usually we find the anti virus is the cause of failures to set u accounts. Particularly ones like Google, because Thunderbird actually has settings for them.

Start by disabling email scanning in your anti virus.

I have tried setting up both accounts with my anti-virus disabled entirely (the anti-virus software I use doesn't support e-mail scanning so obviously I can't either enable or disable this feature specifically). The results are the same with the anti-virus on or off.

This may be just a typo but in your question you have written (three times) 'stmp' as the name of the outgoing server. It should be smtp -- stands for 'simple mail transfer protocol'. Worth checking?

That was a typo in my original question, sorry. It was entered correctly as SMTP in Thunderbird.

re :anti-virus software I use doesn't support e-mail scanning

What AV product do you use? Many Anti-Virus software are also set up as 'Firewall'. If AV/Firewall is disabled then perhaps the default Windows Firewall has stepped in. What Firewall product is operating on your computer?

Check Firewall: It must be set to allow Thunderbird.

Check: Is imap is selected to use in google webmail account accessed via a browser. Enable IMAP in your Gmail settings

• Sign in to Gmail.
• Click the gear in the top right .
• Select Settings.
• Click Forwarding and POP/IMAP.
• Select Enable IMAP.
• Click Save Changes.

In Thunderbird I have set up 'UserName' = full email address password = same password used to access webmail account.

I have also set up 'Authentication Method' to use OAuth2. See below for image showing settings.

Important Additional info: In gmail 'My Account' > sign In and Security' accessed via browser... I have less secure apps turned off. 'Allow less secure apps: OFF'

In TB, I use OAUth2 as selected incoming and outgoing 'Authentication Method'.

The anti-virus software I use is ClamWin, which only supports e-mail scanning via Microsoft Outlook. As I am not using this, this does not apply. The firewall I use is PrivateFirewall, but as stated in my original question, I have already set up rules to allow Thunderbird through, and I also stated that I have tried setting up the account with the firewall disabled entirely (both PrivateFirewall AND Windows Firewall, even if I am only able to disable Windows Firewall temporarily). Likewise, I also stated in my original question that I had checked IMAP was enabled in Gmail. Even if this were not the case, it wouldn't explain why I'm getting the same error attempting to setup a Hotmail account too. I tried previously setting up an account with "Allow less secure apps: OFF" and OAUth2 (as I stated, I have tried every possible combination of settings I could think of) but this returns the exact same error. Basically at this point I am reluctant to believe this is a Gmail problem or a problem with my Google Account settings, as that would not explain why the same error is occurring whilst attempting to set up an account with another e-mail provider, leading me to believe that the issue is with Thunderbird itself.

EDIT: Have gone back and double checked everything entering the settings from your screenshots. Exact same error still. Even with security programs (firewall / anti-virus) disabled completely. Thunderbird times out attempting to connect to the server, or if I enter those settings in an attempt to create a new account, I get "failed to find the settings for your e-mail account". This is also still the case if I attempt to set up a Hotmail account, too.

This looks to me like clamwin has an option somewhere other than outlook. http://ccm.net/faq/26102-clamwin-free-antivirus-never-scan-outgoing-mails

In the screenshot you linked, both of those options are under the heading "Microsoft Outlook", leading me to believe that they only apply to that program. Regardless, as I do not use Outlook I have had those options disabled since I installed ClamWin. However, more importantly, as I have already stated multiple times, I have tried setting up these accounts with BOTH the anti-virus AND the firewall COMPLETELY DISABLED. This is categorically NOT an anti-virus issue, or this would have fixed it. I even went as far as to uninstall my firewall and anti-virus programs entirely and test setting up an account then (with Windows' own security programs likewise disabled). Exact same error.

After spending years on this forum I can categorically state.

1. Disabling a firewall does not necessarily do as it advertises.

2. Disabling some anti virus programs has required the installation of special uninstall programs. They are about as hard to stop as a virus and the reports of their status can not be relied on.

The fact your using windows 10 only exacerbates 1 and 2 because it is almost like a virus in it's own phone home, auto update we know better than you attitude. Microsoft have made simple diagnostic processes about as hard as they can.

What is clear is Thunderbird can not communicate with the internet. The settings for google and all known providers are are stored here. https://autoconfig.thunderbird.net/v1.1/ The message "failed to find setting" in your first post is a clear indication that access to the internet is being denied. I am no expert on your system or your software.

What I know is Thunderbird is not broken and can find those setting for others. Therefore the problem in in your copy of windows 10 and the software and security settings you have chosen.

Excluding your Firewall and anti virus if they are not the issue. What else is blocking communications?

Please confirm: In the Start menu > Settings > System > Apps & features. Is there only one version of Thunderbird? If there is more than one version. Please uninstall all versions and then fresh install from here: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/all/

Is Network Adapter up to date ? - I though this was supposed to be fixed in a Win 10 update.

Is Thunderbird running in sandbox?

There is only one version of Thunderbird listed under Apps & Features: "Mozilla Thunderbird 38.6.0 (x86 gd)". (Yes, the language is correct, just throught it would be more practical to ask for help in English rather than a language that has less than 1,000 Thunderbird users). EDIT: there are also entries here for "Mozilla Maintainence Service" and "Mozilla Firefox 44.0.2 (x86 gd)" if either of those is in any way relevant.

If network adapter was fixed in a Windows 10 update then it'll be up to date, as these cannot be disabled. Otherwise I haven't done anything specifically myself to update it, is this worth trying?

I don't know if Thunderbird is running in sandbox, it isn't something I've set it up to do in any way so I would assume not, unless this is the default setting for the program?

As for what else is blocking communication, I have no idea, which is why I'm asking here. I have tried uninstalling my anti-virus and firewall software entirely (they don't seem to persist anywhere obvious but I'll admit I'm hardly an expert at checking this) as well as disabling all bundled Windows security programs, but this does not allow Thunderbird to access the internet either. Beyond that, I don't see what else I can do as far as allowing a program free access to the internet? Thunderbird is the only program which has had any trouble connecting to the internet since upgrading to Windows 10 almost a year ago now. Perhaps the firewall or anti-virus is acting as some kind of rootkit and refusing to be uninstalled properly, but if that is the case then it's most likely beyond my technical ability to remove, so if the only program it is affecting in any way is Thunderbird then I may be left with no choice but to abandon attempting to use Thunderbird.

Try with your OS in its Safe Mode.

If you're connecting through a router, and furthermore if it has NAT then your personal firewall is pretty much redundant anyway.

I rebooted my PC into "Safe Mode with Networking", same result. Server times out or returns "failed to find the settings" if I attempt to set up a new account. However, Firefox accesses the internet with no issue at all.

I have just gone into my router settings and set up port forwarding (TCP and UDP) on ports 993, 465 and 587 for this machine. Thunderbird still returns the same result. Times out attempting to contact the server, or returns "failed to find the settings" if I attempt to set up a new account.

Both of these tests were performed with no personal firewall even installed, and with Windows' own security software explicitly disabled. Does this rule out both the router, and installed security software? And if so, what else could possibly be causing this?

EDIT: For completeness' sake, I rebooted into "Safe Mode with Networking" and retried after having set up the port forwarding. Unsurprisingly enough, the exact same result was returned.

When trying to create a gmail mail account, I'm assuming you have not as yet actually clicked on 'Done' to create the mail account.

Could you click on the 'Done' button to create the non functioning mail account and then post this info. So we can check that the corect info is being stored in Thunderbird.

In Thunderbird Help > Troubleshooting Information click on 'copy text to clipbord' then paste info into this forum question. You can edit/remove all info on fonts and printers but nothing else.

I am trying to create both a Hotmail and a Gmail account. In both cases I have attempted to do this through the automated setup, and through entering the information manually, clicking 'Done' and then attempting to send/receive e-mail. The non-functioning accounts attempt to contact the server but quickly time out. This is what I meant by references to timing out in all of my previous replies.

The information copied from Thunderbird troubleshooting is as follows (worth noting that the settings under "Mail and News Accounts" reflect whatever I have entered each time, so these are simply the ones I used for the last attempt):

 Application Basics

   Name: Thunderbird
   Version: 38.6.0
   User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:38.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/38.6.0
   Profile Folder: Show Folder

             (Local drive)
   Application Build ID: 20160211132445
   Enabled Plugins: about:plugins
   Build Configuration: about:buildconfig
   Memory Use: about:memory

 Mail and News Accounts
   account2:
     INCOMING: account2, , (none) Local Folders, plain, passwordCleartext

   account3:
     INCOMING: account3, , (imap) imap.gmail.com:993, SSL, OAuth2
     OUTGOING: smtp.gmail.com:465, SSL, OAuth2, true

   account4:
     INCOMING: account4, , (imap) imap-mail.outlook.com:993, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: smtp-mail.outlook.com:587, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext, true

 Crash Reports

 Extensions
   Lightning, 4.0.6, true, {e2fda1a4-762b-4020-b5ad-a41df1933103}
   Simple Locale Switcher, 0.9.2, true, simplels@nohamelin

 Important Modified Preferences

   Name: Value

     browser.cache.disk.capacity: 358400
     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
     extensions.lastAppVersion: 38.6.0
     font.name.monospace.el: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-cyrillic: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-unicode: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-western: Consolas
     font.name.sans-serif.el: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-cyrillic: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-unicode: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-western: Calibri
     font.name.serif.el: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-cyrillic: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-unicode: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-western: Cambria
     font.size.fixed.el: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-cyrillic: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-unicode: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-western: 14
     font.size.variable.el: 17
     font.size.variable.x-cyrillic: 17
     font.size.variable.x-unicode: 17
     font.size.variable.x-western: 17
     general.useragent.locale: en-GB
     mail.openMessageBehavior.version: 1
     mail.winsearch.firstRunDone: true
     mailnews.database.global.datastore.id: 5a54b689-aa30-42f2-a852-df6b044dff9
     network.cookie.prefsMigrated: true
     network.predictor.cleaned-up: true
     places.database.lastMaintenance: 1456096032
     places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 104858
     plugin.importedState: true
     plugin.state.npdeployjava: 1

 Graphics

     Adapter Description: AMD Radeon (TM) R7 370 Series Graphics
     Vendor ID: 0x1002
     Device ID: 0x6811
     Adapter RAM: 2048
     Adapter Drivers: aticfx64 aticfx64 aticfx64 amdxc64 aticfx32 aticfx32 aticfx32 amdxc32 atiumd64 atidxx64 atidxx64 atiumdag atidxx32 atidxx32 atiumdva atiumd6a atitmm64
     Driver Version: 15.301.1901.0
     Driver Date: 2-23-2016
     Direct2D Enabled: false
     DirectWrite Enabled: false (10.0.10586.0)
     ClearType Parameters: ClearType parameters not found
     WebGL Renderer: false
     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
     4.10.10
     4.10.10

     NSS
     3.19.2.2 Basic ECC
     3.19.2.2 Basic ECC

     NSS Util
     3.19.2.2
     3.19.2.2

     NSS SSL
     3.19.2.2 Basic ECC
     3.19.2.2 Basic ECC

     NSS S/MIME
     3.19.2.2 Basic ECC
     3.19.2.2 Basic ECC