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Recently installed Thunderbird. Why does it ask for passwords so often? What password is it asking for? It's frustrating.

  • 13 replies
  • 4 have this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by MusicManBob

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I am using IMAP and have input one password for several email accounts. At first I had a different password for each email account, but this seem to cause Thunderbird problems since it continued to ask for password for each account. I then went back to my internet provider (Host Monster) C-Panel and changed the seperate passwords to one password. For a while TB worked OK, but then began to request a password.. It did not seem to recognize the password. This problem caused my IP Address to be blocked at my internet provider (Host Monster). I hate to have to keep calling Host Monster then waiting to get someone to remove the block on my IP Address. What is the problem with Thunderbird or what am I doing wrong? Any help is appreciated because i want to stay with TB because it does so many things. Plus, as a senior citizen who's eyesight is changing, I can change the size of the message fonts to a size i can read. I can also change the look of TB and I love that as well. Music Man Bob

I am using IMAP and have input one password for several email accounts. At first I had a different password for each email account, but this seem to cause Thunderbird problems since it continued to ask for password for each account. I then went back to my internet provider (Host Monster) C-Panel and changed the seperate passwords to one password. For a while TB worked OK, but then began to request a password.. It did not seem to recognize the password. This problem caused my IP Address to be blocked at my internet provider (Host Monster). I hate to have to keep calling Host Monster then waiting to get someone to remove the block on my IP Address. What is the problem with Thunderbird or what am I doing wrong? Any help is appreciated because i want to stay with TB because it does so many things. Plus, as a senior citizen who's eyesight is changing, I can change the size of the message fonts to a size i can read. I can also change the look of TB and I love that as well. Music Man Bob

All Replies (13)

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Does your email provider recommend any particular email client, other than doing it via their website?

It sounds to me as if their server is sluggish. I wonder if there is any email client that tolerates it better then Thunderbird does.

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Hello Zenos, I have used a few other email clients. However, the reason I love TB is, as a senior citizen I can enlarge the message fonts so I can easily see all the text. Also, I like the fact that I can give TB a different look. If I could find another email client with similar features I would jump on it. One of the Techs I spoke with at Host Monster told me about Windows Live Mail which I downloaded. But, it was too plain and I could not change the size of the fonts in the message. In the past, I have tried IncrediMail, Pegasus, Outlook and eM Client. Thunderbird stands out for me.

I really don't think Host Monsters servers are slow. In the past I have used POP3 and now use IMAP which may make some difference. I am not computer savy so don't really know. At this point, I've given each of my 3 email accounts the same Password. So far so good. It's been a day now and not problems. I sure hope this works for me. However, I've seen others who have had difficulties with TB requesting Passwords at random and often. I don't know about them, but I thought I must be doing something wrong. If I continue to have problems I will have to go to something else. If I can find an email client that permits me to change font size and give it a different look, I will check it out. Thanks so much for your response. I welcome all assistance. MusicManBob

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Are you using any anti-malware or anti-spam software?

I'm not sure either of these are relevant here. Firewalls have been known to block access, resulting in login failure, which might be reported as invalid username or password. Anti-spam scanning can slow down access and lead to timeouts and download failure.

Failure to login can be interpreted by Thunderbird as expiry of a password, so it assumes what it has stored has become invalid and so it asks you to key in the supposedly new password.

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I had no idea that security programs and even Anti-Spam programs could cause these kinds of problems. This is great info and I do appreciate you sharing this with me. The only other email client that had this kind of problem was Pegasus.

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THere are one thing thou. When you set it up did you use the same smtp for all accounts or did you (as you should) select the on associated with that account?

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Good Saturday Morning Gnospen, I used the same SMTP for all of the email accounts. I thought that would be the correct procedure. Did I have it right?

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You are sending from one account using another accounts credentials. (username and password) If it wasn't on the same server you wouldn't miss it.

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Hello Gnospen, Can you be more specific? As far as I can tell, there is only one SMTP which is called the SMTP Outgoing Server. I thought this server was central to any and all email accounts. I don't see any other SMTP Server or and SMTP Server for each separate email account. Because of my failings here, this may be the problem.

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Look at this pic. Under Outgoing server(SMTP) you will find the right smtp if you pick the one that is associated with that account

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I think it may now be useful to ask you to post your Troubleshooting Information, found under Help.

Clear "ïnclude account names". Click on "copy text to clipboard" and paste into your next posting.

There are certainly situations where the SMTP offered by your ISP is the appropriate choice. Equally, there are some services that demand that you use the SMTP they provide, and furthermore, there are even some where each account needs its own specific SMTP setup.

We don't know how much (or how little) of this applies to you. Seeing a list of your email accounts will let us understand and advise on what SMTP you need to be using.

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I am trying to put the finishing touches to my wife's "To Do" list. However, tomorrow, after church, I will get back to this. I would say, that Host Monster, my ISP is a great organization. I called them and had one of their techs go over all the settings with me. As a matter of fact, I called several days later and had a different Tech go over the TB server settings. I did get some different info regarding the Port settings. I sure do appreciate the help I am getting here. I really like TB and want to keep it if at all possible. I will be back in touch tomorrow. Thank you so much.

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Good Sunday evening all, So far, Thunderbird is doing OK. I have not had any additional requests for passwords. I pray it stays this way. It's been a couple of days now so let's see how it goes. Thanks again for assistance.

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Hello all, So far I have been getting and sending emails from the 2 main email accounts without problems. It's a great feeling and I pray all goes well going forward. Thanks again all.