new computer.. q re transferring TB profiles.. (Mac)

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maya90
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Joined: May 4th, 2009, 11:42 am

Re: new computer.. q re transferring TB profiles.. (Mac)

Post by maya90 »

I tried what's under "Case 1" here..
https://www.softaken.com/blog/fix-issue ... new-emails

but it didn't work..


(also can't send emails.. it's like it's not connecting to the server(s) at all...)
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tanstaafl
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Re: new computer.. q re transferring TB profiles.. (Mac)

Post by tanstaafl »

I've never run into "set as default" being disabled unless the default account was selected. Perhaps you didn't actually select another account even though you thought you were.

How did you import the other account into your new/main profile? Did you use the new tools -> import wizard?
maya90
Posts: 225
Joined: May 4th, 2009, 11:42 am

Re: new computer.. q re transferring TB profiles.. (Mac)

Post by maya90 »

hi tanstaafl.. thank you for your response...

I did it exactly the way you suggested.. copied THE CONTENTS of the profile directory into the profil)e dir in new computer.. and overwrote what was there..
(after making a copy of all the files in there in case I need to reset this whole thing.. oh man...

too bad I can't post images here.. when attempting to send an email I get an error alert with a long code.....
I wanted to post a screenshot..
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tanstaafl
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Re: new computer.. q re transferring TB profiles.. (Mac)

Post by tanstaafl »

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Posting_a_scr ... _the_forum needs updating but is still valid.

You could upload a image to https://imgur.com/upload for example and then copy&paste a link as needed. That web site doesn't like .png files but works fine with .jpg files.
maya90
Posts: 225
Joined: May 4th, 2009, 11:42 am

Re: new computer.. q re transferring TB profiles.. (Mac)

Post by maya90 »

oh wow... great...

this is error alert I get when attempt to send an email with TB..
https://imgur.com/a/bNvZhmV

thank you..

PS: when try to dl email I get no errors.. it just gets stuck forever on "host contacted, sending login info"..... (at one point it asks for password, but it doesn't save it...)
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tanstaafl
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Re: new computer.. q re transferring TB profiles.. (Mac)

Post by tanstaafl »

That's an unusual error message. Can you post a link to the instructions from your email provider?

It sounds like you're supposed to use StartTLS for connection security, not SSL/TLS. That also effects what ports you use as StartLS is used to upgrade a insecure connection to a secure connection. i.e. you might configure the POP server to use port 110 and the SMTP server to use port 587 if both use StartTLS rather than SSL/TLS. What makes it more complicated is that some email providers use SSL/TLS for the POP/IMAP server but StartTLS for the SMTP server.

https://sendgrid.com/blog/what-is-starttls/
maya90
Posts: 225
Joined: May 4th, 2009, 11:42 am

Re: new computer.. q re transferring TB profiles.. (Mac)

Post by maya90 »

"instructions from my email provider"?

my "email provider" is gmail... ;-)

I don't quite get this question..
maya90
Posts: 225
Joined: May 4th, 2009, 11:42 am

Re: new computer.. q re transferring TB profiles.. (Mac)

Post by maya90 »

now am trying to create an email account (one I did not have set up in old TB...
want to see if can dl/send email from an account with no "history" in my old TB...
which was working very poorly towards the end.. I had not been able to dl/send email with the old TB since last June 6, 2022.. I wanted to see if with this other, new account I'd be able to dl/send email...)

but it says it can't create account because incoming server I set up for the account (pop.googlemail.com) "already exists"... WHAT??? now you can't set the same pop3 server for more than one account? very weird, since I have two email accounts already set up with that gmail pop3 server...

what is this about?

thank you again for your help..... getting increasingly frustrated here... .-(
maya90
Posts: 225
Joined: May 4th, 2009, 11:42 am

Re: new computer.. q re transferring TB profiles.. (Mac)

Post by maya90 »

I just tried creating a yahoo email account...

it took TB for ever to check the password, then it said:

"Unable to log in at server. Probably wrong configuration, username or password."

I don't get this.. I know how to do this very well.. I've been creating and configuring email accounts with email clients for close to 20 years now (I'm also a retired web developer..)

WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON HERE.......

nothing seems to be working....
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tanstaafl
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Re: new computer.. q re transferring TB profiles.. (Mac)

Post by tanstaafl »

My gmail IMAP account uses SSL/TLS and OAuth2 on imap.gmail.com. Biggest potential problem is with the OAuth2 wizard as it dislikes other software running at the same time that also uses loopback/127.0.0.1 connections, but for most people its a non-issue if they enable cookies . The OAuth2 popup setup window is part of Thunderbird, NOT Firefox, despite it looking like its part of Firefox.

My yahoo IMAP account uses SSL/TLS and OAuth2 on imap.mail.yahoo.com.

"now you can't set the same pop3 server for more than one account?"

You need a unique combination of the server name, account type (POP/IMAP) and username for each account. That means you can have both a POP and IMAP account for the same email address/provider but might run into problems if you try to setup secondary POP accounts for the same email provider - its expects them to be 100% independent.

OAuth2 setup is a pain. I am glad that my gmx, comcast and outlook accounts don't use OAuth2,
maya90
Posts: 225
Joined: May 4th, 2009, 11:42 am

Re: new computer.. q re transferring TB profiles.. (Mac)

Post by maya90 »

well, I DO ALREADY have TWO email accounts set up with the same pop3 server (pop.googlemail.com)
so this means you can only have two gmail email accounts in TB? this makes no sense..
and yes I have all accounts set to SSL/TLS..

I use POP3, not IMAP.. have never used IMAP..

what is difference between IMAP and POP3? different protocols or something?
does email functionality change from one to the other?

but again, I don't see why POP3 wouldn't work...


bottom line here is is thing is just not connecting to any server... I have yet to get this new TB to connect to either POP3 or SMTP server...
(it's also not remembering passwords...)

oh brother... I'm running out of options here..... if I don't get any more answers or suggestions for solutions here I think I will start over....
(now if I uninstall TB I can also remove "Thunderbird" dir from <USER>/Library/, yes?
I assume that dir is created with TB is being installed..)

then I will create an email account, see if I can get TB to download email.. as I said, since I installed TB I have NEVER gotten it to connect to any server...


thank you again, tanstaafl....
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tanstaafl
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Re: new computer.. q re transferring TB profiles.. (Mac)

Post by tanstaafl »

"I DO ALREADY have TWO email accounts set up with the same pop3 server (pop.googlemail.com)
so this means you can only have two gmail email accounts in TB? "


No. You just need to have a unique combination of the server name, account type (POP/IMAP) and username for each account. You could have a thousand Gmail accounts as long as each had a different username.

"what is difference between IMAP and POP3? different protocols or something?
does email functionality change from one to the other?
"

Quite different protocols. POP is very download-centric, it only knows how to download/delete/list messages from the inbox folder on the mail server, the rest of the folders are local and don't involve POP. Its very vulnerable to problems downloading as unlike IMAP you can't just switch to another message if there is a problem. IMAP is a more modern protocol that uses remote storage on the mail server for the folders and has many more features than POP. If there is a problem fetching a message with IMAP you can decide to stop attempting to fetch that message and fetch a different one. This makes it more tolerant of problems with messages than POP. It has a client server view of the world, while POP has a downland centric view of the world.

In general you are better off using IMAP.

"(now if I uninstall TB I can also remove "Thunderbird" dir from <USER>/Library/, yes?
I assume that dir is created with TB is being installed..)
"

Your profile (directory that stores your settings, address books, add-ons and any downloaded messages) will still exist, and be automatically reused if you uninstall and re-install.
maya90
Posts: 225
Joined: May 4th, 2009, 11:42 am

Re: new computer.. q re transferring TB profiles.. (Mac)

Post by maya90 »

well the profiles, address book and stuff are inside Thunderbid dir in <USER>/Library/
so if I remove that dir profiles and such should get removed, yes?

"You just need to have a unique combination of the server name, account type (POP/IMAP) and username for each account. You could have a thousand Gmail accounts as long as each had a different username."

the error I got was that the server already exists... (and yes of course there's no repetition of usernames and such.. these are the same accts all with same info/creds as I had in old TB...)

thank you again for all your help..

I think I need to start over... need to find out if there's something corrupted in old profile that is causing this....
mainly, that **I have yet to get my newly-installed TB to connect to either POP3 or SMTP servers.....****

(why can't I italicize or bold text here?)
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tanstaafl
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Re: new computer.. q re transferring TB profiles.. (Mac)

Post by tanstaafl »

Don't just delete the profile, you also need to remove the corresponding entry (for the profile) in profiles.ini.
maya90
Posts: 225
Joined: May 4th, 2009, 11:42 am

Re: new computer.. q re transferring TB profiles.. (Mac)

Post by maya90 »

but if I remove Thunderbird dir from <user>Library/
won't profiles.ini get removed?

<user>/Library/Thunderbird/profiles.ini

I assume profiles.ini is created during/upon installment of TB....

thank you....
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