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Thunderbird can't get email following server change, shows previous hostname

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  • Last reply by ben80

ben80
ben80
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Today I migrated my email to a new server, and having done that, I changed the server settings in Thunderbird to point at the new mail server. Then I chose Get Messages for that mailbox.

The problem is, although the status bar claims it is connecting to the new server, it never prompts for the new password, and eventually pops up a notification saying "Connection to `old.server.here` has timed out".

Clearly something is failing to save properly when this data is changed.

Looking through prefs.js, it seems to have changed the `realhostname` for my account but left `hostname` at the old value - so maybe it's just a display error, but this is very confusing. The old server name is nowhere visible in the account settings so there's no obvious way to fix this.

What can I do to diagnose this? I tried opening the Activity Manager window but it is broken and remains blank.

Today I migrated my email to a new server, and having done that, I changed the server settings in Thunderbird to point at the new mail server. Then I chose Get Messages for that mailbox. The problem is, although the status bar claims it is connecting to the new server, it never prompts for the new password, and eventually pops up a notification saying "Connection to `old.server.here` has timed out". Clearly something is failing to save properly when this data is changed. Looking through prefs.js, it seems to have changed the `realhostname` for my account but left `hostname` at the old value - so maybe it's just a display error, but this is very confusing. The old server name is nowhere visible in the account settings so there's no obvious way to fix this. What can I do to diagnose this? I tried opening the Activity Manager window but it is broken and remains blank.

All Replies (1)

ben80
ben80 Question owner
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Okay, it looks like what happened here was a combination of 2 things:

1 ) I had the wrong port for the new email server - a 'test' button in the settings would be really helpful here! 2) Thunderbird is showing the wrong host names on the popup-notifications saying a connection has timed out. It shows the old host name even though I have changed it in the settings. This is why I didn't connect the two and realise it was talking about my new connection.