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Denc nañu waxtaan wii. Yónneel yeneen laaj soo soxlaa ndimbal.

Cannot retrieve IMAP mail from Gmail using Thunderbird

  • 4 tontu
  • 2 am na jafe-jafe bii
  • 1 view
  • i mujjee tontu mooy christ1

DougElliott
DougElliott
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My overall goal is to switch over from POP3 to IMAP without losing my previous messages. So I just created in Thunderbird an IMAP version of my POP3 Gmail account. I have been led to believe this is permitted and, clearly I don't want to wipe out my POP3 account (and all of its messages on my local system) until I know the IMAP works. So now I have two "accounts" defined in Thunderbird with the same email address: one is pointing to Gmail POP3 and one to Gmail IMAP. Now, any attempt to retrieve mail from IMAP results in the error "the mail server for account <xxxx>@gmail.com responded : Unknown command <gibberish string>". (See error image attached.) The gibberish string is different each time I try it.

I have enabled IMAP in my Gmail account config.

I have searched the web for similar problems and none of the proposed solutions work for me.

Other data: using latest Thunderbird on Windows 10. Any clues?

My overall goal is to switch over from POP3 to IMAP without losing my previous messages. So I just created in Thunderbird an IMAP version of my POP3 Gmail account. I have been led to believe this is permitted and, clearly I don't want to wipe out my POP3 account (and all of its messages on my local system) until I know the IMAP works. So now I have two "accounts" defined in Thunderbird with the same email address: one is pointing to Gmail POP3 and one to Gmail IMAP. Now, any attempt to retrieve mail from IMAP results in the error "the mail server for account <xxxx>@gmail.com responded : Unknown command <gibberish string>". (See error image attached.) The gibberish string is different each time I try it. I have enabled IMAP in my Gmail account config. I have searched the web for similar problems and none of the proposed solutions work for me. Other data: using latest Thunderbird on Windows 10. Any clues?

All Replies (4)

DougElliott
DougElliott Ki laajte
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Looks like the image didn't make it into my question. I'll try again.

christ1
christ1
  • Top 25 Contributor
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Please post your Troubleshooting Information. At the top right of the Thunderbird window, click the menu button , then select Help > Troubleshooting Information. Press the "Copy text to clipboard button" and paste the information into your reply.

DougElliott
DougElliott Ki laajte
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Troubleshooting (truncated to 10k characters): 

 Application Basics

   Name: Thunderbird
   Version: 52.4.0
   User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.4.0
   Profile Folder: Open Folder

             (Local drive)
   Application Build ID: 20171004092449
   Enabled Plugins: about:plugins
   Build Configuration: about:buildconfig
   Memory Use: about:memory
   Profiles: about:profiles

 Mail and News Accounts
   account1:
     INCOMING: account1, , (none) Local Folders, plain, passwordCleartext

   account4:
     INCOMING: account4, , (pop3) pop.gmail.com:995, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , smtp.gmail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true
     OUTGOING: , smtp.gmail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, false
     OUTGOING: , smtp.gmail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, false

   account6:
     INCOMING: account6, , (pop3) pop.gmail.com:995, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , smtp.gmail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account9:
     INCOMING: account9, , (imap) imap.gmail.com:993, SSL, OAuth2
     OUTGOING: , smtp.gmail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

 Crash Reports
   https://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/bp-5069e4b7-b971-4116-9149-baf170170722 (22/07/2017)
   https://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/bp-34337d76-53a1-4b53-a63a-6c60f2170110 (11/01/2017)
   https://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/bp-ab433662-db4c-42c4-be31-473fd2170110 (11/01/2017)
   https://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/bp-63b73de2-4ad3-400d-ab13-96db12140726 (27/07/2014)

 Extensions
   gContactSync, 2.0.12, true, gContactSync@pirules.net
   Google Search for Thunderbird, 1.0, true, gsearch@standard8.plus.com
   ImportExportTools, 3.2.4.1, true, {3ed8cc52-86fc-4613-9026-c1ef969da4c3}
   Lightning, 5.4.4, true, {e2fda1a4-762b-4020-b5ad-a41df1933103}

 Important Modified Preferences

   Name: Value

     accessibility.typeaheadfind.flashBar: 0
     browser.cache.disk.capacity: 358400
     browser.cache.disk.filesystem_reported: 1
     browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value: 358400
     browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run: false
     browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max: false
     dom.apps.reset-permissions: true
     extensions.lastAppVersion: 52.4.0
     font.internaluseonly.changed: true
     font.name.monospace.el: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.tr: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-baltic: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-central-euro: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-cyrillic: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-unicode: Consolas
     font.name.sans-serif.el: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.tr: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-baltic: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-central-euro: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-cyrillic: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-unicode: Calibri
     font.name.serif.el: Cambria
     font.name.serif.tr: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-baltic: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-central-euro: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-cyrillic: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-unicode: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-western: Cambria
     font.size.fixed.el: 14
     font.size.fixed.tr: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-baltic: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-central-euro: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-cyrillic: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-unicode: 14
     font.size.variable.el: 17
     font.size.variable.tr: 17
     font.size.variable.x-baltic: 17
     font.size.variable.x-central-euro: 17
     font.size.variable.x-cyrillic: 17
     font.size.variable.x-unicode: 17
     font.size.variable.x-western: 14
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.appVersion: 45.4.0
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.deviceID: 0x11c0
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.driverVersion: 21.21.13.7306
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.gfx.driver-init.direct3d11-angle: true
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.gfx.driver-init.webgl-angle: true
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.gfx.driver-init.webgl-angle-force-d3d11: false
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.gfx.driver-init.webgl-angle-force-warp: false
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.gfx.driver-init.webgl-angle-try-d3d11: true
     gfx.crash-guard.status.glcontext: 2
     gfx.direct3d.last_used_feature_level_idx: 0
     mail.openMessageBehavior.version: 1
     mail.winsearch.enable: true
     mail.winsearch.firstRunDone: true
     mail.winsearch.global_reindex_time: 1261614790
     mailnews.database.global.datastore.id: ab70c48f-e248-4462-95e0-92db516b008
     media.gmp.storage.version.observed: 1
     network.cookie.prefsMigrated: true
     network.predictor.cleaned-up: true
     places.database.lastMaintenance: 1509079733
     places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 54011
     plugin.importedState: true
     plugins.update.notifyUser: true
     print.print_printer: Canon iP4500 series
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_bgcolor: false
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_bgimages: false
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_command:
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_downloadfonts: false
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_edge_bottom: 0
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_edge_left: 0
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_edge_right: 0
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_edge_top: 0
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_evenpages: true
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_footercenter:
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_footerleft: &PT
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_footerright: &D
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_headercenter:
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_headerleft: &T
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_headerright: &U
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_in_color: true
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_margin_bottom: 0.5
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_margin_left: 0.5
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_margin_right: 0.5
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_margin_top: 0.5
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_oddpages: true
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_orientation: 0
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_pagedelay: 500
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_paper_data: 9
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_paper_height: 11.00
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_paper_size_type: 0
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_paper_size_unit: 1
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_paper_width: 8.50
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_reversed: false
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_scaling: 1.00
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_shrink_to_fit: true
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_to_file: false
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_unwriteable_margin_bottom: 0
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_unwriteable_margin_left: 0
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_unwriteable_margin_right: 0
     print.printer_Canon_Inkjet_iP4500_series.print_unwriteable_margin_top: 0
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_bgcolor: false
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_bgimages: false
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_colorspace:
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_command:
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_downloadfonts: false
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_duplex: 0
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_edge_bottom: 0
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_edge_left: 0
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_edge_right: 0
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_edge_top: 0
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_evenpages: true
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_footercenter:
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_footerleft: &PT
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_footerright: &D
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_headercenter:
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_headerleft: &T
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_headerright: &U
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_in_color: true
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_margin_bottom: 0.5
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_margin_left: 0.5
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_margin_right: 0.5
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_margin_top: 0.5
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_oddpages: true
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_orientation: 0
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_page_delay: 50
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_pagedelay: 500
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_paper_data: 9
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_paper_height: 11.00
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_paper_name:
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_paper_size_type: 0
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_paper_size_unit: 1
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_paper_width: 8.50
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_plex_name:
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_resolution: 0
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_resolution_name:
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_reversed: false
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_scaling: 0.80
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_shrink_to_fit: false
     print.printer_Canon_iP4500_series.print_to_file: false

  ...
christ1
christ1
  • Top 25 Contributor
more options

Your Gmail IMAP server settings look good. I'd also set the 'Authentication type' for the Gmail SMTP server to 'OAuth2'.

Try to start Windows in safe mode with networking enabled. - Win10 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12376/windows-10-start-your-pc-in-safe-mode

Still in Windows safe mode, start Thunderbird in safe mode. - https://support.mozilla.org/kb/safe-mode

Does the problem go away?