How do I set up Thunderbird?
Step 1: If you haven't set up an email address in Thunderbird yet, you should see the option on your home page as soon as you load the app. If you already have emails set up, you will need to access the settings. This can be done by:
- Clicking the menu button in the upper left and then selecting New > Existing Mail Account (I know it doesn’t sound correct, but trust me)
- Clicking an existing email address from the list on the left. You should now see Set Up Another Account on the home page. Click Email.
Step 2: From the New Account screen, enter your name, email address, and password, and then click Configure manually.
Step 3: Enter the Incoming Settings for Thunderbird.
- Protocol: Select the service type (IMAP or POP) and click Next.
- IMAP: keep messages synced to the server
- POP: download and store messages locally
- Server: This should be mail.[your domain name].
- If your domain is example.com, this would be mail.example.com.
- Port: This is the port used to connect to the mail server (you can type the port number in; you don’t need to use the up-down arrows)
- IMAP: 993
- POP: 995
- SSL: Choose SSL/TLS from the drop-down.
- Authentication: Choose Normal Password from the drop-down.
- User Name: Enter your full email address (email@example.com).
Step 4: Enter the Outgoing Settings for Thunderbird.
- Protocol: SMTP is the only option
- Server: This should be mail.[your domain name].
- If your domain is example.com, this would be mail.example.com.
- Port: Use 465 (you can type the port number in; you don’t need to use the up-down arrows)
- SSL: Choose SSL/TLS from the drop-down.
- Authentication: Choose Normal Password from the drop-down.
- User Name: Enter your full email address (email@example.com).
Step 5: Click Done.
Step 6: Congratulations! You’ve just created your email account. Try sending yourself a test message to make sure it’s working. If you have trouble sending or receiving email, try running through the steps to update an existing account to see if that helps.
How do I update an existing Thunderbird account?
Step 1: To update your mailbox settings in Thunderbird, access the Settings menu in one of two ways:
- Right-click the email address in the left column and then select Settings.
- Left-click the menu icon in the upper right and select Account Settings.
Step 2: Once the account settings page loads, you should see your accounts listed on the left, along with several categories of options. For this walkthrough, we will only cover the Server Settings section and the Outgoing Server (SMTP) sections.
Step 3: To get to the incoming settings, click the Server Settings section below the mailbox in question, and enter the following:
Incoming Server Settings
- Server Type: This will be either POP or IMAP (this cannot be changed).
- Server: This should be mail.[your domain name].
- If your domain is example.com, this would be mail.example.com.
- Port: (you can type the port number in; you don’t need to use the up-down arrows)
- IMAP: 993
- POP: 995
- User Name: Enter your full email address (email@example.com).
Security Settings
- Connection Security: Choose SSL/TLS from the drop-down.
- Authentication: Choose Normal Password from the drop-down.
Step 4: To access the outgoing server settings, click Outgoing Server (SMTP) on the left. Once there, make sure the correct SMTP server is selected, click Edit on the right, and enter the following:
Server Settings
- Description: This is used to define this server in your Thunderbird client and is not server-related. It can be whatever you like, but it is typically just your email address.
- Server: This should be mail.[your domain name].
- If your domain is example.com, this would be mail.example.com.
- Port: 465 (you can type the port number in; you don’t need to use the up-down arrows)
Security and Authentication
- Connection Security: Choose SSL/TLS from the drop-down.
- Authentication: Choose Normal Password from the drop-down
- User Name: Enter your full email address (email@example.com).
Step 5: Once updated, click OK.
Thunderbird Password Updates
Once you make any changes to the above settings, or if your email password has been updated, the next time you check for mail, Thunderbird will ask you for your password. Once you enter the new password, Thunderbird will remember it.