did this ever work?

I'm not sure what you mean "did this ever work"...my TB acct used to work fine. Then computer problems resulted in re-setting my computer to default settings. I'm slowly getting things put back right, but my Thunderbird acct is all screwy. I have it set up to forward msgs to my private email. When I send a "test" email to my TB email, I do get the forwarded msg in my private email, but when I check TB, there is nothing. I can "see" my inbox (nothing in any folder) and folders, but cannot change anything. I did go through a serious bout of spam from or to the TB acct, and a few are still trickling in, but my TB spam folder is not "bolded" indicating anything in there. It seems there are 3 passwords that are needed: access to my "webmaster@ (domain), and access to "mail.(domain), and then the master pw for software security device. That last one I did change, but it does no good if I can't log in to get my mail. There is nothing particularly important that I need with that TB acct. Can I just delete the acct, uninstall and start over somehow? Or any way to find my pw?

Some things to get clear.

There is no such thing as a TB acct or a Thunderbird mail account. All mail accounts are issued by mail providers, either ISPs, or companies or the likes of Yahoo and Google. Therefore Thunderbird has no account passwords.

There is a master password, but that simply protects you password file. It is not a mail account or a mail account password. That is what your referring to as the password for software security device I think.

Mail forwarding when done at the server level is almost always done using POP mail protocols which includes deleting the mail as it is transferred. So you need to remove the forward if you want mail to actually get as far a Thunderbird.

If you do not know the passwords for whatever@(domain) then you need to contact the mail administrator for that domain. Be it you, your tech expert, your mail providers or your domain provider. There is nothing anyone here can do about your passwords, as we do not know them.

I understand a reset to factory defaults includes a disk wipe, as the only place your passwords are stored is on your hard disk, they are most likely gone from existence.

Matt: Thanks so much for your time in responding to my questions. You have answered it very well. I understand what you are saying (sorta) and will attempt to deal with this problem another way. thanks again for your effort in clarifying Thunderbird.