Please let me know exactly what you are expecting me to do. I will really appreciate any help. Regards

ilovegoodbusiness,
I want you to exactly follow the instructions posted previously, i.e. start *Windows* in safe mode with networking enabled. Still in Windows safe mode, start Thunderbird in safe mode.

Report back what happens.

Scooter,
please open a new thread for your problem.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/ask-tb#w_how-to-ask-your-question

Sorry. Maybe my explanation was confusing. I started windows 8.1 Pro x64 in Safe mode with networking and started Thunderbird while windows was in safe mode and it had the same problem as before. Thanks

Also "christ1" asked me to open a new thread for this problem. I will do that right away. I am also talking about the same problem in this thread: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/990748?utm_campaign=questions-reply&utm_medium=email&utm_source=notification

No, I asked Scooter to open a new thread.

Ohhh. Sorry about that. I thought that you only did a confusion.

No one has asked, so I will. Can you please post the Troubleshooting information from your help menu. It does sound to me like an ISP or Mail provider issue. ATT/Yahoo regularly have a couple of days where they do not work and then it miraculously starts again. Neither ATT or Yahoo appear interested in their customers difficulties as they want everyone on an add laden web mail page.

• Click the Help (Alt + H) menu and select Troubleshooting Information from the submenu.

Now, a new tab containing your troubleshooting information should open.

• At the top of the page, you should see a button that says "Copy text to clipboard". Click it.
• Now, go back to your forum post and click inside the reply box. Press Ctrl+V to paste all the information you copied into the forum post.

Application Basics

   Name: Thunderbird
   Version: 24.4.0
   User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64; rv:24.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/24.4.0
   Profile Folder: Show Folder

             (Local drive)
   Application Build ID: 20140316131045
   Enabled Plugins: about:plugins
   Build Configuration: about:buildconfig
   Crash Reports: about:crashes
   Memory Use: about:memory

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

   account4:
     INCOMING: account4, , (imap) imap.googlemail.com:993, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: smtp.googlemail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

 Extensions
   bdToolbar, 7.0, false, [email protected]

 Important Modified Preferences

   Name: Value

     browser.cache.disk.capacity: 358400
     browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run: false
     browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max: false
     browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value: 358400
     extensions.lastAppVersion: 24.4.0
     font.name.monospace.el: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.tr: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-baltic: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-central-euro: 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.tr: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-baltic: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-central-euro: 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.tr: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-baltic: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-central-euro: 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.tr: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-baltic: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-central-euro: 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.tr: 17
     font.size.variable.x-baltic: 17
     font.size.variable.x-central-euro: 17
     font.size.variable.x-cyrillic: 17
     font.size.variable.x-unicode: 17
     font.size.variable.x-western: 17
     mail.openMessageBehavior.version: 1
     mail.winsearch.firstRunDone: true
     mailnews.database.global.datastore.id: 8057ef62-d03a-4da8-a08b-58764ba65fd
     network.cookie.lifetimePolicy: 2
     network.cookie.prefsMigrated: true
     places.database.lastMaintenance: 1397398207
     places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 104858
     plugin.importedState: true
     privacy.donottrackheader.enabled: true

 Graphics

     Adapter Description: Intel(R) Iris(TM) Graphics 5100
     Vendor ID: 0x8086
     Device ID: 0x0a2e
     Adapter RAM: Unknown
     Adapter Drivers: igdumdim64 igd10iumd64 igd10iumd64 igdumdim32 igd10iumd32 igd10iumd32
     Driver Version: 10.18.10.3345
     Driver Date: 10-31-2013
     Direct2D Enabled: false
     DirectWrite Enabled: false (6.3.9600.16384)
     ClearType Parameters: ClearType parameters not found
     WebGL Renderer: false
     GPU Accelerated Windows: 0

     AzureCanvasBackend: skia
     AzureFallbackCanvasBackend: cairo
     AzureContentBackend: none

 JavaScript

 Incremental GC: 1

 Accessibility

   Activated: 0
   Prevent Accessibility: 0

 Library Versions

     Expected minimum version
     Version in use

     NSPR
     4.10.2
     4.10.2

     NSS
     3.15.4 Basic ECC
     3.15.4 Basic ECC

     NSS Util
     3.15.4
     3.15.4

     NSS SSL
     3.15.4 Basic ECC
     3.15.4 Basic ECC

     NSS S/MIME
     3.15.4 Basic ECC
     3.15.4 Basic ECC

We have a single gmail account here. Periodically it stops working for you but not the millions of other gmail /Thunderbird users. What could have changed.

I can only thing of a few of things that could cause suchg an issue without modifying anything consciously.

1. You elected to use Google two factor authentication and did not get a Thunderbird password as required.
2. Your computer received an update either from Microsoft or one of your software suppliers that causes an issue.
3. Your internet connection is troubled by outages at random.
4. Windows defender strikes again.
5. Bit defender strikes again.

Note that setting windows to not update it like buying a gun for defense and not buying bullets. Security software is part of your protection not the be all and end all.

There are no updates ever in my windows 8.1. the options for updates was set up from the beginning to not receive any updates. Thunderbird it won't work with any email, not even gmail. for more than 2 week now, it won't even let me add any email account, it does not matter if is gmail, aol, or any other. Thunderbird it won't connect to any server, not even to ghandi or the other one that comes as default when you try to add a email account. the internet connection has no problems. i have tried several different internet connections,

Anyone who is still following this or may stumble upon it, and is having similar problems;-

Try looking for a "Scan SSL" setting in your security software (McAfee, Bitdefender, etc), and turning this off AS WELL AS ensuring Thunderbird has been added to both Windows firewall and your security software firewalls (or disabling Windows firewall and just using your security software firewall).

I accidentally stumbled on commentary regarding potential problems with SSL scanning and POP3 email servers, and turning off "Scan SSL" fixed my problem of being able to send but not retrieve emails using Thunderbird + Windows 8.1 + Bitdefender on a POP3 email server that will not be changing to more "modern" connection protocols any time soon.

In Bitdefender, "Scan SLL" can be found in Privacy Control Settings under the Antiphishing tab.

Unfortunately I can not explain why this worked as this is beyond my area of expertise, but it has worked for me.

For information;- Windows7 (latest update) + Bitdefender Total Security (latest update) + Thunderbird (lastest update) accessing a POP3 email server = working fine with Scan SSL turned ON.

Windows 8.1 (latest update) + Bitdefender Total Security (latest update) + Thunderbird (lastest update) accessing a POP3 email server = able to send but not receive emails until turning off Scan SSL in Bitdefender.

Oh, and no more starting or running in Windows Safe Mode to retrieve my emails!!

And just to be absolutely clear, I do NOT suspect or believe this is a Thunderbird problem. Thunderbird appears to be the "innocent victim" of latest windows and security software that do not appear to work well together in all situations an settings.

Good luck!

Hello. At this time my Thunderbird works. I changed Bitdefender with AVG and maybe because of this move Thunderbird started working again although AVG is giving me hard time. Is not an antivirus that you will want to use if you don't have a lot of patience. A lot of other problems showed up because of AVG. But a lot. Bitdefender is a king comparing with the AVG which is not user friendly at all. Anyway, for me Thunderbird didn't do anything before. I was using IMAP not Pop3 but that was not the reason for not working. Thank you for your advise regarding the "Scan SSL" setting as I am intend to use Bitdefender again.