Thunderbird 6 updated and now can no longer send email through Gmail SMTP server
steve y
I upgraded from 5.x to 6.0 yesterday and now I can no longer send
outgoing email using Gmail as my SMTP server. Anyone got any thoughts ?
Another PC on same network that has an old Thunderbird 2.x
installation doesn't have any problems sending mail through the same
account. Both PCs are using WinXP SP3
Steve
Peter Taylor
Works fine in Windows 7, SP1.
--
Peter Taylor
steve y
what happens
Steve
John H Meyers
> I upgraded from 5.x to 6.0 yesterday and now
> I can no longer send outgoing email using Gmail as my SMTP server.
> Anyone got any thoughts ?
My endlessly recurring thought is that a specific error message
or precise symptom can reduce dozens of possibilities down to one;
is this something of which most people are without the capacity to realize,
having never even had to go through a medical diagnosis, for example,
or to find out just what part of their roof is leaking?
Past versions of TB, however, are co-conspirators
in the masking of vital evidence for diagnosing problems
by _deleting the error code number_ from in front of error messages!
Whoever thought up that brilliant obfuscation idea
should get a punishment to fit the crime:
<http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/mikado/webopera/mk206.html>
--
Peter Taylor
You'll like Windows 7 after XP once you get used to finding where things
are in 7. Hint for T-Bird: the profile is in the "Roaming" folder under
User/AppData (hidden folder)/Roaming.
--
Peter Taylor
steve y
"Sending of message failed.
The message could not be sent because connecting to SMTP server
smtp.gmail.com failed. The server may be unavailable or is refusing SMTP
connections. Please verify that your SMTP server settings are correct
and try again, or contact the server administrator."
As I think you are saying, this isn't very helpful.
I have tried switching the port between 465 and 567 but that doesn't
change anything
Steve
steve y
buy a new one. I used MozBackup to move her Thunderbird email file which
worked a treat.
Where is Mr UPS ?
John H Meyers
>> Works fine in Windows 7, SP1
> Am actually waiting for UPS
> to deliver a new PC with Win7 so will see what happens
Oh, I can't wait to see the conclusion
that this old software got messed up by XP yet is corrected by Win7 ;-)
I'm wondering whether the educational system
has completely removed "check your own work" from the curricula.
--
steve y
saying is that XP has been fine with Thunderbird versions 2 to 5 but
yesterday's upgrade to 6 coincided with me not being able to send mail.
If Thunderbird6 plays nicely with Win7 then I'll be happy 'cos I'll be
able to send mail again. Others may not be in the fortunate position of
having a new PC/OS available to them
Do you actually have anything constructive to contribute ?
Gordon
>
> If Thunderbird6 plays nicely with Win7 then I'll be happy 'cos I'll be
> able to send mail again.
Just upgraded to TBird 6 on Windows 7 Home Premium - seems to b working
fine. And I use GMail and can send perfectly OK....
Peter Taylor
I just start up T-Bird and don't configure anything so it has a default
profile. Then I copy the old profile, nuke the new one and replace it
with the old one and I'm done.
--
Peter Taylor
John H Meyers
> Do you actually have anything constructive to contribute ?
Nothing is less constructive than a request for help
that's unaccompanied by a shred of useful information
(such as a specific symptom, error message, name of ISP,
settings in program, recently installed other software, etc.)
for determining the problem, and that's highly constructive
information for all people to possess.
If an ISP goes down for two minutes, for example,
it's not uncommon for someone to announce, after some while,
that any completely irrelevant activity performed at that time
in attempt to "fix" the problem was successful,
and thereby to misguide numerous other people.
After you've written thousands of useful articles
and helped a few thousand people to solve issues
over a distributed range of topics and forums,
based on real input which those wishing help provided,
then come back and criticize others' record of being constructive.
--
John H Meyers
> You'll like Windows 7 after XP once you get used to finding where things are in 7.
> Hint for T-Bird: the profile is in the "Roaming" folder under User/AppData (hidden folder)/Roaming.
While it's true that certain folder locations have changed between XP
and later versions of Windows, there are also some "symbolic" paths
that are actually equally valid for Windows 2000 through Windows 7,
because each version of Windows expands the symbols
to end up at the right destination for that system.
For example, WindowsKey+R opens a "Run" dialog on all these systems,
and if you type or paste exactly this: %AppData%\Thunderbird
you should find a folder opening which contains the "profiles.ini"
which Thunderbird uses to find all profiles, and in most cases
those profiles happen to be in the "Profiles" folder
which is also visible in that same original directory.
If no profile lies other than here, then copying both "profiles.ini"
and the entire content of the "Profiles" folder will successfully
copy all of one Windows user's Thunderbird data
from any one of these Windows systems to another.
If anything more complex than having all profiles and data
within that one "Profiles" folder has been set up,
or one wants to merge profiles from old and new systems,
then more complex steps may be recommended,
but most cases I encounter need only the copying
of one file (profiles,ini) plus one folder (Profiles),
to migrate lock, stock and barrel from an old system to a new one,
and the same symbolic path typed or pasted into each "Run: dialog
goes directly, on each system, to where those two items exist.
The use of these stable symbols helps unify and simplify
what could otherwise look complex, e.g.:
<http://www.svrops.com/svrops/articles/jpoints.htm>
<http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/vista/vista_appdata.htm>
Quotes from the first link above:
Windows Server 2003 [XP] and below define the following variables relating to profiles:
APPDATA=C:\Documents and Settings\bjohnson\Application Data
Windows Vista and Longhorn Server [through Windows 7]:
APPDATA=C:\Users\bjohnson\AppData\Roaming
But TB always goes to %AppData%\Thunderbird to get started,
and you can use that as a simplification for yourself.
--
Torsten Villnow
No problem here - Win XP SP3 and Win7 Prof 64bit SP1.
--
Torsten Villnow
steve y
Mike Easter
> The error message I am getting is
>
> "Sending of message failed.
> The message could not be sent because connecting to SMTP server
> smtp.gmail.com failed. The server may be unavailable or is refusing SMTP
> connections. Please verify that your SMTP server settings are correct
> and try again, or contact the server administrator."
>
> As I think you are saying, this isn't very helpful.
>
> I have tried switching the port between 465 and 567 but that doesn't
> change anything
Check your smtp server settings especially the SSL:
smtp.gmail.com
465 (other ports will also work, 25 and 587)
user is full email address
authentication: normal password works, I didn't check encrypted
connection security: SSL/TLS
Gmail also provides a walk-thru' troubleshooting tool, generic and
Tbird2, including using telnet for smtp connection failures. Realize
that the Tb2 TLS vs SSL settings are different from later versions
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=180718 This page is
designed to walk you through all of our troubleshooting information in
an orderly fashion.
Example with answers for your sending:
Have you recently used Gmail's POP service with this client and address?
Yes, this address just worked recently
When are you encountering problems?
Sending
To run the telnet test on a Windows computer:
1. Open the Start menu, and select Run.
2. Enter command in the Open: field, and click OK.
3. Enter 'telnet smtp.gmail.com 465,' and hit Enter.
Did the prompt window clear?
Yes, the telnet test cleared
No, the telnet test produced an error
--
Mike Easter
steve y
Will try the Telnet test later,
Steve
John H Meyers
> "Sending of message failed.
> The message could not be sent because connecting to SMTP server smtp.gmail.com failed.
> The server may be unavailable or is refusing SMTP connections.
> Please verify that your SMTP server settings are correct and try again,
> or contact the server administrator."
>
> As I think you are saying, this isn't very helpful.
It's very helpful, indicating that the problem is likely to be with networking
(unless TB settings were changed from correct to incorrect,
particularly not trying to use port 25).
Any news about whether the incoming side was successful or not
would also be of interest.
If TB would itself have divulged more info (e.g. what port number
was it trying?) things would be better for the diagnostician,
but TB is not noted for being quite so thoughtful,
including that even when servers return error messages
beginning with specific numeric codes of significance,
I have seen those codes deliberately dropped,
much as I have seen vital info dropped by most financial news reports,
which ignore an entire Congressional Budget Office analysis
and stop immediately after offering the "scare headline,"
which the actual analysis indicates to be controllable
with certain steps that only one responsible reporter in 100
goes on to declare.
> I have tried switching the port between 465 and [587] but that doesn't change anything
It's a common reaction to try fiddling with server settings,
but since Gmail's fundamental arrangement is extremely stable,
this isn't IMO a profitable direction, even though the mere coincidental
clearing of other trouble sometimes gives a false impression that it helped.
One reason not to rush around changing settings with every networking issue
is that there's a finite probability of not getting them back in order again --
port 465 requires SSL from the outset, whereas port 587 is first contacted without SSL,
then a StartTLS command is soon given to initiate a secured (and encrypted) session,
and not everyone knows how to match up the correct combination of those settings.
The following free diagnostic tool (for Windows) is very good for _independently_
testing whether a server can be contacted at all -- even when an SSL-only port
is tested (465 for SMTP, 995/993 for POP/IMAP), one can distinguish between
a successful vs. unsuccessful connection.
http://www.grc.com/id/idserve.htm
If you wanted to see whether smtp.gmail.com was responding on port 587,
for example, without needing to poke around Thunderbird at all,
you could type into that program's server box smtp.gmail.com:587
and then see whether the following typical and normal response occurred:
Initiating server query ...
Looking up IP address for domain: smtp.gmail.com
The IP address for the domain is: 209.85.225.109
Connecting to the server on remote port: 587
[Connected] The server greeted our connection with this message:
220 mx.google.com ESMTP v16sm395193ibe.34
Query complete.
If it did not occur, then no amount of head-banging against Thunderbird
would be of any help, and the course of investigation
could turn elsewhere, such as a call to one's ISP,
or to anywhere that temporary outages might be reported
(or to checking whether web sites could be browsed,
in case the issue was more global then just email).
Here's the same query for smtp.gmail.com:465 (SSL port):
Initiating server query ...
Looking up IP address for domain: smtp.gmail.com
The IP address for the domain is: 209.85.225.109
Connecting to the server on remote port: 465
[Connected] No connection greeting was received from the remote server.
Requesting the server's default page.
The remote connection was accepted but the server did not return a connection greeting.
Query complete.
With this independent tool, two successful connections are verified
outside of any other application.
How would we estimate the likelihood that TB6 is causing the failure under XP?
Are there so few XP users that also just tried TB6
that just one such report is in the ball park of what would be expected,
and also that no problem would have been caused on Win7?
At any rate, there's a tool you can use,
and I'd also be interested to know whether,
when TB6 connects under Win7, does anyone else having TB6+XP
have such trouble with smtp.gmail.com on ports 465 (SSL) and/or 587 (TLS)?
Only a record of actual observations can establish what's going on,
and one has to start somewhere, then investigate further, etc.,
rather than stopping at the outset on
"I can no longer send outgoing email using Gmail"
as the entire stock of info for requesting "any thoughts,"
to which my instant reaction is always "yes, first get more info" :)
Once you start establishing reasonable grounds for others to invest
themselves in working on the case, it goes better than if it starts out
looking like no more than another "dear me, the sky is falling."
Google Apps status (including its Gmail services):
http://www.google.com/appsstatus
http://email.about.com/od/gmailtips/qt/Check_the_Gmail_Status_for_Issues.htm
Gmail is not historically shy to confess outages, e,g,:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/current-gmail-outage.html
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/more-on-todays-gmail-issue.html
Hope something here turns out to be useful,
to even more than one onlooker.
--
Ron Hunter
Hummm. Seems I have the same situation.
Ron Hunter
system with TB. Not sure I ever DID, as I normally only receive email
from gmail.
Ron Hunter
what are your settings for outgoing gmail?
Gordon
Same as they were in TBird 5.
SMTP Server: smtp.googlemail.com
Port: 465
Authentication method: Normal password
Connection Security: SSL/TLS
steve y
1. If I use the GRC tool I get exactly the same results as you
2. Receiving mail isn't a problem.
3. There were no other changes to the XP PC yesterday, only the TB 6.0
upgrade
4. TB configuration transferred to new Win7 machine using Mozbackup
worked first time.
Steve
steve y
After a hint from Wayne Mery I checked the firewall log and found the
firewall to be the reason for the problem. For some reason the upgrade
resulted in Thunderbird becoming an untrusted application as far as the
Comodo firewall was concerned.
Thanks to everyone for the help/suggestions
steve y
Andrew DeFaria
> The error message I am getting is
>
> "Sending of message failed.
> The message could not be sent because connecting to SMTP server
> smtp.gmail.com failed. The server may be unavailable or is refusing SMTP
> connections. Please verify that your SMTP server settings are correct
> and try again, or contact the server administrator."
>
> As I think you are saying, this isn't very helpful.
>
> I have tried switching the port between 465 and 567 but that doesn't
> change anything
>
> Steve
Whether or not an error message was "very helpful" to you is not the question. Indeed if the error message was "very helpful" you wouldn't be here! Think man! The error message if for the people here who may or may not be able to help you! They are not in front of your screen. They did not see the problem. They have no idea. Posting the error message gives them an idea! That's the point!
When people present me with "I tried that and it didn't work" and scarcely more than that I respond with "What was your first indication that it failed!" - which is designed to get to the heart of the problem.
Ron Hunter
That's what I have, and it doesn't work here either. While the POP3
server access on my laptop works just fine. Bye IMAP.
Peter Taylor
I used Comodo for one week and hated it. You've given me another reason
to never try it again.
--
Peter Taylor
Robert M Jones
Every time I update to a new version of an internet connecting programme
my firewall alerts me that it has "changed" and asks again for
permission for it to connect and also asks me if I want it to "remember"
the new version. It tells me whether the program has previously asked
for internet access. Which is the way I expect my firewall to work. It
just did it earlier today for both FF and TB 6 which it refused to let
contact the trusted zone OR the internet until I had renewed the
permissions. All very clear, and took about 2 seconds.
I'm not familiar with Commodo but if it isn't set to fire off an alert
when a program updates/changes, then it should be. If the behaviour
described by the OP, of just siliently refusing to allow access, is the
default for Comodo then I wouldn't use it.
--
Rev Robert M Jones, Wimborne Baptist Church, UK
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/dataprofiling/
http://www.wimborne-baptist.org.uk
Free trial of Mailwasher Pro - effective email spam filter - (commission
goes to our partners in Bulgaria)
http://fta.firetrust.com/index.cgi?id=420
Ron Hunter
Peter Taylor
> On 17/08/2011 16:45, Peter Taylor wrote:
>> On 08/17/2011 04:31 PM, steve y wrote:
>>>
>>> After a hint from Wayne Mery I checked the firewall log and found the
>>> firewall to be the reason for the problem. For some reason the upgrade
>>> resulted in Thunderbird becoming an untrusted application as far as the
>>> Comodo firewall was concerned.
>>>
>>> Thanks to everyone for the help/suggestions
>>>
>>>
>>
>> I used Comodo for one week and hated it. You've given me another reason
>> to never try it again.
>>
>
> Every time I update to a new version of an internet connecting programme
> my firewall alerts me that it has "changed" and asks again for
> permission for it to connect and also asks me if I want it to "remember"
> the new version. It tells me whether the program has previously asked
> for internet access. Which is the way I expect my firewall to work. It
> just did it earlier today for both FF and TB 6 which it refused to let
> contact the trusted zone OR the internet until I had renewed the
> permissions. All very clear, and took about 2 seconds.
>
> I'm not familiar with Commodo but if it isn't set to fire off an alert
> when a program updates/changes, then it should be. If the behaviour
> described by the OP, of just siliently refusing to allow access, is the
> default for Comodo then I wouldn't use it.
>
Which firewall do you use?
--
Peter Taylor
Robert M Jones
the free version of ZoneAlarm - I know, I know...!! ;-)
(plus the hardware firewall in my router)
Robert M Jones
the free version of ZoneAlarm - I know, I know...!! ;-)
(plus the hardware firewall in my router)
--
Peter Taylor
I'll stick to Windows 7 and XP firewalls on my Windows machines and the
one in my router, of course.
--
Peter Taylor
John H Meyers
> After a hint from Wayne Mery I checked the firewall log
> and found the firewall to be the reason for the problem.
> For some reason the upgrade resulted in Thunderbird becoming
> an untrusted application as far as the Comodo firewall was concerned.
This is common with software firewalls,
producing "no response from server" due to firewall block
of any program which has been changed since last approved.
If one installs software such as this,
it pays to study its user manual,
rather than discard it just like one's auto owner's manual :)
--
Christine Bunny
We too have the same problem with XP and TB6; started about 8 days
ago . We think it may have been immediately after virus protection
[Trend Micro ] update and, as there were a similar spate of problems
back in 2010 with avast [or similar named virus software], I disabled
all Trend Micro protection/firewalls and now we can get emails in and
out again. Next step is to re-activate the protection and see if the
problem re-occurs !
Next problem - in the fiddling with settings caused by the above, the
server [gmail] now is trying to download all our old emails from 2009
and 2010 - hundreds of them. PLEASE how do we stop this happening ?
Martin & Christine
John H Meyers
> We too have the same problem with XP and TB6; started about 8 days
> ago. We think it may have been immediately after virus protection
> [Trend Micro ] update and, as there were a similar spate of problems
> back in 2010 with avast [or similar named virus software], I disabled
> all Trend Micro protection/firewalls and now we can get emails in and
> out again. Next step is to re-activate the protection and see if the
> problem re-occurs !
>
> Next problem - in the fiddling with settings caused by the above, the
> server [gmail] now is trying to download all our old emails from 2009
> and 2010 - hundreds of them. PLEASE how do we stop this happening ?
Hasty "fiddling with settings" can mess up perfectly good settings,
so it's good to temper any panicky fiddling
in the absence of a sound plan of action,
which should include first looking for other causes
than settings which had always been just fine.
Did you fiddle with your Gmail settings too?
Gmail normally will supply a message only once, ever, for download via POP,
but if a message is not completely downloaded (e.g. due to size limit in TB),
or if you re-set POP settings at Gmail, then all (or some) messages of the past,
still in Gmail on the web, could be offered again,
which you could stop only by once again telling Gmail to offer
only new messages which arrive from this moment forward
(you may miss a few unless you do a POP download
immediately before making such a change at Gmail).
Re-defining your account in TB or removing your TB "popstate.dat" file
for an account can also cause re-download of messages,
although this is usually limited, by Gmail,
to messages never before completely downloaded,
unless you also changed your POP instructions at Gmail,
or are always downloading all "new" messages within 30 days
(via "recent mode," in which you use "recent:me@gmail" as your user ID).
Re-downloading old mail from 2009 and 2010 would indicate other than
the last possibility, probably that you reset your POP instructions
at Gmail, or are re-downloading only partially downloaded old messages
(are you receiving _all_ old mail, or just some small portion of that?)
Did you re-define your Gmail account in TB, and in the process
inadvertently change it to an IMAP account, which will independently
download at least the headers of every message you've ever saved at Gmail?
It may be less strain to simply let the old mail download into an empty
(POP) Inbox, then delete all the newly downloaded mail that you don't want.
This is one good reason, by the way, to keep your Inbox emptied of ancient mail,
rather than abusing it as your life history of received mail
(old "Sent" mail may also profit from being neatly filed away).
It rained here yesterday, and I got soaked -- no matter,
as I've dried out between then and now, and will survive :)
--
Christine Bunny
On about 31 August we posted a query/problem with TB6; many thanks for your comprehensive response to our re-downloading problem. We have had a problem getting a reply message to your address and have at last found the site of our first communication
Yes I probably did "fiddle" a little with the settings (whilst Rome burned?) trying to get the smtp connection to work. Then silly me took the computer to a local supposed capable "computer repairer" and, Yes, I think they un-installed and re-installed TB [since the Desktop now has a Shortcut to 'Backup' which was not there before]. In the process they did put the computer into IMAP mode. Needless to say it was No fix - No fee. I certainly do not know enough to find/delete popstate.dat !
But now I have the computer back in POP mode. And I would say Yes, I am fairly sure that along the way I re-set the POP instructions. Gmail is downloading ALL the 2009 and 2010 emails not just the few which might be larger than the 1 MB limit we put on via 'Disk Space'
Whilst typing this response it appears that Gmail has already downloaded some 300+ old emails so I will have the task of culling 95% of them from the Inbox over the weekend. We do have 11 sub folders or, as someone put it "Daughter " folders, where we store specific topic emails [family, motorhoming, kayaking, vehicles, etc] rather than just keeping huge Inbox and Sent folders but one we have never used to date is Archive which might be a good idea in future for some of the serious stuff such as MozillaZine registration, Skype ditto etc. which need to be kept.
I accessed the server via the browser and looked at the 2,000 odd Inbox messages, deleted 75% of them as no longer required/relevant and moved the balance of about 500 messages to a new folder on the server leaving some 4 messages to be downloaded to our computer to see if the system would work. Unfortunately those 4 messages and a handfull of new Inbox messages since that ime have not been downloaded into our computer.
To make matters worse, now TB "hangs up" and is unable to download any messages from the (gmail) server
We really do appreciate your assistance, explanation and tutorial which makes the problem, our cause contribution and solution much clearer.
Cheers from Western Australia.
Martin & Christine Bunny.
mcbu...@gmail.com