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How do I setup iCloud Mail in Thunderbird

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joelw135

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Post Posted October 11th, 2013, 7:55 am

I have iCloud email and need to set it up in Thunderbird, but have been unable to get it to work. Does anyone know how to do this. Apple info is spotty. Thanks.

DanRaisch
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Post Posted October 11th, 2013, 9:05 am

Are you using the information from this support page? http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4864

joelw135

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Post Posted October 11th, 2013, 9:22 am

DanRaisch wrote:Are you using the information from this support page? http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4864


Yes, but it doesn't work, it says user name and password don't match. I am at a loss. I use my XXXXX@icloud.com as the user name and my password is correct. Any ideas?

DanRaisch
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Post Posted October 11th, 2013, 9:50 am

Have you tried entering just the portion of your email address before the @ symbol as your user name in Thunderbird?

joelw135

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Post Posted October 11th, 2013, 11:09 am

DanRaisch wrote:Have you tried entering just the portion of your email address before the @ symbol as your user name in Thunderbird?

Yes the same problem "Failed to Connect to Server"

joelw135

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Post Posted October 11th, 2013, 1:11 pm

I spoke to Apple and they walked me through the setup which had me use p04-imap.mail,me.com and p04-smtp.mail.me.com and just the beginning of my email as you mentioned above. Now it all works.

DanRaisch
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Post Posted October 11th, 2013, 3:16 pm

Great. Thanks for letting us know what worked for you.

joelw135

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Post Posted October 11th, 2013, 3:24 pm

Your welcome.

hdutra
 
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Post Posted July 25th, 2014, 10:29 am

:( I tried the suggestion posted by joelw135. No soap. I still can't get T-bird to recognize my .icloud account. A shame, too. Outlook handles it just fine, except it tends to drop items from inbox once message cleared off of server. Come on, T-bird.

rsx11m
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Post Posted July 25th, 2014, 12:18 pm

If you copy-pasted those, there is a typo in one of those server names.

Try p04-imap.mail.me.com and p04-smtp.mail.me.com which still resolve for me to valid IP addresses (that post is a year old, so who knows), but that's what the servers seem to support:

  • For the IMAP server settings, use SSL/TLS with port 993.
  • For the SMTP server settings, it's STARTTLS on port 587.

hdutra
 
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Post Posted July 25th, 2014, 1:08 pm

is it p followed by the numerals 0 and 4? If so, all the above was entered, still, no soap. Thanks for trying. By the way, T-bird offered authentication options. I left it at autodetect, but it also offered normal password, encrypted password, Kerberos/GSSAPI and NTLM. I don't know what any of those may mean. Suggestions?

rsx11m
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Post Posted July 25th, 2014, 1:43 pm

Since the connection itself is encrypted, "normal password" should work. On clear lines, sometimes only the credentials for authentication are encrypted, which is the "encrypted password" option. Kerberos/GSSAPI and NTLM are usually employed in large organizations with central authentication using LDAP or Active Directory, thus I wouldn't think they apply here.

And yes, it's <p><number-0><number-4><dash>etc.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4864 now says just use imap.mail.me.com and smtp.mail.me.com (i.e., without the pnumbers-...) which looks like the same to me judging from the server responses (though the connections go to a different subnet, thus it may make a difference). The username should be the part of your e-mail address before the '@' only, thus not the full e-mail address.

Edit: Err, actually - it's the simple user name for the IMAP side but the full e-mail address as user name for the SMTP side; that may be the problem.

guillevelasco
 
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Post Posted February 6th, 2015, 4:04 pm

(Originally in Spanish, I'm sorry if the translation is not perfect. Thanks to Ian C.)
http://apple.stackexchange.com/question ... bird-email


Setting up a mail account iCloud does not support Thunderbird settings. This app uses a different folder map that used by iCloud, so you have to make some small changes.
First of all, if you have previously tried to install iCloud account with insactisfactorious results, it is recommended before deleting the account from Thunderbird, and delete any file on that account:
{user} / Library / Thunderbird / Profiles / xxxxxxxxxxx / ImapMail /
imap.mail.me.com (folder)
imap.mail.me.com.msf


Then:

1. Configure iCloud account in Thunderbird.

It's a little more complicated than it should. This is not Apple's fault. They work well with their own email program (Apple Mail), and they don't need to change their configuration for a third party program. Therefore it is something that should be corrected for future versions of Mozilla Thunderbird.

When you start to configure, you see:
– New email account > name, email and password Messages
... looking configuration: your mail provider
... based ISP ...
... trying usual data server names ...
... default Thunderbird "proposes " a configuration.


The default data show like this (WRONG):
Incoming: IMAP
Server Name: .icloud.com *
Port: Auto
SSL: Auto Detect
ID: Autodetect

Outgoing: SMTP
Server Name: .icloud.com *
Port: Auto
SSL: Auto Detect
ID: Autodetect

Username: Incoming: {username} (without @ icloud.com
Outgoing: {username} without @ icloud.com


NOTE: .icloud.com IS NOT VALID.
Must be:
Incoming: imap.mail.me.com (including imap.)
Port: 993
SSL: SSL / TLS
ID: Password Normal

SMTP: smtp.mail.me.com:587 (by putting the port (:587), the rest dissappear)
Identification : Password standard in both incoming and outgoing.

Names, let it without @icloud.com


You can press ACCEPT now.

2. Folders structure

Thunderbird automatically creates files in the aforementioned path where we erase all traces of the previous configuration with only 4 files:
Drafts.msf
INBOX.msf
Sent.msf
Templates.msf

On the website of iCloud: https://www.icloud.com/#mail deposite yourself an email either in each of the folders: Inbox, Drafts, Sent, Archived, Trash and Spam. For this to work, there must be at least one file in each folder, including drafts (Drafts), we can move any mail, and if it is "virgin" account, with no messages, create multiple drafts by yourself, save them and move to each of the other "basic" folders, which has its own icon in iCloud. Other way, Thunderbird does not show that folder because it thinks that folder does not exists or is not used.
Click OK in the Settings window, quit Thunderbird and reopen it. In doing so the program reads back the files from the server iCloud.
Thunderbird, by default with an account, create a folder structure. These do not match the iCloud.
Thunderbird / iCloud (ok):
Archives / Archive
Drafts / Drafts
INBOX / Mailbox
Junk / Junk
Sent / Sent Messages
Templates / -not any
Trash / Deleted Messages

If we not previously changed the IMAP root folder from Thunderbird, maybe other folders that were previously created may be displayed is them were not entirely eliminate, either by caching or for any other reason.
The problem is that if we select Thunderbird he select folders "default", he goes CREATE its own folders, with the Thunderbird-style names, not with those who iCloud recognized as good. This means that, for example, display a "Thrash" folder in the iCloud web, and a "Deleted Messages" in Thunderbird (as the other types any other relevant). Since we can not CREATE the correct folders because if you try to do that, iCloud tells us that ALREADY THERE, let them inside ANOTHER FOLDER:
For example, create a folder that call "hello" (or any other). Within create the following folders: Archive Drafts Sent Messages Deleted Messages
In Thunderbird, do this: click Settings > Server Settings > Advanced ... For the "iCloud" IMAP server directory features: hola
Un-check "Show only subscribed folders".
(Remember to quit Thunderbird each time you make any change to be shown, them are not instantly displayed)
We can see, while we are changing emails from the web in iCloud, as they appear different messages in each folder, to see how it behaves.
Already changed ROOT IMAP and created the folders with the correct names, proceed to link them:
1) In Server Configuration > Server Settings > When you delete a message: Move it to this folder: Deleted Messages in iCloud.
2) In Conf. > Copies & Folders, we must make one by one by selecting the folders with the correct names: – When sending messages, automatically: Add copy: Other: Sent Messages in iCloud – Archives, Save message files: Other: Archive – Drafts and templates: – Drafts (this being the only one that match between TB and iCloud, so use the default). – Templates, there's not that folder in iCloud, then create one for that function, both in iCloud root folder, and inside the folder "hello" that we have provisionally created, named Templates.
3) In Spam > Destination and retention > Move messages to spam: Folder "spam" in: iCloud. Here both the same name: Junk, so no problem.
Click OK. Exit and reenter Thunderbird. If you have not left loose folders assigned to something, you delete or change to a site outside of "hello". We'll see then where to place them.
When we back to Configuration, we will see only this folders: – Inbox (Because it is the "root" this "folder" is not shown in iCloud) – Drafts – Templates – Sent Messages – Archive – Deleted Messages
Well, if there's everything "clean" now, we can back to change the IMAP ROOT to the iCloud root folder. So we go to Conf. > Config. server > Advanced ... and remove the word "hello" from where we had set. OK. OK. GET OUT. Back into Thunderbird.
Folders previously created by us now are into a folder named "hello", within which are all those listed.
It could be that appeared a new folder called Notes. This is because if we turned off the option to synchronize notes in iCloud (both PC and mobile), iCloud makes notes in a folder visible in the email account, but not from Apple Mail or from the website of iCloud. Forget it.
Now you might have correctly configured each folder between iCloud and Thunderbird.

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