Thunderbird Suddenly Stopped Receiving POP Mail
After working fine for years, Thunderbird stopped receiving email from my POP accounts a month ago and I haven't been able to get it to work since. After weeks of experimentation and frustration, the only way I can get TB to download POP mail is to install and run it in Windows Safe Mode with networking. However, once installed in Windows Safe Mode, TB run in Windows normal mode will successfully send messages from each account.
It would take pages to describe everything I've tried, so I won't. The results of all the tweaking and updates is the system specs below.
OS: Windows 10 Home (x64) version 22H2 AVS: BitDefender Email: Thunderbird 102.15.1 Add-ons: None Theme: Default Accept cookies: Always Exceptions: (added any that seemed even remotely associated with issue) https://accounts.google.com https://mail.google.com https://www.googleapis.com https://pop.gmail.com https://pop.gmail.com:995 https://smtp.gmail.com https://smtp.gmail.com:587 https://pop.centurylink.com https://pop.centurylink.com:995 https://smtp.centurylink.com https://smtp.centurylink.com:587
Saved passwords: mailbox://pop.centurylink.net (mailbox://pop.centurylink.net) Oauth://accounts.google.com (https://mail.google.com https://www.googleapis.com/auth/carddav https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar) smtp://smtp.centurylink.com (smtp://smtp.centurylink.com) smtp://smtp.gmail.com (smtp://smtp.gmail.com)
Hardware acceleration: Off
Gmail POP server: pop.gmail.com Port: 995 Security: SSL/TLS Authentication: Oauth2
Gmail SMTP server: smtp.gmail.com Port: 587 Security: STARTTLS Authentication: Oauth2
CenturyLink POP server: pop.centurylink.net Port: 995 Security: SSL/TLS Authentication: Normal password
CenturyLink SMTP server: smtp.centurylink.com Port: 587 Security: STARTTLS Authentication: Normal password
I'm at a total loss as to what I've missed or where to look next. I would appreciate any help.
Chosen solution
Add the TB profile folder as an exclusion in BD settings, as BD is a likely reason for the problem (it's bypassed in Windows safe mode).
https://www.bitdefender.com/business/support/en/77209-342987-exclusions.html
You might also have to disable scanning of secure (SSL) connections:
https://www.reddit.com/r/BitDefender/comments/jnlmf7/how_to_disable_ssl_inspection_in_bitdefender/
Read this answer in context 👍 1All Replies (3)
Chosen Solution
Add the TB profile folder as an exclusion in BD settings, as BD is a likely reason for the problem (it's bypassed in Windows safe mode).
https://www.bitdefender.com/business/support/en/77209-342987-exclusions.html
You might also have to disable scanning of secure (SSL) connections:
https://www.reddit.com/r/BitDefender/comments/jnlmf7/how_to_disable_ssl_inspection_in_bitdefender/
Thank you sfhowes ! I have BitDefender Total Security, so the solution from the first link you provided isn't available. However, the second link solved my issue although at the expense of making my system less secure. I hadn't considered that the BD firewall wasn't the only layer of protection for network communications.
Although far from an expert in these questions, I don't think you're sacrificing any security by disabling BD's scanning and leaving it to the individual apps to negotiate secure connections. In fact, by simply using the built-in Windows Security and adding the profile folder as an exclusion, the level of security is adequate and far less likely to cause problems than BD, or any other 3rd-party AV app.
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