Please post your Troubleshooting Information. At the top right of the Thunderbird window, click the menu button , then select Help > Troubleshooting Information. Press the "Copy text to clipboard button" and paste the information into your reply.

Application Basics

   Name: Thunderbird
   Version: 45.8.0
   User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:45.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/45.8.0
   Profile Folder: Show Folder

             (Local drive)
   Application Build ID: 20170305125302
   Enabled Plugins: about:plugins
   Build Configuration: about:buildconfig
   Memory Use: about:memory

 Mail and News Accounts
   account1:
     INCOMING: account1, , (none) Local Folders, plain, passwordCleartext

   account2:
     INCOMING: account2, , (pop3) pop.broadband.rogers.com:995, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , smtp.broadband.rogers.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true
     OUTGOING: , smtp.broadband.rogers.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, false

   account3:
     INCOMING: account3, , (pop3) pop.gmail.com:995, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , smtp.gmail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true
     OUTGOING: , smtp.gmail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, false

 Crash Reports

 Extensions
   Lightning, 4.7.8, true, {e2fda1a4-762b-4020-b5ad-a41df1933103}

 Important Modified Preferences

   Name: Value

     browser.cache.disk.capacity: 358400
     browser.cache.disk.filesystem_reported: 1
     browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value: 358400
     browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run: false
     browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max: false
     dom.apps.reset-permissions: true
     extensions.lastAppVersion: 45.8.0
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.appVersion: 45.8.0
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.deviceID: 0x0392
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.driverVersion: 6.14.13.783
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.gfx.driver-init.direct3d11-angle: true
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.gfx.driver-init.webgl-angle: true
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.gfx.driver-init.webgl-angle-force-d3d11: false
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.gfx.driver-init.webgl-angle-force-warp: false
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.gfx.driver-init.webgl-angle-try-d3d11: true
     gfx.crash-guard.status.glcontext: 2
     mail.openMessageBehavior.version: 1
     mailnews.database.global.datastore.id: b65bd4d1-8ecd-43c7-81e8-43fedd59ee4
     network.cookie.prefsMigrated: true
     network.predictor.cleaned-up: true
     places.database.lastMaintenance: 1500663451
     places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 53589
     plugin.importedState: true

 Graphics

     Adapter Description: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS
     Vendor ID: 0x10de
     Device ID: 0x0392
     Adapter RAM: Unknown
     Adapter Drivers: nv4_disp
     Driver Version: 6.14.13.783
     Driver Date: 1-31-2013
     WebGL Renderer: Google Inc. -- ANGLE (NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS  Direct3D9 vs_3_0 ps_3_0) -- OpenGL ES 2.0 (ANGLE 2.1.0.316930d51ea9)
     GPU Accelerated Windows: 0

     AzureCanvasBackend: skia
     AzureSkiaAccelerated: 0
     AzureFallbackCanvasBackend: cairo
     AzureContentBackend: cairo

 JavaScript

 Incremental GC: 1

 Accessibility

   Activated: 0
   Prevent Accessibility: 0

 Library Versions

     Expected minimum version
     Version in use

     NSPR
     4.12
     4.12

     NSS
     3.21.3 Basic ECC
     3.21.3 Basic ECC

     NSS Util
     3.21.3
     3.21.3

     NSS SSL
     3.21.3 Basic ECC
     3.21.3 Basic ECC

     NSS S/MIME
     3.21.3 Basic ECC
     3.21.3 Basic ECC

BTW, today I changed the settings so that I am able to send emails. They show a from address of rogers.com. That's not what I want, I want the from address to be my gmail account, but I had to leave it this way in order to send anything.

You mentioned identities, and what you describe sounds as if you have tried to set one up.

I think if you want to use gmail to handle another account, you need to add that second account to the gmail account.

But the easiest thing to do. IMHO, is to use a filter to copy or move all messages arriving in the rogers account into your gmail inbox, and answer them from gmail.

You could do the copy/forwarding in Thunderbird or either the rogers or gmail account. Getting the rogers account to forward to gmail, set up at the rogers website, would be the simplest and means that all your messages would be handled regardless of whether or not Thunderbird is running. This is useful if you anticipate working your email from another computer, or a device like a phone or tablet.

Your humble opinion appreciated. Though that may solve my short term problem it puts off the longer one. I am moving away from my rogers account and anticipate not having it at some point in the future. I need to maintain it for now but not in perpetuity.

Besides, I don't have a problem receiving emails, Thunderbird handles both accounts fine. When sending, Thunderbird tries to send an email with gmail as my from address (which is what I want), but through the rogers server. That's what I can't change. I want to send all my messages from my gmail account through the gmail server. Thunderbird wants to send via the rogers server.

I realize I also could be reading your response incorrectly..... :-) I'm not a power user.......

I tried to set up an identity because I thought I needed to do so in order to handle 2 email accounts. If this further complicates the problem, please let me know how to fix. I like simple.

There is nothing in your account settings to explain why messages sent from one account appear to be sent from the other. Which leaves me thinking that an Identity set-up is at work.

I had changed the settings to make it work. I will change it back now to recreate the problem and then post those settings.

Application Basics

   Name: Thunderbird
   Version: 45.8.0
   User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:45.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/45.8.0
   Profile Folder: Show Folder

             (Local drive)
   Application Build ID: 20170305125302
   Enabled Plugins: about:plugins
   Build Configuration: about:buildconfig
   Memory Use: about:memory

 Mail and News Accounts
   account1:
     INCOMING: account1, , (none) Local Folders, plain, passwordCleartext

   account2:
     INCOMING: account2, , (pop3) pop.broadband.rogers.com:995, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , smtp.broadband.rogers.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true
     OUTGOING: , smtp.broadband.rogers.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, false

   account3:
     INCOMING: account3, , (pop3) pop.gmail.com:995, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , smtp.gmail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true
     OUTGOING: , smtp.gmail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, false

 Crash Reports

 Extensions
   Lightning, 4.7.8, true, {e2fda1a4-762b-4020-b5ad-a41df1933103}

 Important Modified Preferences

   Name: Value

     browser.cache.disk.capacity: 358400
     browser.cache.disk.filesystem_reported: 1
     browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value: 358400
     browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run: false
     browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max: false
     dom.apps.reset-permissions: true
     extensions.lastAppVersion: 45.8.0
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.appVersion: 45.8.0
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.deviceID: 0x0392
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.driverVersion: 6.14.13.783
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.gfx.driver-init.direct3d11-angle: true
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.gfx.driver-init.webgl-angle: true
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.gfx.driver-init.webgl-angle-force-d3d11: false
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.gfx.driver-init.webgl-angle-force-warp: false
     gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.gfx.driver-init.webgl-angle-try-d3d11: true
     gfx.crash-guard.status.glcontext: 2
     mail.openMessageBehavior.version: 1
     mailnews.database.global.datastore.id: b65bd4d1-8ecd-43c7-81e8-43fedd59ee4
     network.cookie.prefsMigrated: true
     network.predictor.cleaned-up: true
     places.database.lastMaintenance: 1500663451
     places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 53589
     plugin.importedState: true

 Graphics

     Adapter Description: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS
     Vendor ID: 0x10de
     Device ID: 0x0392
     Adapter RAM: Unknown
     Adapter Drivers: nv4_disp
     Driver Version: 6.14.13.783
     Driver Date: 1-31-2013
     WebGL Renderer: Google Inc. -- ANGLE (NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS  Direct3D9 vs_3_0 ps_3_0) -- OpenGL ES 2.0 (ANGLE 2.1.0.316930d51ea9)
     GPU Accelerated Windows: 0

     AzureCanvasBackend: skia
     AzureSkiaAccelerated: 0
     AzureFallbackCanvasBackend: cairo
     AzureContentBackend: cairo

 JavaScript

 Incremental GC: 1

 Accessibility

   Activated: 0
   Prevent Accessibility: 0

 Library Versions

     Expected minimum version
     Version in use

     NSPR
     4.12
     4.12

     NSS
     3.21.3 Basic ECC
     3.21.3 Basic ECC

     NSS Util
     3.21.3
     3.21.3

     NSS SSL
     3.21.3 Basic ECC
     3.21.3 Basic ECC

     NSS S/MIME
     3.21.3 Basic ECC
     3.21.3 Basic ECC

I have just pasted your two sets of settings into an editor where I can compare them and they are 100% interchangeable.

So why don't we stop the silly guessing games, and you tell us what you're changing, because it is not evident in these settings.

In Tools-Account Settings, with the rogers account highlighted the email displayed (in "email address") is my gmail account. That's what I want people to see when I email.

I then click on "manage identities". The dialog box that opens has my two email accounts in it. When the rogers account is set as the default the email works fine, except I don't want people to receive my email from my rogers account. When the gmail account is set as the default (which is what i want as I want people to receive from and reply to my gmail account), I can't send emails. When I compose an email in this case, though the from address shows my gmail address, right beside it in grey italics is the rogers smtp server.

re :When I compose an email in this case, though the from address shows my gmail address, right beside it in grey italics is the rogers smtp server.

The supplied info says you have two identities in rogers mail account, both of which are using the Rogers outgoing server. This is the same in both sets of supplied info. So, it is doing exactly as you have instructed it - it is sending via smtp roger.

What happens if you do the following: Set the Roger account Outgoing server to use the gmail smtp server.

If I had any idea how to do so I would try it. This is the biggest part of the problem. I have no idea how these settings/identities/servers work or interact with each other so I am basically flying blind.

When sending an email, my "from" line when I open the dropdown box has 4 options. both my email addresses with each of the 2 servers.

1 - rogers email, rogers server 2 - rogers email, gmail server 3 - gmail email, rogers server 4 - gmail email, gmail server

option 4 is the only one I want when I send an email, but I need to be able to receive emails from both (which is happening now, receiving has never been a problem). How do I make 4 the default option when replying to an email. When I compose an email, 4 is the default. When replying to an email, either 1 or 3 is the default from address, depending on where the email I am replying to came from. If it's 3, I get an error message and the email goes unsent. This is the problem. Why is it doing that and how can I fix it?

I realize I can manually change it every time, but it would be preferable to fix it if possible.

It is normal for an email client to reply using the "to" in the incoming message as the "from" in any reply.

I would do several things here:

1) Arrange for incoming messages to be autoforwarded to the preferred (gmail) account. If you get to a point where you don't need the rogers account because all your incoming is now arriving in the gmail account, you can uninstall the rogers account from Thunderbird and then it simply won't be possible to send using this address as the "from".

2) Set up a Reply-to to add the gmail address to all outgoing messages, so that even if you do send using the rogers identity, your messages will indicate where you want the replies to come back to.

3) Set up an add-on such as "Folder Account" which can be set to apply a preferred identity when writing a message. This means that even if you don't do (1) above, when you write a new message whilst looking at the rogers account it will select the gmail identity.

4) Investigate add-ons that prompt you to use the appropriate "from" address. I use two: Correct Identity and Identity Chooser. Somehow, either one on its own doesn't quite do the job.

However, I am not sure that any of these will definitively defeat the deliberate design feature that selects the "from" to match the "to" when replying, other than your removing the rogers account altogether.

All points well taken, however the problem is that it does not match. When I get an gmail via the gmail server that I am replying to, thunderbird tries to send "from" my gmail account, but via the rogers server.....this is what is puzzling.

Even if I autoforward to gmail so that it arrives in my inbox as coming from gmail, thunderbird is still choosing to send my reply via the rogers server (though the from address does show my gmail address).

This is what my from line looks like when replying to a gmail:

Andre <[email protected]> pop.broadband.rogers.com

the pop.broadband.rogers.com is in italics and greyer than the rest

I've also deleted the rogers server under "Outgoing Server (SMTP)" as well as making my gmail the default identity to be used (under the "manage identities" button) under both accounts and still when I reply to an email, the from line is still as above. from my gmail via the rogers server.

Contrary to some other advice given in this thread, I don't think Gmail will process messages using the rogers email address as the "from:" address. Even if they don't explicitly reject it, I would expect them to simply swap in the associated gmail address. And there's a good chance that the rogers server would refuse a Gmail address in the "from:" field - not fast good want to do it this way.

You can get Gmail to process non-Gmail addresses but you have to add them to the Gmail account, at the Gmail website. But as you are trying to wind down the rogers account, I don't think that is useful to you. There is no point in sustaining an account you are trying to kill off. The way Gmail have designed it, you can add in alien email addresses so Gmail becomes your one-stop-shop for all your email accounts. But you are not intending to keep the rogers account active so there's no point in adding it to your Gmail account.

In your place, I'd set up Gmail to collect from rogers, or I'd set up rogers to forward to Gmail. Do this at their respective websites, not in Thunderbird. Then, in Thunderbird, having copied everything in the rogers account that you want to keep into the Gmail account, or into the Local Folders account, you are free to eradicate all trace of the rogers account in Thunderbird.

If you still have any additional Identities set up, under Manage Identities, please remove them because they simply are not relevant or helpful to you.

That's great. Thank you.

One last question. When you say remove additional identities do you mean remove them now or after the rogers account is deep-sixed? I guess I'm not clear on the function of identities since there are already separate email accounts.

Now. They are of no use to you.

Um, "not fast good want to do it this way" should have read "not that you would want to do it this way." Wretched auto-correct on my tablet. :-(