This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

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

Multiple problems -- Emails not downloading; cannot restore removed accounts; supposedly still connected to removed accounts

more options

I'm running into multiple problems with Thunderbird (version 78.5.0, on Windows 10); here's the description:

For several years now, I've had three email accounts (two Gmail, one Hotmail) attached to Thunderbird. One of the Gmail accounts is generally dormant, but I use the other Gmail address and the Hotmail address frequently.

Two days ago, I clicked on the frequently-used Gmail account name (the bold name down the list, not the subfolder under Inbox), and then explored that account's various subfolders (junk, etc.). When I returned to the unified Inbox, all the emails from that Gmail account had disappeared. The emails were still visible if I clicked through to the individual account as described above.

Today, I realized that none of the three email accounts were loading new messages. The "Get Messages" function did nothing.

I tried various fixes I found online. Nothing worked. I then removed both Gmail accounts from Thunderbird and tried re-adding them, but the re-add procedure always failed. My name, email addresses, and passwords were all entered correctly, and I used the correct IMAP settings (I used Thunderbird's configuration wizard, and when I doublechecked using the "Configure manually" button, everything matched Google's recommendations). However, every time I clicked "Done," I received the yellow-box error message reading, "Unable to log in at server. Probably wrong configuration, username or password."

Then, after each time I abandoned the re-adding attempt, the script at the bottom of Thunderbird's main window still read, "Mail for my.alias@gmail.com@imap.gmail.com: Connected to imap.gmail.com..."

In short, I'm stuck. Help, please.

I'm running into multiple problems with Thunderbird (version 78.5.0, on Windows 10); here's the description: For several years now, I've had three email accounts (two Gmail, one Hotmail) attached to Thunderbird. One of the Gmail accounts is generally dormant, but I use the other Gmail address and the Hotmail address frequently. Two days ago, I clicked on the frequently-used Gmail account name (the bold name down the list, not the subfolder under Inbox), and then explored that account's various subfolders (junk, etc.). When I returned to the unified Inbox, all the emails from that Gmail account had disappeared. The emails were still visible if I clicked through to the individual account as described above. Today, I realized that none of the three email accounts were loading new messages. The "Get Messages" function did nothing. I tried various fixes I found online. Nothing worked. I then removed both Gmail accounts from Thunderbird and tried re-adding them, but the re-add procedure always failed. My name, email addresses, and passwords were all entered correctly, and I used the correct IMAP settings (I used Thunderbird's configuration wizard, and when I doublechecked using the "Configure manually" button, everything matched Google's recommendations). However, every time I clicked "Done," I received the yellow-box error message reading, "Unable to log in at server. Probably wrong configuration, username or password." Then, after each time I abandoned the re-adding attempt, the script at the bottom of Thunderbird's main window still read, "Mail for ''my.alias''@gmail.com@imap.gmail.com: Connected to imap.gmail.com..." In short, I'm stuck. Help, please.

Chosen solution

If you are using ESET/NOD32 security/AV then probability is very high it is causing your problems. According to ESET forums, you should temporarily disable SSL on ESET until they solve the problem per https://support.eset.com/en/kb3126-disable-ssl-filtering-in-eset-windows-products?ref=esf - the problem is being reported by dozens of users https://forum.eset.com/topic/26517-problems-with-thunderbird-and-imaps/ https://forum.eset.com/discover/

You might also inform them of your difficulty.

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (2)

more options

Chosen Solution

If you are using ESET/NOD32 security/AV then probability is very high it is causing your problems. According to ESET forums, you should temporarily disable SSL on ESET until they solve the problem per https://support.eset.com/en/kb3126-disable-ssl-filtering-in-eset-windows-products?ref=esf - the problem is being reported by dozens of users https://forum.eset.com/topic/26517-problems-with-thunderbird-and-imaps/ https://forum.eset.com/discover/

You might also inform them of your difficulty.

more options

Thank you, Wayne! I followed the instructions on the ESET security website--I toggled the SSL security setting on and off, and then restarted my computer--and the problem is solved.