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An error occurred with the POP3 mail server. Mail server pop.centurytel.net responded

  • 13 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 29 views
  • Last reply by Matt

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This old server message keeps popping up when starting Thunderbird. I no longer use centurytel and I keep deleting the folder in Troubleshooting information, show folder, mail folder, pop.centurytel.net but it keeps coming back.

This old server message keeps popping up when starting Thunderbird. I no longer use centurytel and I keep deleting the folder in Troubleshooting information, show folder, mail folder, pop.centurytel.net but it keeps coming back.

All Replies (13)

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Delete the account if you no longer need it.

First, move messages you want to keep to another account, or to the Local Folders account.

Right-click the account, select Settings. In the settings window that appears, click on Account Actions and select Remove Account.

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Strange but it doesn't show up in accounts. Already tried that.

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DEpends upon how you deleted it in the first place.

What Zenos told you is the correct method for removing an account.

This will remove it from the list and folder pane. Thunderbird will no longer look for it because it will also be removed from all the preference settings.

However, it should leave the mail account name in your Profie folder name. This is just in case you removed the account by accident and needed to get it back, A kind of fail safe.

So, think back - when you first removed that account - Did you do as Zenos said or did you delete the folder in Troubleshooting information, show folder, mail folder, pop.centurytel.net ?

because it sounds like you did the second option and deleted the folder, in which case I think you may have a load of settings still in place in the Prefs.js file.

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Due to a computer problem I deleted Thunderbird and when I reinstalled pop.centurytel.net just popped up. It never was in any of the account settings so I could remove it from there. The only place it shows up is a folder in Troubleshooting information, show folder, mail folder and pops up when I open Thunderbird. So far unable to locate Prefs.js file. Appreciate all the help.

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Help > Troubleshooting Information click on Show Folder button

Close Thunderbird now - this important.

The 'prefs' file should be in that window, See image below.

Make a copy of the file as a temp backup and store on desktop.

you can then open the prefs Jscipt file in your Profile folder using Notepad.

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Thanks, lot of references to centurytel in there so I deleted them but it still comes back on startup. Didn't delete anything else since I'm not to sure what I'm doing!!! Another funny thing I have deleted Thunderbird twice using Revo uninstaller which also deletes registry and both times I reinstalled everything came back as it was originally?????

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What do you use at the moment? Do you use IMAP or POP mail accounts? Do you have any emails stored in Local Folders?

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I'm using IMAP. charter and I have Local Folders at the bottom of the menu with an Inbox, Trash and Outbox but they have nothing in them.

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So you could easily reconnect to IMAP.

Close Thunderbird. - this is important.

If you have a Windows OS Do this:

In Control Panel > Programs and Features Select Mozilla Thunderbird and click on 'uninstall'

When done look for these locations:

C:\Users\Windows user name\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\Profile name\ Delete all 'profile name' sit will have xxxxxxxx.default where x's are letters and numbers.

C:\Users\Windows user name\AppData\Local\Thunderbird\Profiles\Profile name Delete all 'profile name' sit will have xxxxxxxx.default where x's are letters and numbers.

Then reinstall Thunderbird from here; https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/all.html

when you first run it will create new profile and ask you to create the mail account.

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New fresh start. Thanks so much for your help!!

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I'm going to bring up another problem since updating to 31.5, sometimes it doesn't download new mail unless I close and reopen.

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I'll add another problem with 31.5, when you delete a message it pops right back in the inbox until it's closed and reopened!!

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Tools menu > account settings > server settings and ensure expunge is turned on.