Yes Thunderbird works with icloud. Thunderbird is email client software running on your local computer. If your mother provided someone with the password to her email account they can see her emails if they want to but Thunderbird has nothing to do with that. There is no Thunderbird cloud or servers. Have her change the password for her email account.

There's a long description of setting up iCloud accounts in TB here:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1174729

If someone set up an account on one computer, using any email program, they could do the same on another computer and access the account if they knew the account password. Passwords are managed by the account holder and the mail provider; TB just applies the password that is registered with the provider.

My mother found where to add an account (she is in a different province than me, so we are doing this by phone).

It is asking for "your existing account". She has an email already in Thunderbird. We are trying to add a second. Am I correct in thinking "the existing" account is in fact the second email address? (because it exists already out there).

The term "existing" is confusing. She is reluctant to put in her second email address and I am reluctant to have her reenter all her first email address configuration in case she messes up the email she is already using.

TB works with multiple, independent accounts. Accounts are established with the mail provider, then added to TB starting from File/New/Existing Mail Account. An account must 'exist' before it can be added. Each account appears in the Folder (left) Pane and has a separate section in Tools/Account Settings.

To help others at remote locations, I strongly recommend using a tool like TeamViewer.

Hi again... Is there any phone support for setting up emails in Thunderbird? I'm trying my best to help my mother, but I'm not a Thunderbird user (and I'm in a different province). I'm working blindly.

Her original email account is still working fine. The second email account is the problem... it's an iCloud account and it won't receive emails.

Second issue seems to be that her Master Password isn't working because apparently she is entering the wrong password. There must be a way to reset it without knowing the old one (she used to know it, but changed it and now it won't work).

TB doesn't provide phone support. Unfortunately, iCloud account setup is more complex than with other providers, which is why I suggested you set up some kind of remote support.

To reset a master password, see this article.

OK... we reset the master password, which reset all other passwords too.

We think that when my mother entered the second email account, she accidentally entered the incorrect password. Now, we don't know how to edit that password because when we follow the instructions, there are not passwords listed to edit )all the passwords were deleted in the reset).

If the password has been deleted from Options/Security/Passwords, you'll be prompted to enter it the next time you connect to the account, receiving or sending, and then you can check the box to have it remembered, i.e. stored in Options.

Yes, but the password she's trying to enter won't work.

I'm trying to see where to delete the second email account entirely... so we can start all over again... haven't found it yet.

In Account Settings, lower left pane, Account Actions/Remove Account.

Hi... yes we found that in the mean time. I called Apple and they walked me through the process to make it work. But... when my mother entered the account, she did not appear to select “remember password “. How can we change that now to be “remember password”? I

njarman said

Yes, but the password she's trying to enter won't work. I'm trying to see where to delete the second email account entirely... so we can start all over again... haven't found it yet.

And the operating system being used is? It does make a difference.

If you want long term issues, apple web services are a good choice. They only care if they work with apple products and would prefer it if they did. The result is they actually do not publish a lot of the information needed for open protocols to be used. GMX is a free provider of email and they do not suffer from "capture everything" itis that the other big free providers do, apple included. They are also not difficult to configure or use.

Right click the account in the folder pane, select settings.

At the bottom of the account settings dialog is an account actions button. You guessed it :), one of the actions is to delete an account. Just be sure to delete the correct one. Rash choices make for more difficult support. I would suggest you get your mother to post to this thread instead of trying to do it third hand. being able to read the instruction as you implement them is often very beneficial if you are struggling to do something.

Finally Why are you deleting your account. Why does it not work? if you created one that does not work, what makes you think the outgoing will be any different when you make another. A more useful approach would be to post the actual error messages being seen (verbatim, so you know why I am against third party Chinese whispers) and check the created account server settings against those published by apple https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT202304

Note especially the app password information on the end of the page. It is essential to use an app password with this apple web service. Their confusing disclaimer really says you don't if you use only apple products on their latest operating system. You are not doing that. (Now you know why we all are pointing to to a provider that is simple.)

We did get a app-specific password from Apple. I called them and they walked me through it.

We now have appear to have a different issue in that it won't remember the password when she tries to collect her mail.

We've been at this all day... and my apologies for bothering you so much. We are leaving it till a couple days from now when we are no longer tired.

Neither of us can see how to make Thunderbird "remember" a password after we initially said not to.

If there's no password in Tools/Options (Mac:Preferences)/Security/Passwords/Saved Passwords, then you will be prompted to enter it at the next connection to the account, and there will be a checkbox to 'remember'. Make sure there's no external password manager interfering with the TB password manager, as they have been known to cause problems in the past.