uhable to create IMAP account

[bobh123us]

I keep attempting to create an IMAP account. As directed by my ISP, I deleted the former POP account first. After filling in the appropriate information in the setup window to create the IMAP account, including port and security, and re-testing, I click "done." I get a message saying "checking password" that continues for 5-10 minutes. It eventually reports that "configuration could not be verified - is the username or password wrong?" The email address is correct. The username is correct. I've reentered the password several times (including confirming that caps lock is off -- but the password is masked so it is inherently impossible to confirm that the password was typed correctly), and get the same result. Going to the ISP using webmail and using that password is successful.

Using Windows 7 Pro, Thunderbird is 31.3.0 and is up to date

Thanks for advice.

As you can imagine, this is pretty frustrating.

[DanRaisch]

Who is the email provider?
What settings do you see using menu path Tools->Account Settings->Server Settings for server name, port number, connection security, and authentication method?

[bobh123us]

The email provider is GCI -- http://www.gci.com
Settings are as follows:
incoming IMAP, mail.gci.net, 143, starttls, normal password
outgoing SMTP, smtp.gci.net, 25, starttls, normal password
username (REMOVED by Moderator)

These are the settings specified by GCI, and are the same as when I used GCI POP except that account was POP, rather than IMAP, and that account was port 110, rather than 143.

I can provide a screen shot if that would be helpful.

[DanRaisch]

Have you tried changing the value for username to your full GCI email address?

[bobh123us]

I specifically asked GCI tech support if the username includes the full GCI email address, and they said it was only the portion before the @.

I just tried creating the IMAP account using the full email address as the username. Same result as previously reported. I noticed at the bottom of the Thunderbird window it says "Mail for pegf123us@ak.net@mail.gci.net: connected to mail.gci.net..." Apparently it adds together the user name with the server name. Not surprisingly, that wasn't effective.

[bobh123us]

I specifically asked GCI tech support if the username includes the full GCI email address, and they said it was only the portion before the @.

I just tried creating the IMAP account using the full email address as the username. Same result as previously reported. I noticed at the bottom of the Thunderbird window it says "Mail for pegf123us@ak.net@mail.gci.net: connected to mail.gci.net..." Apparently it adds together the user name with the server name. Not surprisingly, that wasn't effective.

[tanstaafl]

Don't read too much into that. A Gmail IMAP account (among others) does the same thing, but it doesn't actually use the string it displays. Its an artifact of how the namespace is defined, as far as I can tell. You used to have a working POP account. I'd assume you could use the same username for the IMAP account that you used in the POP account.

Thunderbird has no problem with you having both a POP and IMAP account for the same mailbox as each account is still a unique combination of the account type (POP/IMAP), username, and mail server. However, your email provider might not support accessing both accounts at the same time. Sometimes webmail provides a user interface to let you selectively enable/disable POP and/or IMAP support. That would keep the mail server happy, without your having to delete the POP account.

I suggest you add the POP account again, and verify it works. Then experiment with adding the IMAP account again (if necessary, deleting the POP account again).

[bobh123us]

I've given up trying to make it work as it is supposed to. My solution is to set the GCI account to forward everything to the IMAP account. It's a workaround, not a fix.