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Password manager has changed my settings. How do I fix this?

  • 26 respostas
  • 6 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by Matt

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Earthlink had an outage and my email was unusable in Thunderbird. Then all of my accounts required a password, although all but two are "remembered" for me. Then the prior settings worked, except for one account, which now requires the password to SEND (which is standard), but does NOT to receive (which is NOT the setting I want, as I want password required for both sending and receiving emails in this account). How do I correct this? Thanks.

Earthlink had an outage and my email was unusable in Thunderbird. Then all of my accounts required a password, although all but two are "remembered" for me. Then the prior settings worked, except for one account, which now requires the password to SEND (which is standard), but does NOT to receive (which is NOT the setting I want, as I want password required for both sending and receiving emails in this account). How do I correct this? Thanks.

Chosen solution

Safe mode disables anti virus as well as some other software, mostly things that load at system startup and a silent failure from then can cause other programs and in the case of Firefox tabs to crash.

One of the reasons I run an anti virus and not a security suite is that a firewall should block ports and external addresses, not internal programs which all the suites do.

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All Replies (20)

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the password will have been saved, so delete it. On the toolbar > Options > Security > passwords and click the saved password box.

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Thanks, but no. The password is NOT the problem. The problem is that the password manager has saved the password where I do NOT want it saved. I want a password required to open that email box. And for some reason I still need it to send, but not to receive.

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I have no idea what you are talking about.

You have complete control over what passwords are saved and what are not. Remove the ones you do not want saved, save the ones you do. If they are messed up, set the record straight and set it how you want it. I can do no more than lead you to where the passwords are stored, it is up to you to delete what you do not want saved.

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oh and sending connects to a different server (SMTP) and therefore has a separate entry in the password manager.

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Apparently, I haven't been clear enough. I have several accounts. Out of them, TWO require a password (different for each account) to both open and send email. The password manager has been corrupted so that one of them needs the password to send, but the password manager already loads the password to receive email. I cannot access the password manager to change this setting. How about if you "lead me" to accessing the password manager so that I can UNDO what I didn't want done in the first place? Thanks.

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Which bit of Matt's reply is giving you trouble?

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First you click on the toolbar on the picture that looks like this. On the toolbar

Then you select the options entry on the menu. Then you select the Security Tab. Then you click on the passwords sub tab Then you click on Saved Passwords button. Then you correct what you want to correct.

I hope that is clear enough for you as it appears the standard styles of explaining how to get somewhere apparently escape you. Please be aware. this is the first time I have had to explain this in such a way ion about 4 years.

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Oddly, I'm currently wearing a T-shirt that says "I'm only responsible for what I say -- not what you understand." But, since you still don't get it, and would apparently rather belittle me than try to get my point, I will try it yet again. (BTW, I followed your directions, the only option given was to REMOVE my passwords or SHOW them. These do NOT answer my challenge.) AGAIN: I like the password for this account. I do NOT want to change it. I DO WANT a password required to both access and send email in this account. (The system Password Manager has somehow decided to pre-input my password for opening mail, which I DO NOT WANT). Kindly explain how I can do that -- then I can stop "wasting" your precious brilliant time. Thanks so much. (And for whatever it's worth, I just sent Mozilla a donation. Perhaps you can help me with something in return.)

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Zenos: Apparently..."What we have here if failure to communicate". Matt keeps giving answers for a problem I do not have. Thanks.

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You said this: "I cannot access the password manager to change this setting." That does not make clear whether the problem is about access or about changing.

Remove the passwords then. It's only removing them from Thunderbird's private password store. It doesn't affect the email account or the servers that provide access to it. If a password is not in the store, Thunderbird has to ask you for it. There is a condition where you can't see the password but Thunderbird thinks it knows the password, and to fix that we would advise you about a file to delete. But I don't think we can be sure we have reached that point yet.

In current Thunderbird, a right-click or double-click on a stored password offers an option to edit a password in-situ, though I don't understand how this will be useful to you.

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Sorry, still not getting it.

How precisely do I CORRECT the Password Manager (with the existing password) so that it must have the password input each day when I open this email account? I still do when I send from this account, but not when I open incoming emails. (Until this glitch, the setting was the same for both). Somehow the input requirement was changed against my wishes, and I cannot find a way to undo what was done. THAT is what I need to do. How do I do THAT? Thanks.

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You remove the password. If Thunderbird doesn't know the password when it needs it to connect to an email server, either sending or fetching, it will ask you.

But Thunderbird's passwords don't protect the profile. If you are accustomed to being challenged for a password on "opening" an account, you have done something out of the ordinary.

Most users would enable the Master Password if they wanted a single password to "unlock" all the stored passwords. But you seem to want to fill in passwords as and when needed, so I don't think this is what you are looking for.

For the issue with a password being asked for sending, but not when fetching email, the standard solution is to remove any and all related passwords from the password store. I still can't make out if you have or have not tried this yet. You didn't answer the point I raised in my last posting.

You said this: "I cannot access the password manager to change this setting." That does not make clear whether the problem is about access or about changing.

Anyhow, there are no settings whatsoever in the password manager to influence whether or not it asks you for a password. As I have said more than once, the way to provoke it to ask you for a password is to remove the stored password.

Passwords belong to accounts. Whether or not they are stored in Thunderbird is irrelevant to the workings of the account itself. No-one is asking you to change any passwords.

You continue with some false assumptions:

  • Password manager has changed my settings. How do I fix this?
  • The password manager has been corrupted

So long as you think this is the problem and you keep on looking for solutions for it, you're unlikely to get anywhere.

Have you, or have you not tried removing passwords from the password manager?

Zenos modificouno o

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No, I have not tried removing passwords from the manager, because the actual passwords are not the problem.

Perhaps you don't like my choice of the word corrupted, but there are (as far as I can see, and I've repeatedly looked) NO "false assumptions" on my part. The Password Manager setting HAS changed, and I didn't do it, therefore something "corrupted" the Password Manager. Otherwise, I would still be asked for the password to this account each day when I open it to read messages, just as I am the first time each day when I send a message from this account. Why do you think I have false assumptions? And why would the Password Manager make this change?

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Because you think the password manager has made some change.

Remove the password from the password manager.

Over and out.

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Despite your dismissiveness, I am trying to work with you, not against you.

I am having consistent problems with Mozilla, and just had to close Firefox because all I got on any of five open pages were spinning grey wheels. But I do not have trouble with English, and would still like to know why I am wrong in thinking the password manager made changes, since changes were made in the password manager and I did not make them, nor do I know how to prevent this from happening again in the future (one of the reasons for my request. I'd also like to know how to stop both Firefox and Thunderbird from jamming up my computer, a recurring problem. Thanks.

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You are having constant problems because things do not work like you think they do and when you are told different you dig your heals in an say we are to stupid to answer your question and asked of that we are belittling you.

The password manager offers what passwords it has when they are required. That is all it does. It stores them and makes them available to the program when it needs them. If you want Thunderbird to ask for a password for an account you remove it and it is therefore no longer available to be used, so you will be asked for it.

If you are being asked for a password and you do not think you should be, click the option to save the password.

But finally I think we might be getting to your real problem. Your security software. Web pages just do not load or appear to hang, you are asked for your account password when mail is fetched or sent, despite the password being saved. ALL of those things are common symptoms of to much security. Anti virus/ Internet security suite wise usually. I might even go so far as to suggest Norton wise, but that may be unfair to them.

Have you set security in some product to "High" from it's default. My guess is you have, with the result that security is protecting you so well nothing can actually work. Just as blocking web cookies make most web site not load correctly these days.

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1) Don't know why you're taking this so personally. Examining the actual words here, I look to be the only one belittled or called stupid. (Feel free to read what we each wrote) 2) I use ESET Smart Security, and -- other than updating to 10 from 9, have made ZERO changes to the system I've been using for years, so excess protection should not be it. My password manager shows latest updates as December 13 (2 accounts) and December 14 (3 accounts, including the account in question) The only "update" made at that time frame was a Windows Update of some 200 MB, after which I had to restart my PC -- at which point Thunderbird problems started up. In fact, I keep Adobe Flash uninstalled unless I really need it because it also messes up the computer. 3) Your directions ended at "click the saved password box" (the first time) and "correct what you want to correct" (the second time). (What then?) 4) Extrapolating from Zeno's note, I'm assuming that right clicking on this particular email in the password manager will give me the option of "remove" vs "remove all", but IF that works, it leaves me without a map of where to go next -- since I don't recall ever using password manager to choose passwords in the past, and I really don't want to be stuck without this email account until that mystery gets solved. 5) And again, how do I prevent password manager from unilaterally making these changes in the future?

freedom23 modificouno o

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For the Nth time, if you don't want Thunderbird to remember a password, just remove it from the password manager.

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1) Per the above description, that is not the extent of the problems here.

2) As noted above, once the password is removed, I still need to be able to add the password back in, so that password manager will ask for it. And until that answer is provided, removing the password leaves me without a functioning email account.

3) Please read my post above before responding again. Thanks.

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freedom23 said

2) As noted above, once the password is removed, I still need to be able to add the password back in, so that password manager will ask for it. And until that answer is provided, removing the password leaves me without a functioning email account.

As I have said repeatedly, the password manager supplies passwords that it has. If it does not have them you will be asked for them. You will even get a little box offering to save it. Which is probably how things got like they are.

This is just so simple, I have no idea why it is still going on.

  • If it has it it uses it.
  • It it does not have it it asks for it and offers to save it.

That is how it works, how it has always worked. It has not changed.

BTW I use ESET NOD 32. I do not use their suite because it causes issues with the web and mail. Or it did when they asked for my money. They used to be the best of the best. Now they are barely hanging on. One customer to the other.

I suggest you actually try the following and see if you have less issues in Windows safe mode. Restart the operating system in safe mode with Networking. This loads only the very basics needed to start your computer while enabling an Internet connection. Click on your operating system for instructions on how to start in safe mode: Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, OSX

If safe mode for the operating system fixes the issue, there's other software in your computer that's causing problems. Possibilities include but not limited to: AV scanning, virus/malware, background downloads such as program updates.
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