I am on holiday in Spain (from the UK) and I can not download any messages on my Thunderbird (Windows 10, TB 60.40). It was working fine in the UK but since switching on in Spain (and accessing the Internet as normal) it hangs with the message "Checking mail server capabilities". It has done this since I logged in in Spain.
Grateful for any ideas to rectify this.
TB hangs on "checking mail server capabilities"
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dgo47
- Posts: 84
- Joined: February 27th, 2008, 1:48 am
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tanstaafl
- Moderator
- Posts: 49647
- Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm
Re: TB hangs on "checking mail server capabilities"
POP or IMAP accounts?
Did you upgrade Thunderbird while in Spain? If you did check to make sure that your antivirus/firewall program is not blocking Thunderbird. Some need to be updated to tell them you're using a newer version of the application.
See if using safe mode (help -> restart with add-ons disabled) works around the problem.
I assume you are using a different ISP when on holiday. Perhaps they're blocking certain ports that your UK ISP didn't.
If none of this helps try signing up for Gmail and adding a Gmail IMAP account to Thunderbird. If that works then you know your problem was account specific. You could configure Gmail webmail to automatically fetch email from your UK email provider and merge it into the Gmail inbox as a temporary workaround.
Did you upgrade Thunderbird while in Spain? If you did check to make sure that your antivirus/firewall program is not blocking Thunderbird. Some need to be updated to tell them you're using a newer version of the application.
See if using safe mode (help -> restart with add-ons disabled) works around the problem.
I assume you are using a different ISP when on holiday. Perhaps they're blocking certain ports that your UK ISP didn't.
If none of this helps try signing up for Gmail and adding a Gmail IMAP account to Thunderbird. If that works then you know your problem was account specific. You could configure Gmail webmail to automatically fetch email from your UK email provider and merge it into the Gmail inbox as a temporary workaround.
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dgo47
- Posts: 84
- Joined: February 27th, 2008, 1:48 am
Re: TB hangs on "checking mail server capabilities"
Tanstaafl,
Answers are below:
POP or IMAP accounts?
I only use IMAP accounts
Did you upgrade Thunderbird while in Spain? If you did check to make sure that your antivirus/firewall program is not blocking Thunderbird. Some need to be updated to tell them you're using a newer version of the application.
No. I have not upgraded Thunderbird.
See if using safe mode (help -> restart with add-ons disabled) works around the problem.
Using the safe mode makes no difference
I assume you are using a different ISP when on holiday. Perhaps they're blocking certain ports that your UK ISP didn't.
This is probable. Can you suggest what other ports I should use apart from 993?
If none of this helps try signing up for Gmail and adding a Gmail IMAP account to Thunderbird. If that works then you know your problem was account specific. You could configure Gmail webmail to automatically fetch email from your UK email provider and merge it into the Gmail inbox as a temporary workaround.
Gmail works and so the problem is account specific - any advice would be welcome apart from using Gmail as the aggregator!
Many thanks.
Answers are below:
POP or IMAP accounts?
I only use IMAP accounts
Did you upgrade Thunderbird while in Spain? If you did check to make sure that your antivirus/firewall program is not blocking Thunderbird. Some need to be updated to tell them you're using a newer version of the application.
No. I have not upgraded Thunderbird.
See if using safe mode (help -> restart with add-ons disabled) works around the problem.
Using the safe mode makes no difference
I assume you are using a different ISP when on holiday. Perhaps they're blocking certain ports that your UK ISP didn't.
This is probable. Can you suggest what other ports I should use apart from 993?
If none of this helps try signing up for Gmail and adding a Gmail IMAP account to Thunderbird. If that works then you know your problem was account specific. You could configure Gmail webmail to automatically fetch email from your UK email provider and merge it into the Gmail inbox as a temporary workaround.
Gmail works and so the problem is account specific - any advice would be welcome apart from using Gmail as the aggregator!
Many thanks.
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tanstaafl
- Moderator
- Posts: 49647
- Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm
Re: TB hangs on "checking mail server capabilities"
"This is probable. Can you suggest what other ports I should use apart from 993?"
It depends upon your email provider. However, port 993 is the standard port for making a secure connection to a IMAP server. Its the ports for insecure connections that are sometimes blocked by a ISP.
Try using https://www.htbridge.com/ssl/ to test the webmail web page for your email provider. Frequently that winds up testing the mail server too. The SSL test will try to discover what ports are supported , what ciphers are supported, what versions of TLS it supports etc. No guarantee that information will help you, but it might give you some ideas.
It depends upon your email provider. However, port 993 is the standard port for making a secure connection to a IMAP server. Its the ports for insecure connections that are sometimes blocked by a ISP.
Try using https://www.htbridge.com/ssl/ to test the webmail web page for your email provider. Frequently that winds up testing the mail server too. The SSL test will try to discover what ports are supported , what ciphers are supported, what versions of TLS it supports etc. No guarantee that information will help you, but it might give you some ideas.
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dgo47
- Posts: 84
- Joined: February 27th, 2008, 1:48 am
Re: TB hangs on "checking mail server capabilities"
Have now decided that I will use the gmail redirect facility. Thanks for your help.