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Bought a new computer, tried to migrate Thunderbird to it, and made a mess of things!

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by sfhowes

pfw51
pfw51
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I just bought a new HP computer and migrated Thunderbird to it. Both my old and new computers are Windows 10-64. I watched the video instructions (several times) on how to migrate my profile to the new computer and even though it took a few tries I finally got it right and Thunderbird opened with all my settings, previous emails, and address books. (But the process is seriously convoluted... can't there be a simpler way?) This morning I booted up and Thunderbird opened just fine, but it would not give me my AT&T emails. Instead, it game me this error message: "Sending of password for user ____@att.net did not succeed. Mail server inbound.att.net responded: Server error - Please try again later." I also have a Gmail address and Thunderbird had no trouble getting those. It was just AT&T. So I went to the AT&T mail support page and was told that since I have a new computer I need to change my passwords, starting with the primary account and then for each email account individually. Since all of my AT&T mail accounts use the same password I tried to change them, but the account wouldn't let me... even though I had already changed the primary password, AT&T said it didn't "recognize" the new one so I wasn't allowed to change them. So I went back to Thunderbird and tried to find what passwords it was using to get into each account, but when I went to each account settings window I could not find a password listed. And that's where I sit now, unable to get into my AT&T accounts. Does anybody have an idea of how to fix this mess without losing all of the settings, previous emails, and address books?

I just bought a new HP computer and migrated Thunderbird to it. Both my old and new computers are Windows 10-64. I watched the video instructions (several times) on how to migrate my profile to the new computer and even though it took a few tries I finally got it right and Thunderbird opened with all my settings, previous emails, and address books. (But the process is seriously convoluted... can't there be a simpler way?) This morning I booted up and Thunderbird opened just fine, but it would not give me my AT&T emails. Instead, it game me this error message: "Sending of password for user ____@att.net did not succeed. Mail server inbound.att.net responded: Server error - Please try again later." I also have a Gmail address and Thunderbird had no trouble getting those. It was just AT&T. So I went to the AT&T mail support page and was told that since I have a new computer I need to change my passwords, starting with the primary account and then for each email account individually. Since all of my AT&T mail accounts use the same password I tried to change them, but the account wouldn't let me... even though I had already changed the primary password, AT&T said it didn't "recognize" the new one so I wasn't allowed to change them. So I went back to Thunderbird and tried to find what passwords it was using to get into each account, but when I went to each account settings window I could not find a password listed. And that's where I sit now, unable to get into my AT&T accounts. Does anybody have an idea of how to fix this mess without losing all of the settings, previous emails, and address books?

All Replies (2)

Toad-Hall
Toad-Hall
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Thunderbird keeps stored passwords here:

  • Menu app icon > Options > Options > Security > 'Passwords ' tab
  • click on 'Saved Passwords' button
  • click on 'Show Passwords' button

Once you have set up a new password in your webmail account accessed via a browser, this is where you would update the password.

Right click on each line and select 'Edit Password' and Carefully type in the new password.

Modified by Toad-Hall

sfhowes
sfhowes
  • Top 10 Contributor
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I recommend you delete the existing passwords in Saved Passwords and use a secure mail key instead:

https://www.att.com/support/article/email-support/KM1240308

After deleting the passwords and restarting TB, you will be prompted to enter the password at the next connection.