Tbird won't save a new mail account-it will create it, I can send and receive emails, but it disappears when I close Tbird. v45.3.0 on W8
Our existing ISP is getting out of the non-commercial market, but will maintain the pop server for six months.
I have changed to centurylink as my ISP, and they have established two email addresses for us. We use two different machines. The email through the existing server has worked well, and continues to work on both machines.
Creating a new email account on both machines works fine, and it actually auto-configs.
Both accounts on the old XP laptop are fine. New mail comes in on both accounts, I can see each on the side panel, etc.
On the W8 machine, the new account is created, the old account remains, new mail can be sent and received, but if I close Tbird, the next time I open it, it "forgets" the new account. Only the original email account remains. I can go through the setup routine again, and it works fine as long as Tbird remains open, but closing it seems to kill the account.
Krejt Përgjigjet (7)
perhaps the prefs.js file in your profile is read only.
Thanks for the reply, but, no, the prefs.js file is not set to read only. Security properties allow system full access.
Whatever the script is that controls this, it's allowing the change, it just won't keep it across closing the app. It's apparently not being written down to the disc.
I guess I'll pull my laptop up here next to the W8 machine and compare the about:config files. (Bigger hammer theory - hey, I'm a hardware designer, not a code wrangler :-) )Since they're different versions, I don't expect them to be the same, but it might point me in the right direction.
You can check the 'Mail and News Accounts' section in your Troubleshooting Information.
At the top right of the Thunderbird window, click the menu button 
, then select Help > Troubleshooting Information.
Do that after setting up the new account, and after restarting Thunderbird.
Press the Copy text to clipboard button and paste the information into your reply for both scenarios. You can trim everything else below the 'Extensions' section.
Thanks. I see three things that pop out at me, two from the troubleshooting info: 1) the new acct is ID'd as account 13, rather than account 3
Significant or not?
2) both accounts are set as "true" under "default"
That doesn't look right.
and a third from the folder pane on the main tab: With a single account, the original (dsl-only) account is at the top of the pane, with it's related subfolders shown underneath, and then the "local folders" are shown under that. With two mail accounts, the centurylink account has displaced the oirginal account at the top, with it's subfolders below, while the original account has been subsumed into local folders, and no longer shows as a mail account with a distinct name. The associated sub-folders from the original account now show up simply as "Inbox", "Drafts" and "Sent" with no account identification. (screenshot attached).
Troubleshooting info -With new account active
Application Basics
Name: Thunderbird Version: 45.3.0 User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.2; WOW64; rv:45.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/45.3.0 Profile Folder: Show Folder
(Local drive) Application Build ID: 20160825102941 Enabled Plugins: about:plugins Build Configuration: about:buildconfig Memory Use: about:memory
Mail and News Accounts
account1:
INCOMING: account1, , (none) Local Folders, plain, passwordCleartext
account2:
INCOMING: account2, , (pop3) mail.dsl-only.net:110, plain, passwordEncrypted
OUTGOING: , mail.dsl-only.net:25, plain, passwordCleartext, true
_____________________________________________________________ After closing and reopening Tbird (new account gone)
Application Basics
Name: Thunderbird Version: 45.3.0 User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.2; WOW64; rv:45.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/45.3.0 Profile Folder: Show Folder
(Local drive) Application Build ID: 20160825102941 Enabled Plugins: about:plugins Build Configuration: about:buildconfig Memory Use: about:memory
Mail and News Accounts
account1:
INCOMING: account1, , (none) Local Folders, plain, passwordCleartext
account2:
INCOMING: account2, , (pop3) mail.dsl-only.net:110, plain, passwordEncrypted
OUTGOING: , mail.dsl-only.net:25, plain, passwordCleartext, true
From the Troubleshooting Information there is only a single dsl-only.net account prior to and after restarting Thunderbird. Your screenshot image doesn't load here, so there's not much to see.
the new acct is ID'd as account 13, rather than account 3
There's neither an account13 nor 3 in the Troubleshooting Information.
Sorry, I guess I somehow pasted the same info twice.
Below is with the centurylink account active. I think I see why it was account13, because, as you can see below, it's now account16. It looks like each time I "lose" the account, when I recreate it the next time it opens, it numbers it from the last "lost" account. The program was closed three times since then and now I have account16. Here's the TS info that I just captured. Again, both accounts are shown as true under the "default" column.
Application Basics
Name: Thunderbird Version: 45.3.0 User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.2; WOW64; rv:45.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/45.3.0 Profile Folder: Show Folder
(Local drive) Application Build ID: 20160825102941 Enabled Plugins: about:plugins Build Configuration: about:buildconfig Memory Use: about:memory
Mail and News Accounts
account1:
INCOMING: account1, , (none) Local Folders, plain, passwordCleartext
account2:
INCOMING: account2, , (pop3) mail.dsl-only.net:110, plain, passwordEncrypted
OUTGOING: , mail.dsl-only.net:25, plain, passwordCleartext, true
account16:
INCOMING: account16, , (pop3) pop.centurylink.net:995, SSL, passwordCleartext
OUTGOING: , smtp.centurylink.net:587, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext, true
I still think this may be related to the prefs.js file. Does the date and time on it change after you close Thunderbird?
Updates to the file are written on shutdown. If shutdown is hanging and not completing I can see this scenario occurring. Especially if you restart the computer between Thunderbird restarts.