NewThunderbird 3.1 Features

Migration Assistant

Location- Under the Help Menu, you can find the new Migration Assistant to help you set up Thunderbird the way you want it.

Use-If you liked the old toolbar from Thunderbird 2, you can quickly make that change with the Migration Assistant. Install add-ons from the Migration Assistant like Advanced Folder Columns and Compact Header for your message display window.

Mail Account Setup Wizard

Prior to this new feature you had to know your IMAP, SMTP, SSL/TLS settings. Now all you need to provide is your name, email address, and password and the new email account set up wizard will check our database and find the email settings for you.

One-click Address Book

One-click Address Book is a quick and easy way to add people to your address book. Add people by simply clicking on the star icon in the message you receive. Two clicks and you can add more details like a photo, birthday, and other contact information.

Attachment Reminder

The new attachment reminder looks for the word attachment (and other words like file types) in the body of your message and reminds you to add an attachment before hitting send.

Activity Manager

The Activity Manager records all the interactions between Thunderbird and your email provider in one place. There’s no more guess work. You only have to look in one place to see everything that’s happening with your email.

Tabs and Search

Thunderbird 3.1 changes the way you do email with tabbed email, and a new set of search tools helps you find your emails faster.

Quick Filter Toolbar

The new Quick Filter Toolbar lets you filter your email faster. Start typing in words in the Quick Filter search box and the results are displayed instantly. Or you can filter your email by New Messages, Tags, and people in your Address Book. You can also "Pin" or save a Filter and use it across multiple folders.

Tabs

If you like Firefox’s tabbed browsing, you’re going to love tabbed email. Tabbed email lets you load emails in separate tabs so you can quickly jump between them. Perhaps you’re responding to an email and need to refer back to an earlier email. Tabbed email lets you keep multiple emails open for easy reference.
Double-clicking or hitting enter on a mail message will now open that message in a new tab window. Right-clicking on messages or folders will open them in a tab in the background.
When quitting Thunderbird, visible tabs will be saved and will be restored when you open Thunderbird the next time. There is also a new Tab menu on the Tab toolbar to help you switch between Tabs.

Search

The new search interface in Thunderbird 3.1 contains filtering and timeline tools to pinpoint the exact email you’re looking for. Thunderbird 3.1 also indexes all of your emails to help you search even faster. Your search results are displayed in a tab so you can easily switch back and forth to your search results and other email.

Message Archive

If you think you’re going to need an email in the future but want it out of your inbox without deleting it, archive it! Archiving helps you manage your inbox and put your email into a new archive folder system.
Selecting the Archive button or hitting the ‘A’ key will archive your email.

Customize Your Email Experience

Thunderbird is flexible to suit your personality, to give you the features you need, and to fit your work style. Change how Thunderbird looks or add as many features as you want.

Thunderbird Look & Feel

With Personas, lightweight "skins" allow you to change the look and feel of Thunderbird in an instant. Hundreds of skins are available from the latest movies, famous landmarks, and Japanese tattoos. You can also choose from several Themes that dress up all the different icons in Thunderbird.

Smart Folders

Smart Folders helps you manage multiple email accounts by combining special folders like your Inbox, Sent, or Archive folder. Instead of going to the Inbox for each of your mail accounts, you can see all of your incoming email in one Inbox folder.

Add-ons Manager

Find and install add-ons directly in Thunderbird. You no longer need to visit the add-ons Web site—instead simply fire up the Add-ons Manager. Not sure which add-on is right for you? Ratings, recommendations, descriptions and pictures of the add-ons in action help you make your selection.

Secure and Protect Your Mail

Thunderbird’s security and privacy measures ensure that your communications and identity remain safe.

Cutting Out the Junk

Thunderbird’s popular junk mail tools have been updated to stay ahead of spam. Each email you receive passes through Thunderbird’s leading-edge junk mail filters. Each time you mark messages as spam, Thunderbird “learns” and improves its filtering so you can spend more time reading the mail that matters. Thunderbird can also use your mail provider’s spam filters to keep junk mail out of your inbox.

Robust Privacy

Thunderbird 3.1 offers support for user privacy and remote image protection. To ensure a user’s privacy, Thunderbird 3.1 automatically blocks remote images in email messages.

Phishing Protection

Thunderbird protects you from email scams which try to trick users into handing over personal and confidential information by indicating when a message is a potential phishing attempt. As a second line of defense, Thunderbird warns you when you click on a link which appears to be taking you to a different Web site than the one indicated by the URL in the message.

Automated Update

Thunderbird’s update system checks to see if you’re running the latest version, and notifies you when a security update is available. These security updates are small (usually 200KB - 700KB), giving you only what you need and making the security update quick to download and install. The automated update system provides updates for Thunderbird on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux in over 40 different languages.

Open Source

At the heart of Thunderbird is an open source development process driven by thousands of passionate, experienced developers and security experts spread all over the world.

FAQ Changing IMAP to POP

This tutorial will show you how to configure a new account for POP access (rather than IMAP).

1. Select Tools | Account Settings... | Account Actions | Add Mail Account .

2. Enter your username (check with your mail provider; it is your full email address) and password and click Continue.

3. Thunderbird will attempt to configure your accounts settings automatically using IMAP. Click Stop.

4. Enter your account details as follows:

• Username: Enter your full email address (or whatever your email provider recommends, usually your full email address, although sometimes just the part before the "@").
• Incoming: Enter your incoming email provider's server (usually "mail.yourmailprovider.com" or "pop.yourmailprovider.com", for example "mail.argontech.net").
• Outgoing: Enter your outgoing mail provider's server (usually "mail.domainname.com" or "smtp.domainname.com").
• Select "POP" from the drop-down list to the right of the incoming mail server name (the row labelled "Incoming:" in the screenshot). This is important because if IMAP is selected you won't be able to change it to POP later!
• Incoming port number: This depends on the email provider.
• Outgoing port number: This depends on the email provider.
• Incoming security: This depends on the email provider.
• Outgoing security: This depends on the email provider.

5. Once these settings have been entered, click Manual Setup...

.

You may get an error message that says that the SMTP account already exists. Clear the message.

6. Click on Cancel to exit the Account Settings dialog. Re-open the Account Settings page and you will see that your new account has been created. Also please check your Outgoing Server (SMTP) is correct for this account (at the bottom of the screenshot).

7. Check that your incoming and outgoing mail is working correctly.

If everything is ok (i.e. you can send and receive email and see your old emails; note that some email providers may not give you access to all of your emails or all your email folders; check with your mail provider) and you accidentally created an IMAP account, then delete the accidentally created IMAP account as follows: open Tools | Account Settings..., select the accidentally created IMAP account with the IMAP server setting, then select Account Actions|Remove Account from the drop-down list underneath the account list on the left.

Configure an Account Mozilla Thunderbird

To manually configure an account, you will need to have the following details which can be supplied by your email provider.

• incoming mail server and port (for example, "pop.example.com" and port 110 or "imap.example.com" and port 143)
• outgoing mail server and port (for example, "smtp.example.com")
• security setting for the connection with the server (for example, "STARTTLS" or "SSL/TLS" and whether or not to use secure authentication)

First, open the Account Settings (Tools | Account Settings). Each email or newsgroup account that has already been configured is listed on the left side of the Account Settings dialog. These accounts correspond to the top-level folders displayed in the "All Folders" list.

Click the Account Actions button and select Add Mail Account.

Enter your email account details and press Continue. Thunderbird will try to determine your account settings based on the domain portion of your email address (that is, the portion after the "@" symbol). Press the Stop button to abort the lookup, then edit the server names, port and IMAP/POP, and then press Manual Configuration to manually set up the the account. Note that it's important that you set server names, port and IMAP/POP before clicking Manual Config. (Alternatively, you can allow the lookup to gather default account details and then manually change the settings later.)

Configure the outgoing server

Multiple email accounts can use the same outgoing SMTP server. Therefore, SMTP servers are created separately from email accounts. In the Account Settings dialog, in the left pane, select Outgoing Server (SMTP) from the bottom of the list. There may be an entry in the resulting list that was created when you entered your account details. Either edit that entry or add a new entry.

As another example, a Gmail account is configured as follows:

• Server Name: smtp.gmail.com
• Port: 587
• Use name and Password: checked
• User Name: your gmail userid without "@com" extension (for example, if you email address is brian@gmail.com, then your user name is "brian"). If you are using Google Apps for Domains, use your entire address (for example, "billsmith@yourdomain.com").
• Connection Security: STARTTLS

After saving the information about the new outgoing server, select your new email account from the list. In the Outgoing Server (SMTP) field, select the SMTP server from the drop-down list. Other items on the page were automatically created when you entered the account details - alter and extend as necessary.

Click on the Server Settings option under your new account. Make sure the entries in the following fields correspond to the settings given to you by your email provider:

After saving these changes you should be able to send and receive emails. Other aspects of account configuration are optional and self-explanatory.

How to configure Internet e-mail accounts in Outlook

To do this, you must have the following specific information about your e-mail account to manually configure it in Outlook. Contact your ISP if needed to obtain the following information:

• Your full e-mail address.
• The type of e-mail account: POP3, IMAP or HTTP.
• Your user name.
• Your password.
• The SMTP server name or address.
• The POP3 server name or address.
• Is Secure Password Authentication (SPA) required?
• The port number that is used for SMTP. (Most ISPs use port 25.)
  • Is encryption (SSL is most common) required for the port?
• The port number that is used for POP3. (Most ISPs use port 110.)
  • Do you require encryption (SSL is most common) for the port?
• Does the outgoing e-mail server (SMTP) require authentication?
  • If so, do you use my normal e-mail name and password?

Use one of the following methods to configure the Internet E-mail information service, as appropriate for the version of Outlook that you are running.

Method 1: Microsoft Office Outlook 2010

1. Start Outlook.
2. On the File menu, click Info, and then click Account Settings.
3. Select Account Settings from the drop-down list.
4. On the Email tab, click New, select Email Account, and then click Next.
5. Click to select the Manually configure server settings or additional server types check box, and then click Next.
6. Click Internet E-Mail, and then click Next.
7. In the Add New E-mail Account dialog box, click Microsoft Exchange, POP3, IMAP, or HTTP, and then click Next.
8. Configure the new email account. You can configure the new email account automatically or manually.
   • To configure the new email account automatically, in the Add New E-mail Account dialog box under Auto Account Setup, follow these steps:
     1. In the Your Name box, type your full name.
     2. In the E-mail Address box, type your email address.
        
        Your ISP provides this information. Your email address usually takes the form of a combination of your first and last name and the name of your ISP, separated by the at sign (@) and periods.
        
        For example, Sachin Karnik uses an ISP that is named Contoso.com. The ISP may assign an email address of skarnik@contoso.com.
     3. In the Password box, type the password that your ISP provided.
     4. In the Retype Password box, retype the password, and then click Next to begin the Auto Account Setup process.
        
        Outlook 2010 will try to automatically configure your account settings and server settings. If your account is successfully configured, the Add New E-mail Account dialog box indicates that the account was created successfully. This dialog box also indicates the type of email server to which you are successfully connected.  
     5. Click Finish, and then click Close to complete the account setup.
        
        Note If automatic configuration fails, the account must be configured manually.
   • To configure the new email account manually, follow these steps in the Add New E-mail Account dialog box:
     1. Click to select the Manually configure server settings or additional server types check box, and then click Next.
     2. Click Internet E-mail, and then click Next.
     3. Under User Information, follow these steps:
        1. In the Your Name box, type your full name.
        2. In the E-mail Address box, type your full email address.
           
           Your ISP provides this information. Your email address usually takes the form of a combination of your first and last name and the name of your ISP, separated by the at sign (@) and periods.
           
           For example, Sachin Karnik uses an ISP that is named Contoso.com. The ISP may assign an email address of skarnik@contoso.com.
     4. In the Account Type box under Server Information, click to select the type of email account that you have.
        • If you clicked POP3 or IMAP in the Account Type box, follow these steps:
          1. In the Incoming mail server box, type the name of the server. This is the server that holds your messages before you download them to the computer. Type the server name in lowercase letters. The name may be in the form of "mail.contoso.com." Or, the name may be in the form of an IP address, such as 172.16.0.0.
          2. In the Outgoing mail server (SMTP) box, type the name of the outgoing email server. Type the server name in lowercase letters. The name may be in the form of "mail.contoso.com." Or, the name may be in the form of an IP address, such as 172.16.0.0.
        • If you clicked HTTP in the Account Type box, follow these steps:
          1. In the HTTP Service Provider box, click the appropriate service provider for this account. For example, click one of the following:
             • Hotmail
             • MSN
             • Other
          2. If you clicked Other in the HTTP Service Provider box, type the URL to the mailbox in the Server URL box.
     5. Under Logon Information, follow these steps:
        1. In the User Name box, type your user name. The user name is usually the part of your email address that is to the left of the at sign (@).  
        2. In the Password box, type the password that your ISP provided.
        3. If you want Outlook to remember your email account password, click to select the Remember password check box.
     6. If your ISP requires it, click to select the Require logon using Secure Password Authentication (SPA) check box to log on by using Secure Password Authentication.
     7. Click Test Account Settings. This feature calls a dialog box that shows in a step-by-step manner each testing phase of the configuration that you entered. When you click Test Account Settings, the following process occurs:
        • The connectivity of the system to the Internet is confirmed.
        • You are logged on to the SMTP server.
        • You are logged on to the POP3 server.
        • It is determined whether the POP3 server must be logged on to first. If it is required, Outlook automatically sets the Log on to incoming mail server before sending mail option.
        • A test message is sent. This message explains any changes that Outlook made to the initial setup.
     8. To make additional changes to your email account, click More Settings to open the Internet E-mail Settings dialog box.
     9. Click Next, and then click Finish.

Method 2: Microsoft Office Outlook 2007

1. Start Outlook.
2. On the Tools menu, click Account Settings.
3. On the E-mail tab, click New.
4. In the Add New E-mail Account dialog box, click Microsoft Exchange, POP3, IMAP, or HTTP, and then click Next.
5. Configure the new e-mail account. You can configure the new e-mail account automatically or manually.
   • To configure the new e-mail account automatically, follow these steps under Auto Account Setup in the Add New E-mail Account dialog box:
     1. In the Your Name box, type your full name.
     2. In the E-mail Address box, type your e-mail address.
        
        Your ISP provides this information. Your e-mail address usually takes the form of a combination of your first and last name and the name of your ISP, separated by the at sign (@) and periods.
        
        For example, Sachin Karnik uses an ISP that is named Contoso.com. The ISP may assign an e-mail address of skarnik@contoso.com. 
     3. In the Password box, type the password that your ISP provided.
     4. In the Retype Password box, retype the password, and then click Next to begin the Auto Account Setup process.
        
        Outlook 2007 will try to automatically configure your account settings and server settings. If your account is successfully configured, the Add New E-mail Account dialog box indicates that the account was created successfully. This dialog box also indicates the type of e-mail server to which you successfully connected.
     5. Click Finish, and then click Close to complete the account setup.
        
        Note If automatic configuration fails, the account must be configured manually.
   • To configure the new e-mail account manually, follow these steps in the Add New E-mail Account dialog box:
     1. Click to select the Manually configure server settings or additional server types check box, and then click Next.
     2. Click Internet E-mail, and then click Next.
     3. Under User Information, follow these steps:
        1. In the Your Name box, type your full name.
        2. In the E-mail Address box, type your full e-mail address.
           
           Your ISP provides this information. Your e-mail address usually takes the form of a combination of your first and last name and the name of your ISP, separated by the at sign (@) and periods.
           
           For example, Sachin Karnik uses an ISP that is named Contoso.com. The ISP may assign an e-mail address of skarnik@contoso.com.
     4. Under Server Information, click the type of e-mail account that you have in the Account Type box.
        • If you clicked POP3 or IMAP in the Account Type box, follow these steps:
          1. In the Incoming mail server box, type the name of the server. This is the server that holds your messages before you download them to the computer. Type the server name in lowercase letters. The name may be in the form of "mail.contoso.com." Or the name may be in the form of an IP address, such as 172.12.0.0.
          2. In the Outgoing mail server (SMTP) box, type the name of the outgoing e-mail server. Type the server name in lowercase letters. The name may be in the form of "mail.contoso.com." Or, the name may be in the form of an IP address, such as 172.12.0.0.
        • If you clicked HTTP in the Account Type box, follow these steps:
          1. In the HTTP Service Provider box, click the appropriate service provider for this account. For example, click one of the following:
             • Hotmail
             • MSN
             • Other
          2. If you clicked Other in the HTTP Service Provider box, type the URL to the mailbox in the Server URL box.
     5. Under Logon Information, follow these steps:
        1. In the User Name box, type your user name. The user name is usually the part of your e-mail address to the left of the at sign (@).
        2. In the Password box, type the password that your ISP provided.
        3. If you want Outlook to remember your e-mail account password, click to select the Remember password check box.
     6. If your ISP requires it, click to select the Require logon using Secure Password Authentication (SPA) check box to log on by using Secure Password Authentication.
     7. Click Test Account Settings. This feature calls a dialog box that displays, in a step-by-step manner, each phase of the testing of the configuration that you entered. When you click Test Account Settings, the following process occurs:
        • The connectivity of the system to the Internet is confirmed.
        • You are logged on to the SMTP server.
        • You are logged on to the POP3 server.
        • It is determined whether the POP3 server must be logged on to first. If it is required, Outlook automatically sets the Log on to incoming mail server before sending mail option.
        • A test message is sent. This message explains any changes that Outlook made to the initial setup.
     8. If you want to modify your e-mail account any more, click More Settings to open the Internet E-mail Settings dialog box.
     9. Click Next, and then click Finish.

Method 3: Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 and earlier versions of Outlook

1. Start Outlook.
2. On the Tools menu, click to select E-mail Accounts.
3. In the E-mail Accounts dialog box, click to select the Add a new E-mail Account option, and then click Next.
4. In the Server Type dialog box, click POP3, and then click Next
5. In the E-mail Accounts dialog box, enter the required information by using the following guidelines:
   1. User Information
      • Your Name: This should be your full name.
      • E-mail Address: Your ISP provides this information. Your e-mail address usually takes the form of a combination of your first and last name and the name of your ISP, separated by the at sign (@) and periods. For example, Patricia Doyle uses an ISP by the name of Adatum.net. The ISP may assign an e-mail address of PatriciaD@adatum.net.
   2. Logon Information
      • User Name: This is usually the part of your e-mail address to the left of the at sign (@).
      • Password: Enter the password that your ISP provided.
      • You may click to select the check box to have Outlook remember your e-mail account password.
   3. Server Information
      • Incoming Mail Server (POP3): This is the name of the POP3 server that holds your messages before you download it to your computer.
      • Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP): This is the name of the Outgoing e-mail server. Enter the server names in lower case in both the Incoming e-mail server and the Outgoing e-mail server. The names may be in the form of mail.adatum.net, or they could be in the form of an IP address such as 168.192.10.1.
6. Click Test Account Settings. This is a new capability in Outlook. This feature calls a dialog box that displays, in a step-by-step manner, each phase of testing the configuration that you have just input. The following occurs when you click Test Account Settings:
   • The connectivity of your system to the Internet is confirmed.
   • You are logged on to the SMTP server.
   • You are logged on to the POP3 server.
   • It is determined if the POP3 server needs to be logged on to first. If necessary, Outlook automatically sets Log on to incoming mail server before sending mail.
   • A test message is sent. This message explains any changes that Outlook made to your initial setup.
7. Click More Settings. This takes you to the Internet E-mail Settings dialog box, where you may further modify your Internet e-mail account.

The Internet E-mail Settings dialog box

The information that you entered in the "How to Configure the Internet E-mail Information Service" section is added to various tabs in the Internet E-mail Settings dialog box. This is where you make modifications and changes to your Internet E-mail account.

General tab

The General tab is the location that you use to rename your e-mail account.

• Mail Account: Type a name for this account.
• Organization: The name of your company; not a required entry.
• Reply E-mail: This is optional and only used if you want replies to your messages sent to another e-mail address.

Outgoing Server tab

The Outgoing Server tab is new for Outlook. The Test Account Settings button sets all required fields on this tab.

Note This button is not available on this tab in Outlook 2007. This feature is available in the Account Settings dialog box. To locate this feature, click the account, and then click Change.

• The My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication check box: Click to select this check box to turn this setting on, and to select the type of log on authentication the server requires.
• The Log on using Secure Password Authentication (SPA) check box. Click to select this check box only if your ISP instructs you to. Very few providers use this setting.
• The Log on to incoming mail server before sending mail check box. Many ISPs require that you receive messages first. It implies that you are an authenticated user, and are not using the ISP to send unwanted commercial messages (SPAM) to unsuspecting recipients.

Connection tab

1. Connection Section
   
   The Connection tab contains information about how to connect to your e-mail server. There are three ways to connect to your ISP's e-mail server. Select one of the appropriate connection type listed in this section.
   1. Connect using my local area network (LAN): This connection allows you to log on to your e-mail server through your existing network connection. Your network configuration must support access to the Internet. Please see your network administrator for more details.
   2. Connect using my phone line: The Internet Mail Service looks for a Dialup Networking connection to establish a log on with your ISP. Once you are logged on to your ISP, it attempts to connect to your ISP's e-mail server. If this section is not available (grayed out), it may indicate that the Microsoft Windows Dialup Networking feature is not installed on your computer. Please refer to the "If Dialup Networking Is Not installed" section of this article for more information.
   3. Connect Using Internet Explorer's or a 3rd Party Dialer: If you click to select this option, Outlook uses a default connection method that has already been configured.
2. Modem Section
   1. After you click Connect using my phone line, you must define a Dialup Networking connection to use. You can select an existing connection from the list, or you can click Add to create a new connection.
   2. To edit the properties of a connection, use the drop-down list box to select the desired connection, and then click Properties. This takes you to the existing connection's Properties page.

Advanced tab

The Advanced tab allows you to set the POP3 and SMTP server ports, define whether the server requires secure connection, and define server timeout settings and delivery settings. The delivery settings allow you to read a message, but leave the message on the server for a specified time. This feature is especially helpful if you use the same e-mail account from more than one computer.

How to transfer Internet e-mail

The following information is the four ways to send and receive Internet e-mail.

• Press F9 on the keyboard: If you press F9, your connection type is verified and then uploads the messages from your Outbox and downloads your messages from the server. If you are connected through a LAN connection, messages flow without any other dialog boxes. If you connect to your ISP with a modem, the Dial Up Networking connection starts and establishes the connection. Messages upload from your Outbox and download from the e-mail server.
• On the Tools menu, point to Send/Receive, and then click Send/Receive All or click the e-mail account name: You can select to send messages only. On the Tools menu, point to Send/Receive, and then click Send All. This option does not download any messages from the server. If you click Send/Receive on the Tools menu and you have multiple e-mail accounts, you have the option to select the e-mail account that you want to use.
• On the Standard toolbar click Send/Receive: If you click the Send/Receive button on the Standard toolbar, it is the same as when you press F9 on the keyboard.
• For Microsoft Outlook 2002, connect with the Work With Headers menu selection. To work with headers rather than full messages, use the commands listed under Work With Headers that is a submenu of Send/Receive on the Tools menu. For Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2003, connect with the head-related commands. To work with headers rather than full messages, use the head-related commands listed under Send/Receive on the Tools menu. With Remote Mail, you can scan the headers, and then mark the messages that you want to receive, copy, or delete. While using Remote Mail, you can compose messages and send them to your Outbox at any time, and send and receive messages when you connect to your mailbox. This feature allows you to keep your messages on the server.

What to do if dialup networking is not installed

To use a modem connection, you must install and configure the Dialup Networking feature that included with Microsoft Windows. Your ISP provides the following information:

1. User name
2. Password
3. Local access phone number
4. Your host and domain name
5. DNS server IP address
6. Authentication technique (whether or not a terminal window is used)

Your ISP may also provide you with an IP address and an IP subnet mask. You need these optional items only if your provider gives you a dedicated IP address to use every time you dial in.

Thunderbird FAQ

 General Questions

What is Thunderbird?

Thunderbird is a free, open-source and cross-platform mail client for most operating systems including, but not limited to, Windows, Linux and Macintosh. It is based on the Mozilla codebase. It is a robust and easy to use client, similar to competing products like Outlook Express, but with some major advantages such as junk mail classification. Read more about the mail client at the Product Page .

 

Is Thunderbird free?

Yes! Thunderbird is open source software, meaning that anyone have the right download and use the program for free, and view and modify the source code under the terms of the license.

 

Is Thunderbird available in my language?

Possibly. Since Mozilla Thunderbird is an open-source project, contributors are constantly translating Mozilla Thunderbird into other languages. You can check if Mozilla Thunderbird is available in your language in the localized builds list, available from the download page.

 

 

Where are my mail, passwords and other personal information saved?

Thunderbird stores your personal settings in a profile folder. See the next frequently asked question for more information on how to manage the profiles.

 

How do I start the Profile Manager?

The Profile Manager is used to manage multiple profiles. To start the Profile Manager, follow the steps in the Manage Profiles How-To.

 

How do I move my profile or restore a backed up copy?

It's possible to move the location of a profile folder. This could be useful if you have a backed up profile folder somewhere on your hard drive and want to tell Thunderbird to use that as your profile.

 

Migration

How do I migrate my Mozilla mail and settings to Thunderbird?

Thunderbird includes an auto migration tool that imports your Mozilla 1.x or Netcape 7.x profile directly into Thunderbird without you having to do anything.

 

 

Can I read and send AOL e-mail using Thunderbird?

Yes, AOL users can read their AOL mail using Thunderbird. In order to do this, setup a new mail account (File > New > Account...) and select IMAP as the incoming server type and enter imap.aol.com as the address. Enter your screen name as the user name. You must also setup the outgoing (SMTP) server in order to send e-mail. To do this, select Tools > Account Settings... and then select the "Outgoing Server (SMTP)" item in the list and click Advanced.... In the Advanced Outgoing Server (SMTP) Settings window that pops up, click Add.... Enter smtp.aol.com as the Server Name, use port 587 and enter your AOL screen name as the User Name (you will be asked for the password later). Click OK and go back to the Account Settings window. Now locate your newly created mail account and select "Server Settings", click Advanced... and select the Outgoing Server (SMTP) that you created. Note that you cannot manually add messages to the Inbox or Sent Items folders. Messages will only be added to these folders when an e-mail is received or sent by the AOL IMAP server. Therefore, make sure you use local folders for Sent, Drafts and Templates. To specify this, open the Account Settings again and select the "Copies & Folders" item under the AOL account.

 

Can I access my Netscape WebMail or Hotmail accounts through Thunderbird?

No. Netscape WebMail and Hotmail use proprietary protocols. To access WebMail directly through an e-mail client requires you to use Netscape 6+ with AIM; to do so with Hotmail requires either Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express. Of course, you can access your WebMail account on the Web at http://webmail.netscape.com/, or Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com/.

 

 

How do I import e-mail messages from kmail (Linux)?

Make a new folder in kmail and name it inboxmbox. You'll see a dialogue in which you can save it as an mbox folder. Copy all posts in your kmail inbox folder to the new inboxmbox folder, then copy or move inboxmbox to the subfolder Mail/Local Folders in your profile folder. When you open Thunderbird you'll see the inboxmbox folder under Local Folders. Copy the messages into your Inbox folder if you like.

 

 

How do I import e-mail messages from mail.app (MacOS X)?

Go to ~/Library/Mail/ and root out the .mbox files in the finder. These are actually OSX packages. Select Show Package Contents and a new window will open revealing several files including a file named mbox. Copy that file to the subfolder called Local Folders in the folder Mail in your profile folder and rename it to something meaningful. This process needs to be done for each of your mailboxes. Finally start Thunderbird to see the new mail folders.

 

How do I import the address book (MacOS X)?

You can use the Address Book Exporter application to export your address book to a plain text file. Then, in Thunderbird, select Tools > Import..., select Address Books, click Next and to import a text file.

 

 

How do I import e-mail messages from another mail program?

Go to Tools > Import, which will bring up a dialog to guide you through the process.

 

 

How do I export e-mail messages to another mail program or computer?

Thunderbird's mail files are in the standard plain text "mbox" format, which almost all mail programs can use or import. Many proprietary mail programs have a function to import from Eudora, which also uses the "mbox" format; this function should read your Mozilla mail files properly. Your mail files are inside your profile (see the Profile Folder), in the Mail and (if you use IMAP) ImapMail folders. Each mail folder (Inbox, Sent, etc.) is stored as two files — one with no extension (e.g. INBOX), which is the mail file itself (in "mbox" format), and one with an .msf extension (e.g. INBOX.msf), which is the index (Mail Summary File) to the mail file. Tell the other program to import mail from the file with no extension. If you want to transfer a mail file to another Mozilla profile or another installation of Mozilla, simply put the mail file into the other installation's Mail folder.

Usage

How do I customize the toolbar?

You can customize the toolbars by choosing which buttons you want to show, by adding toolbars, or by resizing the buttons. To do so, go to View > Toolbars > Customize.... A new window will pop up, containing available toolbar items. Just drag and drop them to the toolbar where you want to add them. To remove some items from the toolbar, drag them from the toolbars and drop them at the Customize window. You can even place toolbar items on the menu bar! This will allow you to place everything on one row, saving lots of screen real estate.

 

How do I make Thunderbird my default mail program?

The first time you run Thunderbird, it should ask you if you want to make it your default mail client. If you answered no and later decide you would like it to act as your default mail client:

• Windows, Mac: go to Tools > Options..., click on General and check Use Mozilla Thunderbird as the default mail application. If you still have problems with mailto: links under Windows, go to Start > Settings > Control Panel and open Internet Options. Under the Programs tab, select Mozilla Thunderbird from the drop-down list next to E-mail:.
• GNOME (Unix/Linux): Open the Control Panel. Go to Document Handlers | URL Handlers. Put mailto in the left text field, and gnome-moz-remote "%s" in the right one. Then put the following text in ~/.gnome/gnome-moz-remote (create the file if it does not exist): [Mozilla] filename=absolute path of Thunderbird install directory/mozilla
• KDE 3 (Unix/Linux): Open the Control Center and go to Network > Email. Under Preferred Email Client, enter: absolute path of Thunderbird install directory/mozilla --mail

 

How do I use the spam filters?

Mozilla Thunderbird comes with build-in spam filters, effectively moving (or removing) unwanted e-mail messages from your mail folders. There is a great article at Netscape DevEdge explaining how to fight junk mail with Netscape 7.1. This article applies to Mozilla Thunderbird too.

 

 

Is Thunderbird susceptible to e-mail viruses?

Thunderbird will not allow a virus or worm to execute automatically. You can see what attachments have been sent to you without a virus being able to execute, and you would have to save a file to your system and deliberately run it before it could cause any harm. JavaScript is switched off by default for mail and news, so an e-mail cannot run script code just by being opened. As with any mail program, take proper caution before running any file that you receive in e-mail. Appropriate anti-virus software should also help keep you safer.

 

Is there a mail notifier in Thunderbird?

Yes, the Windows version of Thunderbird includes mail notification in the system tray while Thunderbird is open.

 

How do I use S/MIME, PGP or GnuPG to send and receive signed or encrypted messages?

To use S/MIME, open Mail/News and go to Edit | Mail & Newsgroup Account Settings | account name | Security. You can set which certificates to use with each account for digital signing and/or encryption. Hooks to PGP or GnuPG are not included in Thunderbird, but are under development at Enigmail.

 

I changed my IMAP password, how do I get rid of a cached password?

In the menu, select Tools > Options..., click on Advanced, expand the Passwords section and click Manage Stored Passwords. Select the site/username line you want to delete and click Remove. When done, click Close and restart Mozilla Thunderbird.

 

How can I access/change the Master Password?

Go to Tools > Account Settings..., select any account and click on Security in the panel to the left. Click on Manage Security Devices..., select Software Security Device from the list and finally click Change Password.