It's Official: Thunderbird hasn't worked on my computer for Six Months and One Day.
It's Official: As of yesterday, Thunderbird hasn't worked on my computer for Six Months and One Day. The Facts: I have a Verizon.net account which is hosted on AOL. And I've used T-bird to access that account for 20-25 years, both on Verizon (before they abandoned their email service and after they gave it to AOL to host). I can access my email directly through AOL but not via T-bird. I've been a T-bird user for 20+ years and want it back. I've had dozens of people trying to be helpful but they use a lot of jargon to help me which I don't understand. I'm not a computer guy who "just wants it to work." No luck with ver 102, either. Can't someone just wipe out my account an let me start fresh like I did over 20 years ago AND get me through the "server already exists" problem. I realize that there are a lot of very intelligent people who volunteer their time to help people with problems use T-bird. But I keep thinking that many?? Most?? T-bird users are experts at something, just not computers. Tbird is a fantastic program but the tech people (I Hope) will to learn to talk with us non-techie people in a way that conveys information to us without all the jargon and tech talk.
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I hear you. Email has become more complex in recent years, due largely to the requirement by various email providers for special passwords. You're right; our specialty is knowledge of how to use Thunderbird, but we do not know all email providers and their nuances. We must assume that individuals also work with their email providers to know the proper settings required. BUT, I will try to help.
- If you're willing to start fresh, then your first step is to uninstall Thunderbird for a fresh start. That should guarantee the 'server already exists' problem doesn't exist. - confirm with AOL what password you need for an email client. To my knowledge, there is one password for web access and an APP password for use with any email client. You can get that information, I think, at the Security page of the AOL site. - confirm that you have the correct information for the account. I did a web search for 'aol verizon email setup' and an AOL page gave this info, which I presume to be correct.
IMAP incoming server: imap.aol.com port 993 security SSL ( or POP pop.aol.com 995 SSL) Outgoing server: smtp.verizon.net port 465 security SSL
- install Thunderbird, it will prompt for email account. It may offer to do it automatically. It's your responsibility to review its settings if you do that, or you can select to do it manually and enter the server info yourself. DO NOT enter password unless you know the answer to the upper question. If website passwords don't work on email clients, then you need to have an APP password from AOL or leave blank at this time. TB will prompt for it, but you can proceed without it if AOL prefers that at initial hookup. - at this point, attempt to connect. If there are errors, do not start changing things. If you have the correct server settings (I assume what I listed are correct, but you share in this), then resolving the issue should be just confirming whatever password AOL wants.
I think these steps may move you toward a working setup. There are some here with extensive knowledge of the verizon/AOL environment, but if you have the right info, that may be all we need. Keep us posted.
Your threads (questions asked here) have all received responses from support volunteers, but you've never bothered to reply back to most of them. Almost all of them end with no response from you. Keep that up and eventually no one will pay attention to your new threads.