Thunderbird Not Working ...

vja4Him

Valued Member
I imported messages from my Apple Mail to Thunderbird (for only one account to start with). I can see those messages in Thunderbird.

But ... I cannot check new mail, and cannot send a message.

Error message reads, "Log-in to server failed."

I have the Incoming and Outgoing servers correct.

Do I need to change the Port, or something else? I have the security authentication turned off.
 

vja4Him

Valued Member
When I try sending a message, I get this error:

Sending of message failed.
The message could not be sent using SMTP server mail.vjandrews.com for an unknown reason. Please verify that your SMTP server settings are correct and try again, or contact your network administrator.
 

EQ Admin

EQ Forum Admin
Staff member
What is the smtp server setting that the apple mail was using?

Dreamhost listens on port 25 for sending email and does not support smtp-auth or alternate sending ports such as 587.

It appears that you are using Clearwire for your internet connection.

Were you using Dreamhost, Clearwire, or a 3rd party such as Gmail for sending email?
 

vja4Him

Valued Member
What is the smtp server setting that the apple mail was using?

Here are my settings in Apple Mail:

DreamHost:

Incoming: mail.vjandrews.com
Outgoing: mail.vjandrews.com

Clearwire:

Incoming: pop.gmail.com
Outgoing: smtp.gmail.com

Dreamhost listens on port 25 for sending email and does not support smtp-auth or alternate sending ports such as 587.

It appears that you are using Clearwire for your internet connection.

Yes, I use Clearwire for my Internet connection. I use DreamHost for my e-mail. Clearwire has not yet been able to figure out the problem with my e-mail (nearly four years!). So, I gave up with using Clearwire e-mail.

Were you using Dreamhost, Clearwire, or a 3rd party such as Gmail for sending email?

I send all my e-mail from my DreamHost e-mail account.
 

vja4Him

Valued Member
I changed the Port setting in Thunderbird for my DreamHost e-mail account to Port 25, and got this error message:

Mail server mail.vjandrews.com is not an IMAP4 mail server.
 

EQ Admin

EQ Forum Admin
Staff member
IMAP is a connection type for your incoming email server. It's a different protocol from pop3. Generally pop3 users download email from the server and store it in their mail client, which imap users read their email directly from and leave it stored on the ISP mail server. None of the above has anyhting to do wit the outgoing smtp server settings. Change back from IMAP to Pop3, now what error are you getting?
 

vja4Him

Valued Member
IMAP is a connection type for your incoming email server. It's a different protocol from pop3. Generally pop3 users download email from the server and store it in their mail client, which imap users read their email directly from and leave it stored on the ISP mail server. None of the above has anyhting to do wit the outgoing smtp server settings. Change back from IMAP to Pop3, now what error are you getting?

I was thinking the same thing ....

But ... I can't find any place in the Thunderbird settings to change from IMAP to POP. It seems that Thunderbird takes care of those settings automatically.

I trashed the original account I created (actually I created both DreamHost and Clearwire accounts), and set up my main DreamHost account.

Some of my DreamHost e-mail loaded into Thunderbird. But I still cannot send messages. Keep getting the same original errors.

I've searched for webpages on how to set up DreamHost mail in Thunderbird. The directions do not match exactly what I see in Thunderbird, but seem quite simple.

Must be some kind of technical issue with tweaking the settings. I remember years ago when I was having problems with setting up my Pacbell e-mail in Apple Mail.

Took a long time to find anyone who knew what the problem was. Instead of the @ sign, I had to use a % sign to set up my mail. Not even the Apple techs knew that trick!!!
 

Big Dan

EQ Forum Moderator
I used to have a dreamhost account and remember their email setup was a little strange. This should help you: Mozilla Thunderbird - DreamHost

If I recall correctly you have to select POP3 or IMAP when setting up the account within thunderbird and you cannot change it afterwards. Perhaps the imported account information didn't import correctly.
 

vja4Him

Valued Member
I used to have a dreamhost account and remember their email setup was a little strange. This should help you: Mozilla Thunderbird - DreamHost

If I recall correctly you have to select POP3 or IMAP when setting up the account within thunderbird and you cannot change it afterwards. Perhaps the imported account information didn't import correctly.

I already tried trashing my e-mail account and starting all over. I couldn't find any settings to manually configure a POP3 account in Thunderbird. It automatically finds my account and sets it up.

When Thunderbird first begins to set up my account, I see that it is a POP account, but then Thunderbird changes it to IMAP. I cannot find any settings to change it back to POP.

It seems that I can only read my e-mail with Thunderbird, and not send. This last time I set up Thunderbird, it imported over 30,000 messages!

So, I guess Thunderbird might be ok for archiving, but cannot send messages.
 

Big Dan

EQ Forum Moderator
I'm pretty sure there's away to override what kind of account Thunderbird thinks it's setting up. I just forget how to do it.

One of these day if you like I'll remote in and see if I can get you humming along with Thunderbird.
 
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