Newest Version of Thunderbird
As of the newest TB version out July 31, 2023, I cannot send outgoing emails. Never had this problem with TB. After years of happily using TB and loving its wonderful functions and features, this inability to send outgoing emails is a mystery. Tried just about everything, but can find no fix. Tried to find a Mozilla-authorized earlier version to replace the newest version but could not find one on a Mozilla-authorized site to download.
Worked with 7 computer techs from the company from which I bought my new Win 11 computer this year--they couldn't find a fix. Worked with 5 techs from my Internet provider but not one of them could fix the outgoing email problem. Uninstalled, re-installed, repeated, checked all settings, stopped security software--nothing fixes the problem. My Spectrum webmail still brings in my incoming and sends out my outgoing emails but TB does not send the outgoing. I can only conclude the problem is the newest version of TB. Am I right? Is a fix on the way?
Who has run into this problem and how have you fixed it? Already spent 2 1/2 days working on this and not even the "computer experts" have a clue. Any TB heroes out there who can come to the rescue? Or should I wait a few weeks until this glitch in the newest version is fixed? Thanks in advance. I'm lost without my wonderful TB!
All Replies (12)
Seem to be a few spectrum users in these forums just of late. So I guess the "special" spectrum server, but lets start at the beginning.
- Which domain are we going to be using? See for reference https://www.spectrum.net/support/internet/mobile-email-setup
- What exactly is the error message? Verbatim please.
- Has anyone created a log of the outgoing process? https://wiki.mozilla.org/MailNews:Logging#Thunderbird_Logging_Types Perhaps do so. Then we will have logs instead of guesswork to work with.
Dear Matt,
I am SO grateful to hear from you re my question about the apparent glitch related to the newest TB version and my Spectrum provider in which I cannot send outgoing emails but can get incoming just fine. Thank you for taking your time to contact me.
I'm sending this message to you via Spectrum webmail which is working fine for both incoming and outgoing email. At least I have this webmail to use as a workaround until I can figure out the outgoing mail glitch.
The outgoing TB email "block" started this past week out of the blue, I believe about the time the newest TB automatically downloaded to my computer. I have a new HP desktop computer as of this past January. I also have Best Buy Geek Squad support and Spectrum phone tech support but neither so far has been able to figure out the outgoing email glitch.
My Spectrum phone tech support is wonderful. I'm speculating that Spectrum may be weary of its labor time and cost re to third-party email programs and may want to "encourage" their millions of customers to adopt Spectrum webmail. I can understand that, but I am a diehard fan of TB and want to be able to use this beautifully designed, user-friendly program for as long as possible.
Matt, per your request, below is the error message I keep getting when I try to send outgoing emails via TB:
Sending of the message failed. An error occurred while sending mail. The mail server responded: <maryinfantino@rochester.rr.com> sender rejected. The email address you are sending as must match the email address you used to auth. Please check your SMTP settings. AUP#Out-1500. Please verify that your email address is correct in your account settings and try again.
I have tried to figure out exactly what this error message means by checking and double-checking all my email address entries, SMTP settings, migrating from POP to IMAP, and many other methods, but none of these have worked.
Matt, I understand that programs and systems are continually changing and that it sometime takes a while to aggregate enough user-reported problems to identify trends and then to implement fixes. I've spent many hours trying to figure out this problem on my own with Geek Squad and Spectrum support but we have all exhausted available resources and have reached a brick wall. Now I'm thinking I should stop doing this and wait a few weeks for designers to figure this out and in the interim use Spectrum webmail. What do you think?
Thanking you in advance for your time and knowledge.
marywithaquestion
What exactly are the SMTP settings you are using.
The error is actually fairly simple, but it might be complicated by Spectrum rules, we will have to see.
Basically the SMTP connection you are sending from is not using maryinfantino@rochester.rr.com as the username when you log in (OR Thunderbird logs in on your behalf). So I can speak with facts not guesses. We need to look at the outgoing servers (SMTP) in your account settings.
so; go to the more troubleshooting information on the help menu. Click the copy to clipboard button. Go to this site https://pastebin.mozilla.org/ Change the expiry to 21 days. paste in information in (ctrl+V) Then once you see your text, click the paste snippet on the right. This will update the link at the top of the page and allow you to share it by copying it.
Copy the page link in the URL bar and paste it into a reply here so I can read it
Hi Matt,
Thank you so very much for your time and knowledge.
FYI, below is info Spectrum provides re setting up email with third-party programs. I'm sending in case this would be helpful to you in identifying the reason I'm not able to send outgoing emails since the newest version of TB came out this past week. I can receive emails fine.
I'll also be sending the info about my settings that you requested in your last note to me. Thanks.
How to Set Up Spectrum Email on Third-Party Clients
Dear Spectrum Customer,
It's our pleasure to assist you. Here's some follow-up information we think you'll find useful after our recent discussion.
You can easily set up Spectrum Email on your cell phone, laptop or other mobile devices.
To get started, make sure you have the following settings:
Username: Your full Spectrum email address
Password: Your Spectrum email password
SSL: On
Protocol: IMAP
Incoming Server Port: 993
Outgoing Server Port: 587
Requires Authentication: Yes, or checked
You'll also need to enter your incoming email server and outgoing email server. The server that allows you to send mail is the outgoing or SMTP server. The server that lets you receive mail is referred to as an incoming, POP or Mail server. Those will vary based on your domain, which is the part of your email address that follows the @ symbol, such as charter.net.
Mary
Mary, If I may jump in briefy, Matt is asking for your explicit SMTP settings. Those are at account settings, then scroll down to 'Outgoing server (SMTP)'
Dear Matt and David,
Thank you for your time and knowledge.
When the newest version of TB installed itself on my computer, I could get incoming emails but could no longer send outgoing. This is still true. I'm currently relying on my Spectrum webmail which is allowing me to both receive and send email.
Note: I'm guessing that the following bit of detail could be useful to you > At the time I could no longer send outgoing emails via TB, I had a POP setting. Once the outgoing block occurred, I was advised that SMTP is more advantageous than POP, so I changed to SMTP. Below is the SMTP setting I now have:
Outgoing Server (SMTP) maryinfantino@rochester.rr.com - mail.twc.com (Default)
Please do not share my email address in any forum within TB where our conversation may be published.
Tomorrow I have an in-home appointment with a Best Buy Geek Squad tech so that he/she can investigate this outgoing email block. You might remember that the telephone Best Buy Geek Squad techs that tried to fix this block were unable to.
Please let me know if you need any more info from me.
David, your dog's face is beyond precious.
marywithaquestion
Hello, Mary, You still have not share the SMTP settings. They are at account settings, scroll down left side to 'Outgoing Server (SMTP) . The easy way to reach that would be to highlight account in left side on main pane, rightclick and select 'settings'. On next pane, scroll down left side to Outgoing Server (SMTP) and select your account's server. That is the info that may help in getting your account to send messages. Thank you. (The dog was with us for twelve wonderful years. She was truly precious. Thank you.)
Dear Matt and David, I can't thank you enough for your help with my problem of not being able to send outgoing email using the newest version of TB. My computer tech also tried to fix this using your instructions, but with no luck. My online computer techs couldn't either. I'm still not able to send outgoing emails via TB. I wish I could have gone back to the last version of TB but could find no way to do that. I can't tell you how much I miss my TB.
I've had to think long and hard about this, but I've decided, at least for now, to begin using my ISP's email program. Doing this has been a very difficult decision because I sorely miss the robust features and functions within TB. To me, nothing compares to the robustness and ease of use of TB.
One thing I always wanted but never really had in TB is true and certain blocking for repeated scam emails. My ISP's email program has this.
TB is a fantastic program that has most everything I want and need in an email program. However, it appears Mozilla no longer considers it as one of its products and appears to be phasing it out. At least that's what everyone is telling me. I feel uneasy about investing time in trying to create fixes should each successive TB update require this. Why did Mozilla decide to sideline TB? I'm about to search on the Internet for an answer to that question.
Is there any chance Mozilla will change its mind about this? I'd be the first in line to return to TB.
Thank you both again.
David, 12 years is a great long time to have had your precious pup. But it's never enough time with these blessed friends of ours, is it?
Sincerely, marywithaquestion
Thanks for sharing that, Mary. Unfortunately, a rumor began approx ten years ago that Thunderbird was being abandoned, but what actually happened was a restructuring within the organization for better focus. Thunderbird is not dying away, and has salaried developers working on the product. The resent upgrade to 115 represents a significant investment by Mozilla in Thunderbird's future. Thunderbird enjoys tens of thousands of users and is actively developed and supported. I regret that we were never able to fix your problem, but you never shared with us the information that may have let us help. I wish you well and, if you decide to pursue Thunderbird again, we will be here.
Yes, we have a photo of the little dog sitting where I can see it every day. Sweet memories.
(Please do not share this note unless you block out "maryinfantino." Thank you.)
Hi David and Matt,
Thanks for your last note and your dedication to TB.
I got a big surprise this evening. I felt you should know about this in case it helps you and TB users.
For the 3 weeks I've not been able to send outgoing emails via TB since its latest version was installed, I've been testing the outgoing TB function periodically on the slim chance that some programmer at my ISP or TB would have installed some sort of fix that would allow me to send outgoing emails once again via TB.
This evening, I did this test yet again and voila! The outgoing email went out and was received by the addressee! If you can tell me how this finally happened without my changing anything in my settings, I would love to know. Otherwise, I will have to assume this was deus ex machina!
That's the good news. The bad news is that in 2 of the 3 outgoing tests I did, odd things happened:
1. In one case, in the message portion of the email, a little square box with a silhouette figure of a person's head and shoulders appeared. When I clicked it, the entire contents of my address book appeared! In the attachment space "maryinfantino.vcf 4 bytes" appeared. My guess is that this glitch is somehow connected to the address book file my tech created when we copied my TB address book and put it in my ISP's web mail so I could use web mail until we found a fix for the TB outgoing email glitch.
2. In another case, the silhouette box did not appear in the message area. But in the attachment space "maryinfantino(2).vcf" appeared. Clicking on this did not open up the contents of my address book.
3. In the third case, all went well. No silhouette-person-in-a-box symbol and no attachment were automatically included. If I knew all my TB outgoing emails would be like this, I could go back to using my wonderful TB. But I can't take that chance of course until I know for sure my address book won't attach to my outgoing emails.
Any thoughts on what might be happening to produce these different results?
You wrote that I didn't send you the settings you needed for figuring out why the outgoing email function in TB was no longer working for me. I thought I did. Sorry. Please tell me again which settings you want me to send. Maybe if we do this now, the settings I send will possibly be ones that got somehow changed (without my making the changes) and which are now allowing my outgoing emails to launch.
Since TB is still sending out new versions, does this mean the TB team is still revising and updating the software or does it mean the team is only updating TB's security? I see some changes in the format of the latest TB, so I'm thinking you're still revising the software.
Can you tell me why TB made the decision to not include a feature that allows users for certain to block certain emails either by address or key word, etc.? Is there any chance TB will start including this feature?
David, thank you so much for the encouraging info on TB's current status.
My hope still is to return to using TB if at all possible.
Thank you both very much. Looking forward to your reply.
marywithaquestion
Please do not share this note unless you block out "maryinfantino."
On your topics: - Yes, Thunderbird is routinely being enhanced, resulting in periodic updates. The recently released 115 has more features and tweaks to be added, so it's a normal occurrence. I always recommend doing periodic backups, as it is possible that an update may have bug to be fixed. - on helping your PC send messages, I don't know if there is a problem, as you indicated success in sending email. Before considering any changes, I suggest to send one to yourself to confirm whether there is a problem. If there is, we never received information on your outgoing mail server. You can find that by these steps: - highlight account on main pane - rightclick and select 'settings' - scroll down left side until you see Outgoing Servers (SMTP) and click to show your server. A screenshot of that may be useful. Thank you.
My experience I think is similar to Mary's. Love Thunderbird's many features. Think the new appearance is uglier, but can live with that; however, starting 2 days ago, with upgrade from 102.15.1 to (now) 115.3.0, I can no longer send emails. I get "mail server responded: <email address@charter.net> sender rejected." In the past have had the experience of a TB upgrade having a glitch which is corrected within a few days; so perhaps this will be like that and I just need to wait. Within Spectrum's charter.net site can still send email.