Thunderbird Settings and Configuration

Mozilla Thunderbird is a very easy client to configure, and we will use the very settings we have explained in Email Configuration. Here, however, we provide you with screenshots of all the configuration panels, along with their settings. If you have never used Thunderbird before, it is open-source, which means it doesn't cost anything, it is full-featured, has hundreds of add-ons, and is actively developed.

If you want to run Thunderbird from your flash drive, or you only need a temporary email-client for the sake of migration, we recommend Thunderbird Portable. Like Thunderbird, Thunderbird Portable is free, but it doesn't store any settings in the user profile folder on the local computer, and doesn't create any registry entries.

How To Configure Thunderbird for use with Google Mail

Now, before you can configure your Thunderbird to work with Google Mail, you first have to tell Google Mail to allow that. If you haven't already done so, please read this article: Configure Google Mail To Allow Other Clients.

Configuring Thunderbird for POP

To set up your POP account in Thunderbird:

  1. Go to Tools/Account Settings.
  2. Then select "Add Mail Account..." - the menu is inside a button called, "Account Actions" at the very bottom of the treeview menu on the left of the Account Settings panel (see screenshots).
  3. After you have created the account, just add the settings as they appear in the screenshots below.
Thunderbird Tools Menu Thunderbird Account Menu Thunderbird Add Account Thunderbird Add POPAccount Thunderbird POP Account Thunderbird POP Server Settings Thunderbird with POP

Configuring Thunderbird for IMAP

To set up your IMAP account in Thunderbird:

  1. Go to Tools/Account Settings.
  2. Then select "Add Mail Account..." - the menu is inside a button called, "Account Actions" at the very bottom of the treeview menu on the left of the Account Settings panel (see screenshots).
  3. After you have created the account, just add the settings as they appear in the screenshots below.
Thunderbird Tools Menu Thunderbird Account Menu Thunderbird Add Account Thunderbird Add IMAP Account Thunderbird IMAP Account Thunderbird IMAP Server Sttings Thunderbird with IMAP

Configuring Thunderbird for SMTP

For your outgoing mail, we will set our SMTP settings.

  1. Go to Tools/Account Settings and then to "Outgoing Server" in the treemenu to the left.
  2. In the main part of the Account Settings window, you will see a list of all your outgoing mail servers (you may only have one, like in the screenshot below).
  3. Select the one you want, and click "Edit..." - OR, if there are none, click "Add...".
  4. Then, another small window will appear for you to enter your SMTP info.
Thunderbird Tools Menu Thunderbird SMTP Settings Thunderbird SMTP Settings

How to use Thunderbird with Office365

Thunderbird works well enough with Office365; here you can see a chart of what it can and can't do.

Here are some extra steps you must take:

How to Properly Configure the o365 IMAP Folders

Office365 uses an unusual naming convention for it's IMAP folders which Thunderbird doesn't expect. This means that you have to manually subscribe the correct IMAP folders. Here you see the name Thunderbird expects and then the actual IMAP folder in o365:

  • Sent = Sent Items
  • Trash = Deleted Items
  • Junk = Junk Email
  • Archives = Archive

So what do you do about that? You unsubscribe what Thunderbird expects and subscribe the actual o365 folder. There are further directions and screenshots here and here, too.

Use o365 Calendars

You can load your Office365 Calendar into Thunderbird's Lightning Calendar. So, first you need to install Lightning in Thunderbird if you haven't already. Then you will need also install Ericsson's Exchange Calendar Addon.

Once you've installed the two addons,

  1. In Thunderbird, go to File > New > Calendar
  2. Select “On the Network”
  3. Then select “Microsoft Exchange 2007/2010/2013”
  4. Set calendar display settings and attach it to the configured Office365 email account
  5. Enter the following configuration:
    • Autodiscovery: Unchecked
    • Server URL: https://outlook.office365.com/EWS/Exchange.asmx
    • Primary Email: emailaddress.domain.com - your complete email address
    • Username: emailaddress.domain.com - your complete email address
    • Share Folder ID: Leave blank
  6. Press the "Check server and mailbox" button. It should populate "Folderbase: Calendar folder" and set the Path for you.
  7. Press Save

Configure Office365 Global Address Book

For Thunderbird, this will allow you to search the office365 global address book, but will not create a list of all the addresses.

  • Username: This will be your full email address
  • Password: Usually, your client normally won't ask for your password until it tries to connect. Remember that passwords are case-sensitive.
  • SMTP Server: smtp.office365.com
  • Port: 587
  • Connection Security: STARTTLS or TLS
  • Authentication Method: Normal Password - if you try to put "Encrypted Password" it won't work. Google already uses SSL, which means it is already encrypted.

Press the "Check server and mailbox" button. It should populate "Folderbase: Calendar folder" and set the Path for you. Press Save.

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