Change Of eMail Address

[hawke1]

Hello,

At the end of May my existing orange fsnet.co.uk eMail address will no longer be able to be used.

I have created an account in Outlook.com and have a new eMail address to use.

I would appreciate some guidance on how to add outlook.com address into Thunderbird, if that's possible?
(Step by step idiot's guide would be ideal!!)

Obviously I don't want to lose any of my existing folders/eMails/address book etc.

If it's possible to do all this, should I then delete existing account?

Guidance please.

[Bitbeisser]

Simple you add a new account.
Tools->Account settings, then select "Add Account..." from the [Account Actions] dropdown box on the left hand side.

That will leave all you existing stuff in place, just disable the option to check for new message under "Server settings" for the old account once it is no longer accessible.

Ralf

[hawke1]

Ralf,

Many thanks for response.

Is it that simple?

Does Thunderbird sort everything automatically - i.e. server settings etc.etc.?

No need to create new folders and copy emails from existing folders to new etc.?

Once everything is up and running, do I delete the original Orange account?

Apologies for questions - just need to make sure.

[Bitbeisser]

Ralf,

Many thanks for response.

Is it that simple?[/qoute]Well, maybe...

Does Thunderbird sort everything automatically - i.e. server settings etc.etc.?

I don't use Outlook.com (I used to have a Hotmail account decades ago) but I think it is one of those providers for which Thunderbird will find the proper server settings...

No need to create new folders and copy emails from existing folders to new etc.?

Once everything is up and running, do I delete the original Orange account?

Well, that's the point where the "maybe" comes into play.

I have no idea what kind of account you had with that co.uk address. If it is a POP account, this would make it somewhat easier, as you would theoretically just have to drag those folders over from the old account.

However...

Depending on the amount of data and depending if the Outlook.com account will be set up as either IMAP or POP3, this will be more complicated.

If you have POP3, then all the data will be on your local PC and you can drag the folders from the old to the new account.
If you have an IMAP account with Outlook.com, doing so will force a sync with their server for each folder and email you move over. This is slow at best and in worst case, will cause problems specially with folders that do have a large amount of data.

Thunderbird will certainly not recreate any folders from the old account in the new account all by itself. Not sure how much you understand the implications and differences between IMAP and POP3.

It is hard for anyone else to know you work with your email, personally, I would leave the data in the old account in place and as is and create new folders in the new account as needed...

Ralf

[hawke1]

Ralf,

Thanks again.

Current Orange account is POP.

I went ahead and added new Outlook account to Thunderbird and Thunderbird automatically created an IMAP account.(Good or bad??)
If I try to set up pop account it says:
Configuration could not be verified - is the user name or password wrong? - (The answer to that is no)
How do I get over this?

Yet when I setup IMAP there is no problem with user name or password.

[DanRaisch]

With an Outlook account there is a setting on the web mail Options page that must be set to allow an email client (Thunderbird) to access the account using the POP protocol. Make sure that setting is selected by clicking on the Gear icon on the Outlook web mail page then using menu path Options->Mail->POP and IMAP->POP options->select "Yes".

[hawke1]

Dan,

Thanks for that.

As I only use PC for email (no other devices) which would be the better option POP OR IMAP? Or does it really not matter?

[DanRaisch]

There are upsides and downsides to both protocols and it can boil down to user preference and how the account will be accessed. When you say that you "only use PC" for your mail, does that mean just one computer, or multiple computers at different locations? If the former, POP is a reasonable solution for you. If the latter, IMAP would be better because you would have access to both incoming and outgoing messages on any computer you would use to access the account.

[hawke1]

Dan,

Just the one computer at home.

[DanRaisch]

In that case either POP or IMAP would be appropriate. POP has the "benefit" of keeping your messages on your local computer but that makes it more important to perform periodic backups to protect that data. IMAP stores message on the server but with some email providers there can be performance issues, particularly when sending messages. At the end of the day, though, with a single computer involved, there's no single factor recommending one choice over the other.
If you have a functioning IMAP account with Outlook now, stay with that and you can keep message data from the old Orange account either in the Local Folders structure of Thunderbird where it will not be associated with the Outlook account, or you copy messages from the folders of the Orange account to folders of the Outlook account to have all of your messages combined going forward.

[hawke1]

Dan/Ralf,
Thanks for all your efforts.

My simple mind is telling me to keep with POP as that was what I was running with before - without any problems I might add.

Unless you can convince me to go with IMAP.
I'll be guided by your expert advice.

[DanRaisch]

Nope. Stay with POP.

[hawke1]

Cheers Dan,

I'll do that.

When all is up and running and working I'll come back and let you know. (May be a couple of weeks before I change everything).
Is that OK?

[DanRaisch]

That's fine. We'll be here.

[Bitbeisser]

Dan/Ralf,
Thanks for all your efforts.

My simple mind is telling me to keep with POP as that was what I was running with before - without any problems I might add.

Unless you can convince me to go with IMAP.
I'll be guided by your expert advice.

Well, in the past (+5-7 years ago), I would have said use POP3, in fact it was the only option for a lot of providers.It used to be a matter of being provided with only a limited amount of mailbox space.

Nowadays, I personally would, contrary to Dan's suggestion, recommend to use IMAP, as most providers provide you now with GBs of space. There are definitely the upsides that you always have a "backup" of all your email even in case of a hard drive crash of your local PC (SSDs anyone? ) as you can just resync with the contents of the server, as well as being able to keep an email account consistent over several devices (a lot of people get their email on their phone/tablet as well as on their local computer).
One possible downside however is if you delete something on one device, by accident, it will propagate this deletion across all your devices, with no way to recover unless you have a local backup (which is a good idea anyway)...

Ralf