No response at all. Nobody agrees? Nobody disagrees? Nobody knows? I'm disappointed.

I've created an account here for beta-testing thunderbird for android: https://thunderbird.topicbox.com/groups/android-beta/

But I don't really want to ask this question there, because it's not a beta question. I just need to undestand how this works and why.

To test out this "requirement" that all accounts in email must be "android accounts", I installed Outlook to test it out. It does the same thing - it wants to create an "android account".

This is ridiculous - why can't it work like Windows - email accounts are not part of the operating system - they are only part of the email application?

Thanks.

Hi

I can help a bit here, in that i have 4 accounts (well 3 really) working in TB-A and none are gmail-google based. Two are bespoke with my own URLs and one is Outlook I used the destop TB export to android tool and all moved without a problem. I use a Mac - but have windows experience as well (too many years, from DOS and pre windows 🤔)

Maybe better to do this via email to start then update here once resolved. Part cos using the fone to answer here and hate typing that much on it 😂 Antony

PS - the Export to Android QR is found under the Tools menu, not in settings, on a MAC anyway

What gives you the impression you can only add Gmail accounts?

I haven't read the very long version as I wasn't sure what was causing you to think such a thing but it's so simple, even my mum could do it.

All you need is a bona-fide (real) email account and know its password. I use three domains for my 19 accounts; outlook,com, gmail.com and my own business domain.

When you add an account, TBfA will firstly ask you for the email address. Simply type thusxemail address in the field shown and TBfA will scan the domain for a configuration file. If it finds one, and usually does very quickly, it will the either just tell you it's found one and says it's a known configuration (outlook, gmail and many other well known mail domains) and allows you to continue without intervention or, find an unjnown configuration, ask you if you trust it, then, once you confirm you do, progress as previously as if it were a known configuration.

From there, just follow the rest of the prompts to complete the setup, and voila, you can now progress to you next email account.

Sorry for rushing the last part, but it's 5.20am and I need to get to bed!

I thought I was being extremely clear in the long version, but perhaps not, especially if you don't read it. This is absolutely not about adding non-gmail accounts. It's also not about the difficulty of adding email accounts.

That is not the issue. The issue is that email accounts of all kinds are part of the Android operating system, and not part of the email application itself.

Example 1 - Windows and Thunderbird On Thunderbird, I add email accounts of all kinds - gmail, hotmail, etc. Those accounts are known ONLY to Thunderbird. You see them only in Thunderbird, you modify/configure them only in Thunderbird. Windows does not know anything about them? Why, because they are EMAIL accounts, not Windows accounts. That's the way it should be.

Example 2 - Android I currently use the gmail app, but I have downloaded and explored Outlook for Android, Thunderbird for Android too. They are all similar. It doesn't matter whether I set configure those apps with gmail, hotmail or any other email accounts. The accounts end up in the Android settings under "Accounts". In other words, adding an email account to an email application can NOT be done without adding the account to the list of Android Accounts. Email accounts should only be known to the email application - why are they part of the Android operating system?

Now you're going to ask me - who cares - that's the way it's done. But not so fast, there are repercussions to this. It means that EVERY GOOGLE APP works in the context of a specific email account, whether it be [email protected] or [email protected] or any other email account. Of course, the email apps (gmail, outlook, thunderbird for android) all have a facility to choose an email account for which you want to view the messages. But look at the rest of the apps: - photos - news - calendar - contacts - phone - maps - play store

The list goes on and on. In the upper right corner (usually) of those apps, there is an indication of which EMAIL ACCOUNT is being used for the information being displayed. If you click on it, there is a choice of all of the other EMAIL ACCOUNTs. WHY!!! Why would I want to look at "maps" in the context of [email protected] as opposed to [email protected]? This is MY device - when I download an app from the Play Store, why would I choose an email account?

I can understand that if you have [email protected] and [email protected] (for example), that you would want to be able to go into the phone app and choose either [email protected] or [email protected] to see one or the other groups of contacts. But that doesn't reflect more comment usage. In my case, I have email accounts that look like (these are all fictitious): [email protected] [email protected] - "me" [email protected] - "my wife" [email protected] - "us" [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Ok, you get the idea. You can bet that when I create a new contact, I am not going to waste time, associating it with one of those 10 email accounts. So what I end up with is all of the contacts being associated and spread over a dozen email accounts.

When I download Thunderbird for Android, should it be associated with [email protected] or [email protected] or [email protected] Which of these EMAIL accounts should I choose before download an app? Does this make any sense at all?

When I'm looking at photos with the Photos app, should be in the context of EMAIL account [email protected] or [email protected] or [email protected]

It's completely ridiculous to have everything on Android associated with an EMAIL account.

But let me get back to the problem. Why are EMAIL ACCOUNTS part of the Android Operating System and propagated to all of the Android apps? It should be like Windows - you log in with one account and everything is tied to that one account. If you set up Thunderbird (or any other email client), only that application knows about the email addresses. Windows doesn't know anything about them. I'm sure macOS is similar.

I've been waiting for Thunderbird for Android for a long time, because I really don't like the gmail app and I certainly don't like the email accounts being part of the operating system. But it looks like Thunderbird for Android is written to mimic gmail. But maybe there's a reason for that - perhaps it is not possible to add [email protected] or [email protected] to Thunderbird for Android without also adding it to the list of Google Accounts. If so, please explain why that is required. Why can't it be part of the app instead of the operating system. 

Why can't Android for Thunderbird be configured with email accounts that are not part of the Android operating system? What is the technical reason? Why is this required? Is there a solution?

I understand your frustration, but you obviously don't know how Android, or indeed Windows for that matter, WIndows just hides it better, works.

[QUOTE] Example 2 - Android' I currently use the gmail app, but I have downloaded and explored Outlook for Android, Thunderbird for Android too. They are all similar. It doesn't matter whether I set configure those apps with gmail, hotmail or any other email accounts. The accounts end up in the Android settings under "Accounts". In other words, adding an email account to an email application can NOT be done without adding the account to the list of Android Accounts. Email accounts should only be known to the email application - why are they part of the Android operating system?

Now you're going to ask me - who cares - that's the way it's done. But not so fast, there are repercussions to this. It means that EVERY GOOGLE APP works in the context of a specific email account, whether it be [email protected] or [email protected] or any other email account. Of course, the email apps (gmail, outlook, thunderbird for android) all have a facility to choose an email account for which you want to view the messages. But look at the rest of the apps: - photos - news - calendar - contacts - phone - maps - play store [END_QUOTE] (I know the "quote" doesn't work, or I don't know how to do that yet)

Each "account", be it email, login or whatever, has to be stored on the system, namely, in this case, Android drive and are stored as PROFILES. If you log into ANY application that requires an email verification, it will create an account on your system drive and, should the email account's suffix (gmail.com, outlook.com etc) match the application's request OR the platform which it is/has been created on (I'm not sure if I'm explaining this right), then you will get these accounts (PROFILES) show up in a list.

It's a means to a shortcut and the only way you can prevent it is to completely turn off any and all auto fill functions (I forget their true name, having a brain melt down again, always happens when I have to concentrate for any period of time).

What you need to remember is, each gmail.com account you create/use, links you to the gmail (Google) server. Each outlook.com you create/use, links you to the Microsoft server.

How many users do you have on your PC (I presume you have one)? If you have more than one then this is the exact same thing. Unless it's a business machine or you've set up your group policies etc, then you can see each persons name, usually as a box, or in a drop down list etc. to make it easier and quicker for others to use (we all have a preference).

You will also notice that, in those list of accounts, the more you use one, or in some cases, the more you use a particular account for a particular app/web site, then this account name (email address) will pop to the top of said list.

I need to stop now, or my brain will pop, but please remember, I'm trying to help/explain, rather than "knock you back" or "dissing" your views. As I said, we all have our own, and also our own preferences.

Chris

Please excuse misspellings and anything that may not make sense or cause offence as the medication I take can have an adverse effect on my mind.

First of all, thank you for taking the time to respond.

However, I'm not sure that you fully understand what I'm saying, because you are now talking about different things. I do know Windows, but you are right that I don't fully understand the Android way of doing things.

>>It's a means to a shortcut and the only way you can prevent it is to completely turn off any and all auto fill functions

You're talking about a browser saving username/password in so that the next time you log in to amazon.com (for example), it will prefill the saved information. This has nothing to do with that at all.

On Windows I log in with username=fluffy, password=dog. That information is stored in Windows account settings. Another person might log into the same Windows computer with username=good, password=night. None of those OPERATING SYSTEM accounts have anything to do with email, right?

Now I'm going to configure Thunderbird (on Windows) with all of my 9 email accounts. For example: [email protected] [email protected] - "me" [email protected] - "my wife" [email protected] - "us" [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Although those are probably stored in the Windows registry, they are not part of the Windows operating system. That's considered private data that belongs only to Thunderbird. If I install another email client (e.g. Microsoft Outlook), it does NOT know about any of those email accounts, because they are part of Thunderbird. If I want to read those email accounts in Outlook, I have to configure Outlook the same way.

In short, on Windows, email accounts are NOT part of the Windows operating system. They are known ONLY to the email client that has been configured to connect to those email accounts.

I hope you are with me so far. If you don't understand what I'm saying at this point, then you won't understand the rest of this.

Now let's look at Android. When a new device is purchased and activated, Google wants you to enter the google account that will be associate with that device. Let's say it's [email protected]. So I enter that email address and the password and Google sets up the new device. You can see that account when you go to Settings -> Accounts. There it is - [email protected]. In effect that is similar to username=fluffy, password=dog that I use to log in to Windows. Both accounts are part of the operating system log in and have nothing to do with email.

Now let's go down the same path as Windows. I start up an email client app such as gmail, outlook, thunderbird for android, etc. I want to do the same as I do on Windows - I want to configure the email client with the following email accounts:

Thunderbird (or any other email client), I configure the client with my 9 email accounts, e.g.: [email protected] [email protected] - "me" [email protected] - "my wife" [email protected] - "us" [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

So I open the email client, and enter all of the username/password combinations for those email acccount so that gmail or outook can send/receive messages on those account. All well and good, except for ONE BIG PROBLEM.

If you go to the Android Settings -> Accounts, you will see ALL of those 9 email accounts as part of the Accounts settings. In other words, those email accounts are now known to the Android operating system. They should not be visible to the operating system - those accounts are for email only and should only be known to the email client (gmail, outlook, thunderbird for android).

So why do I care? Because every Android app now works in the context of those 9 email accounts. Of course, you expect to see a list of 9 email accounts when you open the email clients (gmail, outlook, etc.), but why should you see a list of those 9 email accounts when you open the Photos app!?!?! Look in the upper right corner of the Photos app - it says "choose an account" and then lists the 9 email addresses. WHY!?!?!

I think I'm running out of energy trying to explain the problem. I've now done in 3 times, with more than enough detail. Perhaps this is the wrong forum and I need to talk to knowledgeable Android developers who can answer the question.

But thanks for all of the feedback.

I think it is possible to have a Gmail account that is configured in Thunderbird Mobile that is not also shared with the Android operating system. I think there's some kind of slippage going on between Android's accounts (which are Google accounts), Thunderbird email accounts (which use passwords and authorizations from Google accounts), and your web browser (which remember Google accounts and will keep you logged in unless you explicitly log out).

You should be able to manage which accounts are recognized and synchronized by the Android operating system in the Android settings, and I think you should be able to remove accounts from there without them being deleted from Thunderbird Mobile: https://support.google.com/android/answer/7664951?hl=en

Note that if your remove a Google account from Android, you will also be removing all Contacts and Calendar info associated with that account from your device. Thunderbird can read the contacts that are stored in Android's contact system if you give it permission to do so. It sounds like you have contacts stored under multiple Google accounts.

Do you have the Gmail app? That may be messing with your attempts to limit Android's access to your Google accounts as well. Try removing accounts from your Gmail app, or removing the Gmail app altogether.

Once you don't have any other apps with the Google accounts in them, and you've removed the ones that you don't want "known" to Android from your Accounts in your settings, then I would go back to Thunderbird and see if those other Google accounts are still there.

If you need to add any of them back in to Thunderbird again, then be cautious about which account you are signed into in your default browser when you create the new account in Thunderbird. Start by logging out of Google on all your web browsers. Gmail accounts need to authorize Thunderbird to give it access to Gmail servers, and they do this by requiring you to log in via your browser during account setup. Be sure to log back out again before adding a different Gmail account to Thunderbird.

Or maybe none of this will help. It sounds like you've already struggled with this a while!