I can't access my gmail messages using thunderbird when I'm away from home
When I'm at home in Scotland I can use thunderbird to access all my email accounts. When I'm at work on an offshore installation in the North Sea (internet access via a server in the Netherlands) thunderbird will access all accounts except my gmail account. I can access gmail as webmail but much prefer using an email client to keep things tidy. I've just enabled IMAP in my gmail account and tried to change the server settings in thunderbird in case using POP is causing the problem. In server settings it still says server type is POP and I can't see how to change this. Any suggestions would be most welcome. Following is the troubleshooting info for the current state:
Application Basics
Name: Thunderbird Version: 52.1.1 User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.1.1 Profile Directory: Open Directory
(Local drive) Application Build ID: 20170510140734 Enabled Plugins: about:plugins Build Configuration: about:buildconfig Memory Use: about:memory Profiles: about:profiles
Mail and News Accounts account1: INCOMING: account1, , (imap) mail.btinternet.com:993, SSL, passwordCleartext OUTGOING: , mail.btinternet.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true
account2: INCOMING: account2, , (none) Local Folders, plain, passwordCleartext
account4: INCOMING: account4, , (pop3) imap.gmail.com:993, SSL, passwordCleartext OUTGOING: , smtp.gmail.com:465, SSL, OAuth2, true
Crash Reports
Extensions Messaging Menu and Unity Launcher integration, 1.3.1, true, [email protected]
Important Modified Preferences
Name: Value
accessibility.typeaheadfind.flashBar: 0 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 browser.zoom.full: true extensions.lastAppVersion: 52.1.1 gfx.blacklist.canvas2d.acceleration: 4 gfx.blacklist.canvas2d.acceleration.failureid: FEATURE_FAILURE_OPENGL_1 gfx.blacklist.direct2d: 4 gfx.blacklist.direct2d.failureid: FEATURE_FAILURE_OPENGL_1 gfx.blacklist.direct3d11angle: 4 gfx.blacklist.direct3d11angle.failureid: FEATURE_FAILURE_OPENGL_1 gfx.blacklist.dxva: 4 gfx.blacklist.hardwarevideodecoding: 4 gfx.blacklist.hardwarevideodecoding.failureid: FEATURE_FAILURE_OPENGL_1 gfx.blacklist.layers.direct3d10: 4 gfx.blacklist.layers.direct3d10-1: 4 gfx.blacklist.layers.direct3d10-1.failureid: FEATURE_FAILURE_OPENGL_1 gfx.blacklist.layers.direct3d10.failureid: FEATURE_FAILURE_OPENGL_1 gfx.blacklist.layers.direct3d11: 4 gfx.blacklist.layers.direct3d11.failureid: FEATURE_FAILURE_OPENGL_1 gfx.blacklist.layers.direct3d9: 4 gfx.blacklist.layers.direct3d9.failureid: FEATURE_FAILURE_OPENGL_1 gfx.blacklist.layers.opengl: 4 gfx.blacklist.layers.opengl.failureid: FEATURE_FAILURE_OPENGL_1 gfx.blacklist.stagefright: 4 gfx.blacklist.stagefright.failureid: FEATURE_FAILURE_OPENGL_1 gfx.blacklist.webgl.angle: 4 gfx.blacklist.webgl.angle.failureid: FEATURE_FAILURE_OPENGL_1 gfx.blacklist.webgl.msaa: 4 gfx.blacklist.webgl.msaa.failureid: FEATURE_FAILURE_OPENGL_1 gfx.blacklist.webgl.opengl: 4 gfx.blacklist.webgl.opengl.failureid: FEATURE_FAILURE_OPENGL_1 gfx.blacklist.webrtc.hw.acceleration: 4 gfx.blacklist.webrtc.hw.acceleration.decode: 4 gfx.blacklist.webrtc.hw.acceleration.decode.failureid: FEATURE_FAILURE_OPENGL_1 gfx.blacklist.webrtc.hw.acceleration.encode: 4 gfx.blacklist.webrtc.hw.acceleration.encode.failureid: FEATURE_FAILURE_OPENGL_1 gfx.blacklist.webrtc.hw.acceleration.failureid: FEATURE_FAILURE_OPENGL_1 mail.openMessageBehavior.version: 1 mailnews.database.global.datastore.id: 4ed28562-62d7-4bb8-984c-af7ad8c663f media.gmp.storage.version.observed: 1 network.cookie.prefsMigrated: true network.predictor.cleaned-up: true places.database.lastMaintenance: 1500572208 places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 69244 plugin.importedState: true print.print_bgcolor: false print.print_bgimages: false print.print_colorspace: default print.print_downloadfonts: false print.print_duplex: 0 print.print_evenpages: true print.print_in_color: true print.print_margin_bottom: 0.500000012107193 print.print_margin_left: 0.500000012107193 print.print_margin_right: 0.500000012107193 print.print_margin_top: 0.500000012107193 print.print_oddpages: true print.print_orientation: 0 print.print_page_delay: 50 print.print_paper_data: 0 print.print_paper_height: 279.40 print.print_paper_name: na_letter print.print_paper_size_type: 1 print.print_paper_size_unit: 1 print.print_paper_width: 215.90 print.print_plex_name: default print.print_resolution_name: default print.print_scaling: 1.00 print.print_shrink_to_fit: true print.print_to_file: false print.print_unwriteable_margin_bottom: 56 print.print_unwriteable_margin_left: 25 print.print_unwriteable_margin_right: 25 print.print_unwriteable_margin_top: 25
Graphics
GPU #1 Description: Intel Open Source Technology Center -- Mesa DRI Intel(R) Pineview M x86/MMX/SSE2 Vendor ID: Intel Open Source Technology Center Device ID: Mesa DRI Intel(R) Pineview M x86/MMX/SSE2 Driver Version: 1.4 Mesa 12.0.6
Features WebGL Renderer: Blocked for your graphics card because of unresolved driver issues.
AzureCanvasBackend: skia AzureCanvasAccelerated: 0 AzureFallbackCanvasBackend: none AzureContentBackend: skia CairoUseXRender: 0
JavaScript
Incremental GC: 1
Accessibility
Activated: 0 Prevent Accessibility: 0
Library Versions
Expected minimum version Version in use
NSPR 4.13.1 4.13.1
NSS 3.28.4 3.28.4
NSS Util 3.28.4 3.28.4
NSS SSL 3.28.4 3.28.4
NSS S/MIME 3.28.4 3.28.4
All Replies (3)
You can't change a POP account to IMAP just by changing the server name.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Convert_a_POP_account_to_a_IMAP_account
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Using_Gmail_with_Thunderbird_and_Mozilla_Suite
Thanks for that sf, I now know how to convert to an IMAP account. Do you think this might solve the problem of being unable to access gmail via Thunderbird when away from home?
As long as the gmail account is properly set up - a nontrivial process, if you read the kb article - I see no reason why it shouldn't work through the Dutch network. It's not like you're trying to connect from a country that limits contact with the outside world.