Summary: Mozilla Thunderbird is a robust email client. However, sometimes, it suffers from common problems, such as cannot receive new messages. In this post, we have shared some effective solutions to fix the problem where Mozilla Thunderbird can’t receive emails.
If you are not receiving new messages in Mozilla Thunderbird, follow these solutions to troubleshoot and fix the errors to start receiving emails in Mozilla Thunderbird.
Check your network connection for any faults or issues. Try logging in to your email account via a web browser to ensure that the server isn’t offline and the internet is working fine. This will help you detect and fix any problem with the server or your network.
However, if the network is fine and you can log in to your email account via web browser, follow the next solutions to troubleshoot and fix the issue.
An incorrect or misconfigured profile can also lead to such issues. Sometimes, your password may have expired, leading to such an issue.
To check and update your password, follow these steps:
Besides, you also need to check your SMTP and IMAP Server settings to ensure everything is configured correctly.
To check SMTP settings, follow the given steps:
To check IMAP Server settings, follow these steps:
Make sure that the settings are correct. Refer to your email service provider for more details on these settings, ports, etc.
Your Firewall may also block and prevent Thunderbird from sending or receiving emails. To overcome this, you can whitelist Thunderbird in your Firewall settings. Here are the steps:
Try disabling the antivirus temporarily to check if the conflict with the Thunderbird causes the problem. Next, restart Thunderbird and check if you can now receive the emails.
If emails start coming in, add an exception in the antivirus software for Thunderbird and its processes. Thunderbird also stores mail items in MBOX format. Make sure to add an exception for MBOX file scanning.
Many users have encountered this problem in Thunderbird after an update or upgrade to a newer version. If that’s the case, you should immediately roll back to the previous version.
It is to be noted that Thunderbird 78 and later require enhanced TLS security standards. This can lead to sending/receiving errors in Thunderbird if your service provider does not support TLS protocols.
To downgrade the Thunderbird client, uninstall the current version, manually download the earlier version from Mozilla Thunderbird page, and install it.
All your mail items and information, such as messages, contacts, passwords, etc., are saved in an MBOX file associated with your configured email profile. If your profile is corrupt, you may not receive emails or send messages. However, you can add a new profile and replace your corrupt profile to fix this issue.
The steps are as follows:
Above, we’ve mentioned the solutions to troubleshoot and fix the issue “cannot receive emails in Thunderbird.” Although the issue can be fixed, it may arise again if caused by some underlying problems with your system. However, you can easily switch your email client to Outlook without losing mail items. You can use an MBOX to PST file converter software, such as Stellar Converter for MBOX to export the mail items from Thunderbird MBOX file to PST format, which you can import into your Outlook profile. You may also export the mail items from the MBOX file directly to Office 365.
Ravi Singh is a Senior Writer at Stellar®. He is an expert Tech Explainer, IoT enthusiast, and a passionate nerd with over 6 years of experience in technical writing. He writes about Data Recovery, File Repair, Email Migration, Linux, Windows, Mac, and DIY Tech. Ravi spends most of his weekends working with IoT devices and playing games on the Xbox. He is also a solo traveler who loves hiking and exploring new trails.
