I presume you have a Lycos Mail Plus membership in order to access via Pop or IMAP.

Are you using a POP or IMAP mail account to access emails?

It is not Thunderbird having an issue. The Lycos server is still accepting the original password for that email address on that server.

Are you certain you have updated the correct email address and not, for example, a secondary email address.

Thanks Toad-Hall.

1. The Lycos server, when I logged in to their web site was ONLY accepting my newly changed password, not both the new one and my old one. But.....

2. Thunderbird was still working with my old password, but not my new one, and furthermore, even though I deleted that password in Thunderbird, it somehow was still using it? Golly how could that happen? The saved passwords window was completely free of anything.

3. Yes, I am sure it was the same account, because I'm only using one Lycos account.

4. This went on for some time. I then changed my Lycos password once again, then changed it once again in Thunderbird, and that new attempt worked, so problem is solved.

But, if you would have any insights into how the above could have happened (not the first time). It's kinda of disconcerting to see two different password working for the same account, and especially because for some time I could not delete the Thunderbird password.

Many thanks for your help.

If you had already opened thunderbird and set up a link with server using the old password for that session then changed the password in webmail, it is possible the server was still accepting thunderbird because the session had been created prior to the changes. Although, you would have thought the server would have not allowed the continued access.

But if you updated password in webmail. Then closed Thunderbird to force a disconnection with server. When you restarted Thunderbird the stored old password should not have been able to link with server and would have required the new password.

Exactly! But this went on for days, not minutes, despite repeated closing of the Thunderbird program altogether and then restarting. And what's more this wasn't the only time this has happened.

It's as if closing the session, as you say, had no effect on the new password. I know it doesn't make sense, but I'm computer literate enough to assure you that's honestly what happened. Is there an intermediary stop/facility in my email servers system that allows for more than one password for the same account? Well, I mean, there must be, or this could not have happened. I'm quite unsettled about it if there is.

Thanks for taking your time, much appreciated.

Thunderbird mail accounts can only get access if the server allows that access based on the username and password Thunderbird gives.

So, basically, the Lycos server continued to accept the use of the old password, which I agree is rather disconcerting. I suppose only Lycos can offer an explanation of why a new password immediately effective in webmail accounts, took a long period of time for it to take effect in third party email clients which are using pop/imap/smtp servers.

Any update/modification of password is usually done fairly quickly..usually within a few minutes at worst; not hours or days etc.

Ok cheers Toad-Hall, that makes sense. I really appreciate your being so patient and taking the time. Thanks.