How to send and receive hotmail from thunderbird

Posted on December 15, 2020 by Madalina Dinita Leave a Comment

Mozilla Thunderbird is an email service that boasts excellent privacy features, multi-account support, reliable spam filters, and many customization options.

But even a reliable email service such as Thunderbird may stop working from time to time. In this guide, we’ll show you what you can do if Thunderbird fails to send or receive emails.

Cannot Send or Receive Emails on Thunderbird

Check Your SMTP Server Settings

Use this method if you can’t send emails.

The SMTP server (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) plays the role of the mailman in the email world. In other words, the emails you send are first collected by the SMTP server. The server then distributes them to the recipients.

Not using the correct SMTP settings may prevent you from sending emails using Thunderbird. That’s why you need to make sure you’re using the correct SMTP server settings.

Ensure you’re not trying to send emails from Thunderbird using the SMTP server of another email service.

1. Launch Thunderbird and click on the menu.
2. Then go to Account Settings.
3. Select your account name.
4. Click on Outgoing Server.
5. Check the SMTP server settings for your email address.

If you don’t know what SMTP settings to use, check Thunderbird’s support pages:

• Thunderbird and Gmail
• Thunderbird and Yahoo
• If you’re using a different email service, go to your mail provider’s website and search for the SMTP mail settings to use.

Check Your IMAP Server Settings

Use this method if you can’t send emails.

1. Click on the three-lines to open the menu.
2. Then navigate to Options.
3. Select Server settings and make sure you’re using the correct IMAP Server settings.

For more information on the IMAP settings to use, go to the official webpage of your email account provider.

Whitelist Thunderbird or Disable Your Antivirus/Firewall

Your antivirus or firewall might be preventing Thunderbird from delivering your messages. Or they could be blocking the emails coming to your inbox.

To test if your antivirus or firewall is blocking outgoing emails, simply disable the tools. If you can send and receive emails with the antivirus and firewall off, whitelist Thunderbird.

If you’re using Windows Security:

1. Navigate to Settings → Update & Security → Windows Security.
2. Then click on Virus & threat protection → Manage settings.
3. Select Add or remove exclusions → Add an exclusion, and select Thunderbird.

If you’re using Windows Firewall:

1. Type ‘firewall‘ in the Windows search box.
2. Then click on Allow an app through firewall.
3. Click on the Change settings button.
4. Hit the Allow another app button and add Thunderbird to the list.

The steps to follow are different depending on the antivirus/firewall you’re using. For detailed instructions, go to your antivirus/firewall official support page.

If this problem occurred shortly after you updated Thunderbird, whitelisting the email tool should fix it. Your antivirus/firewall may not trust the new Thunderbird version.

That’s why you need to get your security programs to recognize and trust the updated Thunderbird version.

Disable SSL filtering in ESET

If you’re using a security tool from ESET, try turning off SSL filtering. Use this method if you can’t receive emails on Thunderbird.

1. Launch your ESET program and press F5.
2. This will open the Advanced setup.
3. Click on Web and email (or type ‘tls‘ in the search bar).
4. Then expand SSL/TLS.
5. Use the slider to disable SSL/TLS protocol filtering.
6. Save the changes and restart your computer.

Rollback Thunderbird

Thunderbird 78 and higher require enhanced TLS security standards. The problem is that you won’t be able to send or receive emails if your provider does not support the latest TLS network encryption protocols.

As a workaround, you can rollback Thunderbird. You can find the list of previous Thunderbird versions on Mozilla’s support page.

Contact Your ISP

Some Internet Service Providers tend to block outgoing emails on certain ports (port 25). Switch to another port or contact your ISP for further help if you still can’t send emails.

If you have problems receiving emails, check if everything is up and running on your ISP’s end. Contact your ISP and check if they set up a spam filter. Such a filter could block or even delete the emails addressed to you preventing them from landing in your inbox.

Users very often find difficulty in importing their Hotmail email account into Mozilla Thunderbird. The reason being the typical complex Hotmail layout and the lengthy configuration procedure. In this write up we are going to suggest two best ways on how to add Hotmail account to Thunderbird step by step, both manually and automatically.

So I’ve been trying to get my hotmail account setup in Mozilla Thunderbird but I’m failing to get it to work. While hotmail IMAP is working fine in Windows Live Mail for me, how can I get it to work in Mozilla Thunderbird?

We have 2 techniques to import and add Hotmail account to Thunderbird, First, the manual configuration method, which is way lengthier and complex and secondly direct approach Hotmail Backup Software that is comparatively safe and quick.

Method 1. Automated Method to Add Hotmail into Thunderbird

This automated approach is a hassle -free and quick solution to migrate all your Hotmail mailbox data items into Thunderbird in just one shot. The Software is built with advanced algorithms to import bulk Hotmail account data into PST, PDF, MBOX, MSG, and EML file formats. Once the emails get into the MBOX file with the tool, it can be easily imported into Thunderbird mailbox.

Steps to Add and Import Hotmail Account to Thunderbird File

Step-1: Download and Run tool and log in with the Hotmail account.

Step-2: Select Thunderbird file format i.e., MBOX.

Step-3: Browse a location to save Hotmail emails.

Step-4: Click on Start button to import Hotmail emails to Thunderbird file.

Method 2. Manually Configure Hotmail to Thunderbird

In the manual configuration, there are 3 basic tasks that you have to perform, which are listed below:

1. Add Hotmail to Thunderbird & Configure the Servers
2. Configuring the Incoming Servers (IMAP & POP)
3. Configuring the Outgoing Servers

#1. Import Hotmail into Thunderbird & Configure the Servers

1. Open Thunderbird and navigate to the top right corner >> click on Options >> click Account Settings

1. Go the left side and find Account Actions >> click on Add Account

1. Now enter the Hotmail account details and click on Continue to add Hotmail to Thunderbird.

1. Thunderbird will auto configure the rest settings. Click on Done. Your Hotmail account has been added to Thunderbird application.

#2. Configure the Incoming Servers (IMAP and POP)

i. IMAP Configuration

• Server Name: outlook.office365.com
• Port No: 993
• User Name: Enter your username (here my user-name is [email protected])
• Connection security: SSL/TLS
• Authentication method: Normal password
• You can configure the other settings as you require.

ii. POP Configuration

• Server Name: outlook.office365.com
• Port: 995
• User Name: your username (here my username is [email protected]com)
• Connection security: SSL/TLS
• Authentication method: Normal password

You can add Hotmail to Thunderbird with the above configuration settings as you require.

Important Tip: While using POP, you might receive a password error in Mozilla Thunderbird account. In that case you will have to enable POP setting in your Hotmail account. For that, go to Options setting in your Hotmail account.

#3. Configure the Outgoing Servers

On the bottom left, choose Outgoing Server (SMTP). You will see the configured outgoing servers on the right panel.

Find the Hotmail server name (Outlook.com) and click on it. Then click the Edit button and configure the settings as followed below to add Hotmail account to Thunderbird:

• Server Name: smtp-mail.outlook.com
• Port: 587
• Connection security: STARTTLS
• Authentication method: Normal password
• User Name: your username ( here my username is harshitajoshi199 @ hotmail .com )

Tip: To perform the Outlook.com data migration on the domain level, you can use Office 365 Backup and Restore Utility . It can add the single-user as well as domain user data to PST and EML file formats and then further you can import EML files to Thunderbird Email account.

Bottom Line

We can use any of the above solutions to import Hotmail into Thunderbird. If the data is not large the manual configuration can be used by users, and if there is huge data, the tool is recommended in order to avoid data loss and perform the migration safely.

Ques: How to use the tool to add and import Hotmail Account to Thunderbird?
Ans: Get the tool and run it on your computer, then follow the steps mentioned below:

Step-1: Open the tool and log in to your account.
Step-2: Select MBOX file format.
Step-3: Now, browse the preferred location.
Step-4: Click Start to import and add Hotmail account to Thunderbird.

About The Author

Chirag Arora

Having around 9+ years of experience in technical writing. Knows about the core technical areas. Also, provides easy and reliable solutions to resolve difficulties faced by users while working with different platforms.

This problem started a couple of weeks before Hotmail failed for thousands of people. I had not changed any settings in either Thunderbird or Hotmail and a subsequent re-install of a newer version of Linux Mint did not alleviate the problem. Outlook Support provided me with server settings which are both correct and unchanged. They said it was a problem with Thunderbird. HELP!

The error message reads:

Sending of the message failed. An error occurred while sending mail: Outgoing server (SMTP) smtp-mail.outlook.com is unknown. The server may be incorrectly configured. Please verify that your Outgoing server (SMTP) settings are correct and try again.

SERVER SETTINGS: MAP server name imap-mail.outlook.com IMAP port 993 IMAP encryption method TLS

POP server name pop-mail.outlook.com POP port 995 POP encryption method TLS

SMTP server name smtp-mail.outlook.com SMTP port 587 SMTP encryption method STARTTLS

Chosen solution

Try these settings: outgoing server name: smtp.office365.com on port: 587, security: STARTTLS, authentication: normal password, User name: full email address.

All Replies (12)

Chosen Solution

Try these settings: outgoing server name: smtp.office365.com on port: 587, security: STARTTLS, authentication: normal password, User name: full email address.

Thankyou! This solved the problem though I still don’t understand why my original smtp address doesn’t work (and suddenly stopped working). Does anyone else have the same problem?

Modified October 19, 2017 at 5:43:17 AM PDT by flyingspaghettimonster

sorry it didnt work . it is doing it on a hotmail account and its random . sometimes it will and the next it wont and its happing on more than 1 email

could it have something to do with using it alot as the last while we have been sending and receving more emails then usual

also it looks like its sending out 2 emails for 1 reply

I’ve also noticed that (when I’m “live” – not using Thunderbird) Hotmail is slow to render and “overlays” folders sometimes when I move mailboxes. I’m not a conspiracy theorist but I remember vaguely when broken links were (deliberately) put out by Internaff Exploiter or something else Windows.Could this be another attempt to make me go all cloudy, upgrade to “Premium” and follow The One True Path? Mind you, I also remember Lynx (a TEXT-based browser), downloading Linux onto 3.5″floppies via narrowband, 8mg hdds and children playing outside so maybe technology’s just leaving me behind? I also downloaded and ran CLAMAV but no problems. I’m running Mint 18.2 “Sonya” and whatever version of Thunderbird comes with it and update at least daily and this workaround was perfect. Could it be software you’re using? I still lean towards Microsoft fault.

sorry it didnt work . it is doing it on a hotmail account and its random . sometimes it will and the next it wont and its happing on more than 1 email could it have something to do with using it alot as the last while we have been sending and receving more emails then usual also it looks like its sending out 2 emails for 1 reply

Check that you don’t have a security program scanning outgoing mail, as these can often interfere, especially with secure connections. Most mail providers have limits on the number of messages sent or received per hour, day etc., but it’s usually a matter of it being in the hundreds.

Hotmail/outlook automatically copies sent messages to the Sent folder, so you should uncheck ‘Place a copy in. ‘ under Copies & Folders in Account Settings.

sorry it didnt work . it is doing it on a hotmail account and its random . sometimes it will and the next it wont and its happing on more than 1 email could it have something to do with using it alot as the last while we have been sending and receving more emails then usual also it looks like its sending out 2 emails for 1 reply

Thunderbird can be used as a client for all of Microsoft’s email services (Hotmail, Outlook.com and Windows Live Mail, henceforth referred to as “Hotmail”). Thunderbird will download messages from the Hotmail server and store them on your local system. Similarly, Thunderbird can be used to compose messages which are sent through Hotmail’s mail servers. You can still use Hotmail’s web-based application – Thunderbird will query the server and synchronize messages.

Configuring servers

Hotmail accounts can be configured in Thunderbird’s Automatic Account Configuration. This article provides instructions on how to manually configure an account or modify an existing account.

To manually configure or modify Hotmail account settings:

1. At the top of the Thunderbird window, click on the On the menu bar, click on the Thunderbird menu, choose Edit Tools menu and select Account Settings… . The Account Settings dialog window will be displayed.
2. Select your Hotmail account from the list on the left. Make sure your name and account are correctly specified in the Default Identity section.

Configuring IMAP and POP accounts

IMAP mail account settings

• Server Name: imap-mail.outlook.com
• Port: 993
• User Name: your username (for example [email protected])
• Connection security: SSL/TLS
• Authentication method: Normal password
• Configure the rest of the server settings according to your preferences.

POP mail account settings

• Server Name: pop-mail.outlook.com
• Port: 995
• User Name: your username (for example [email protected])
• Connection security: SSL/TLS
• Authentication method: Normal password
• Configure the rest of the server settings according to your preferences.

Configuring the outgoing server

1. At the bottom of the list on the left, select Outgoing Server (SMTP) . Configured outgoing servers will be displayed in the right panel. The Hotmail server will probably be called Microsoft Live Hotmail or something similar.