same outgoing SMTP server. Therefore, SMTP servers are created separately from email accounts. In the Account Settings dialog, in the left pane, select Outgoing Server (SMTP) from the bottom of the list. There may be an entry in the resulting list that was created when you entered your account details. Either edit that entry or add a new entry.

e2f8e3847ad5f809e97807318a81f5b7-1263336038-358-1.jpg

As another example, a Gmail account is configured as follows:

   Server Name: smtp.gmail.com
   Port: 587
   Use name and Password: checked
   User Name: your gmail userid without "@com" extension (for example, if you email address is brian@gmail.com, then your user name is "brian"). If you are using Google Apps for Domains, use your entire address (for example, "billsmith@yourdomain.com").
   Connection Security: STARTTLS 

After saving the information about the new outgoing server, select your new email account from the list. In the Outgoing Server (SMTP) field, select the SMTP server from the drop-down list. Other items on the page were automatically created when you entered the account details - alter and extend as necessary.

Click on the Server Settings option under your new account. Make sure the entries in the following fields correspond to the settings given to you by your email provider:

e2f8e3847ad5f809e97807318a81f5b7-1263336519-453-1.jpg

After saving these changes you should be able to send and receive emails. Other aspects of account configuration are optional and self-explanatory.

Let's try again. In Thunderbird, press Alt-H. What do you see?

Nothing happens. No windows open. Do I have to be in a particular window for it to work? I tried it when I had the message from you open, the local folders window, and the view settings for this account window.

Not sure alt+h works on a MAC.

Go to the Help Menu Select Troubleshooting Information Clear the box to include Account names Click Copy Text to Clipboard Come back here and paste that info into a reply window.

No one here needs you to copy the Thunderbird docs. We can read them ourselves if needed. It just helps to see what you have in your server settings to see if something needs changing.

Thank you.

It sounded like the other person wanted me to copy and paste the trouble shooting documents since they did not elaborate on their responses.

Troubleshooting Information This page contains technical information that might be useful when you're trying to solve a problem. If you are looking for answers to common questions about Thunderbird, check out our support website. Include account names (possibly identifying information) Application Basics Name Thunderbird Version 31.0 User Agent Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.9; rv:31.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/31.0 Profile Folder Application Build ID 20140717165725 Enabled Plugins about:plugins Build Configuration about:buildconfig Memory Use about:memory Mail and News Accounts ID Incoming server Outgoing servers Name Connection security Authentication method Name Connection security Authentication method Default? account1 (none) Local Folders None Normal password account2 (pop3) pop.interbaun.com:110 None Normal password smtpout.secureserver.net:25 SSL/TLS Password, original method (insecure) true account3 (pop3) pop.secureserver.net:110 None Normal password smtpout.secureserver.net:25 SSL/TLS Password, original method (insecure) true smtpout.secureserver.net:25 SSL/TLS Password, original method (insecure) false account4 (pop3) pop.mail.com:995 SSL/TLS Normal password smtp.mail.com:465 SSL/TLS Normal password true account6 (pop3) pop.mail.com:995 SSL/TLS Normal password smtp.mail.com:465 SSL/TLS Normal password true account7 (pop3) pop.mail.com:995 SSL/TLS Normal password smtp.mail.com:465 SSL/TLS Normal password true account8 (imap) imap.mail.com:993 SSL/TLS Normal password smtp.mail.com:465 SSL/TLS Normal password true Crash Reports Report ID Submitted bp-1f76b725-66c9-4b56-bcbf-fd9562130901 2013-08-31 bp-b007d231-48af-48f0-a08a-bf3e32130405 2013-04-04 bp-7983ca35-8fbd-4687-a38a-05a282121007 2012-10-07 bp-c7c6cb8e-b683-40e6-a0f2-7ee892121007 2012-10-07

All Crash Reports Extensions Name Version Enabled ID Lightning 3.3 true {e2fda1a4-762b-4020-b5ad-a41df1933103} Important Modified Preferences Name Value browser.cache.disk.capacity 358400 browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value 358400 browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run false browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max false extensions.lastAppVersion 31.0 font.internaluseonly.changed false mail.openMessageBehavior.version 1 mail.spotlight.enable true mail.spotlight.firstRunDone true mail.spotlight.global_reindex_time 1274156930 mailnews.database.global.datastore.id 723f5aa3-a378-c94e-a399-4bd26de16de network.cookie.prefsMigrated true places.database.lastMaintenance 1407616079 places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages 104858 places.history.expiration.transient_optimal_database_size 167772160 plugin.importedState true print.macosx.pagesetup-2 AAAbQjw/eG1sIHZlcnNpb249IjEuMCIgZW5jb2Rpbmc9IlVURi04Ij8+CjwhRE9DVFlQRSBwbGlzdCBQVUJMSUMgIi0vL0FwcGxlLy9EVEQgUExJU1QgMS4w… print.print_bgcolor true print.print_bgimages true print.print_command print.print_downloadfonts true print.print_evenpages true print.print_footerleft print.print_footerright print.print_headerleft print.print_headerright print.print_in_color true print.print_margin_bottom 0.5 print.print_margin_left 0.5 print.print_margin_right 0.5 print.print_margin_top 0.5 print.print_oddpages true print.print_orientation 0 print.print_pagedelay 500 print.print_paper_data 0 print.print_paper_height 11.00 print.print_paper_size 16777216 print.print_paper_size_type 1 print.print_paper_size_unit 0 print.print_paper_width 8.50 print.print_printer print.print_reversed false print.print_scaling 1.00 print.print_shrink_to_fit true print.print_to_file false Graphics Vendor ID 0x8086 Device ID 0x 126 WebGL Renderer false GPU Accelerated Windows 2/2 OpenGL AzureCanvasBackend quartz AzureSkiaAccelerated 0 AzureFallbackCanvasBackend none AzureContentBackend quartz JavaScript Incremental GC 1 Accessibility Activated 0 Prevent Accessibility 0 Library Versions Expected minimum version Version in use NSPR 4.10.6 4.10.6 NSS 3.16.2 Basic ECC 3.16.2 Basic ECC NSS Util 3.16.2 3.16.2 NSS SSL 3.16.2 Basic ECC 3.16.2 Basic ECC NSS S/MIME 3.16.2 Basic ECC 3.16.2 Basic ECC

Accounts 2, 3 and 4 look wrong on the smpt (sending) settings. Port 25 normally does not use SSL/TLS. You would normally use port 465 for that or set 25 to none.

The other accounts look more normal.

Thank you so much. Once I changed the port to 465 and the authentication method to "normal password", it works again. What could have spontaneously changed the settings?

I have no idea how the settings on your computer got changed.

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