Set Up Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0 for Your E-Mail Account
Applies to: Office 365 for professionals and small businesses, Office 365 for enterprises, Microsoft Exchange, Live@edu
You can connect Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0 to your e-mail account by using POP3 or IMAP4 connectivity. These instructions apply to both Windows and Mac.
For information about how to connect to your e-mail account by using Thunderbird 3.0, see Set Up Mozilla Thunderbird 3.0 for Your Email Account.
How do I set up Mozilla Thunderbird for access to Outlook Web App?
Open Mozilla Thunderbird. The Account Wizard runs the first time that you open Thunderbird. If the Internet Connection Wizard does not run when you first open Thunderbird, do the following:
On the Tools menu, click Account Settings.
On the Account Settings page, click Add Account.
In the Account Wizard, on the New Account Setup page, select Email account, and then click Next or Continue.
On the Identity page, in the Your Name box, enter the name that you want to appear in the "From" field of your outgoing messages and then, in the Email Address box, enter your e-mail address.
On the Server Information page, select POP or IMAP, and then click Next or Continue. You might want to use IMAP4 because it supports more features.
In the Incoming Server and Outgoing Server boxes, enter the appropriate server names, and then click Next or Continue.
POP3 server or IMAP4 server This is the server name you enter when you set up a computer to connect to your e-mail account. For information about how to find your incoming (POP3 or IMAP4) server name, see How do I find the server settings? later in this topic.
SMTP server This is the SMTP server name you need to enter when you set up either a POP3 or an IMAP4 client to connect to your e-mail account. For information about how to find your outgoing (SMTP) server name, see How do I find the server settings? later in this topic.
On the User Names page, enter your e-mail address in the Incoming User Name and Outgoing User Name boxes, and then click Next or Continue.
On the Account Name page, enter the name you want to use to refer to this e-mail account, and then click Next or Continue.
On the Congratulations page, review your configurations, and then click Finish or Done to exit the wizard.
Note
After you complete this step, a reminder may tell you that you need to set up your connection to your e-mail account to use SSL or TLS. You'll do this in the next step. Click OK.
Set up Thunderbird to use SSL or TLS, do the following:
Note
If the Account Settings page doesn't open automatically, in Thunderbird, on the Tools menu, click Account Settings.
In the navigation pane of Account Settings, select Outgoing Server (SMTP). On the Outgoing Server (SMTP) Settings page, select the SMTP server, and then click Edit.
Under Security and Authentication, under Use secure connection, make sure that TLS, if available is selected, and then click OK.
In the navigation pane of Account Settings, under your e-mail account configuration, select Server Settings.
On the Server Settings page, under Security Settings, select SSL, and then click OK.
In the Mail Server Password Required message box, type your password. If you want Thunderbird to remember your password, click Use Password Manager to Remember this password. If you're using IMAP, click OK. If you're using POP, go to the next step.
If you're using POP3, under Server Settings, it's a good idea to select Leave messages on the server. This keeps a copy of the messages you retrieve to your local computer on the server. This also lets you access your messages from a different mail application.
How do I find the server settings?
Before you set up a POP3 or IMAP4 e-mail program, you need to look up your own POP3, IMAP4, and SMTP server settings.
Watch this video to learn how to find your server settings for your POP or IMAP e-mail program.
To find your server settings, sign in to your e-mail account using Outlook Web App. After you sign in, click Options > See All Options > Account > My Account > Settings for POP, IMAP, and SMTP access. The POP3, IMAP4, and SMTP server name and other settings you may need to enter are listed on the Protocol Settings page under POP setting or IMAP setting, and SMTP setting.
Note
If you see Not available next to POP setting, IMAP setting, and SMTP setting, your account may not be set up to use POP or IMAP e-mail programs. For more information, contact the person who manages your e-mail account.
What else do I need to know?
If you don't know whether to use POP3 or IMAP4, consider using IMAP4 because it supports more features.
If your e-mail account is the type that requires registration, you must register it the first time you sign in to Outlook Web App. Connecting to your e-mail account through POP3 or IMAP4 will fail if you haven't registered your account through Outlook Web App. After you sign in to your account, sign out. Then try to connect using your POP3 or IMAP4 program. For more information about how to sign in to your account using Outlook Web App, see How to Sign In to Your E-Mail Using a Web Browser. If you have trouble signing in, see FAQs: Sign-in and Password Issues or contact the person who manages your e-mail account.
In some cases, if you've set up Thunderbird to use IMAP, you need to set up Thunderbird to put messages that you've sent into the Sent Items folder on the Exchange server. You can do this as follows:
To sign in to your e-mail account by using Thunderbird, click Get Mail in Thunderbird.
In Thunderbird, on the Tools menu, click Account Settings.
In the navigation pane of Account Settings, select Copies & Folders for your e-mail account.
In Copies & Folders in the right pane, under When sending messages, automatically, select Other. In the drop-down list, select your user name, and then select Sent Items.
Click OK.
What if I want to know more?