Change Email Account Settings in Thunderbird

Overview

This article will step you through making changes to your email account settings in Thunderbird for Windows.
If you instead need to add an email account into Thunderbird from scratch, please refer to our support article here.

Changing Incoming (POP3 & IMAP) and Outgoing (SMTP) Settings

The Incoming and Outgoing server settings in Thunderbird are adjusted from two separate sections – the Server Settings page of an account for the Incoming settings, and the Outgoing Server (SMTP) section for Outgoing settings.

1. Open the Menu from the top-right of Thunderbird, and choose Account Settings.

2. Click on Server Settings under the account you would like to make the changes to.

3. Under the Server Settings page you can adjust a number of the Incoming Server’s settings, such as the Server Name, the Port Number used to connect (993 for secure IMAP, 995 for secure POP3), and the type of Encrypted Connection Security to use (None, STARTTLS, or SSL/TLS).

4. To change your Outgoing server settings, select the Outgoing Server (SMTP) option from the left-hand menu, select the SMTP Server that corresponds to the account you wish to change the settings for, and then click Edit.

5. In the SMTP Server window that pops up, you can adjust the Server Name, Port Number, and Encrypted Connection Security setting.

Changing Saved Passwords

In order to change the passwords that Thunderbird has saved for your Incoming and Outgoing server settings, you must change each of these individually similar to how you would change a saved password in a web browser.

1. Open the Menu from the top-right of Thunderbird, and choose Preferences.

2. Select the Privacy & Security option from the left-hand menu, then scroll down and click on Saved Passwords.

3. You will see a list of all Incoming and Outgoing passwords saved in Thunderbird – these will be prefixed by “imap://” or “pop://” for Incoming servers, and “smtp://” for Outgoing servers.
   Click on the Show Passwords button to be able to edit your saved passwords.

4. Double-click on the password for the server and account you need to change, and type in the new password.
   If you both send and receive emails via Conetix’s servers, you will need to update this for both the Incoming and Outgoing passwords.

5. Click Close once finished, and then restart Thunderbird.