How To Set Up a New Email Account in Thunderbird

Pre-Flight Check

• These instructions are intended specifically for setting up an email account in Mozilla Thunderbird 38.3.0 on Mac OS X 10.11.1.
• While the steps should be similar across platforms and operating systems, they may not necessarily apply to older versions of Thunderbird.
• For help with general email account settings, see How to Set up Any Email Client.

Step #1: Create the Account

1. From Thunderbird’s main screen, select Email under the Create a new account section, or use the main menu to pull down to File -> New -> Existing Mail Account.
2. On the window that pops up, select Skip this and use my existing email to proceed to the Mail Account Setup screen.
3. Here you will enter some basic information about the account:
   • Your name should be your name as you want it to appear in emails that you send.
   • Email address should simply be the email address you're setting up.
   • Password is the email account’s password.
4. Select Continue. Thunderbird now will attempt to discover the settings for your account automatically. If autoconfigure is not successful, you will need to configure the account manually.

Step #2: Set Account Type

1. Select your account type, IMAP or POP3. For its ability to keep email in sync across multiple devices (desktop, laptop, phones and tablets), IMAP generally is recommended.
2. Now click on the Manual config button to expand the settings window and set your connection type.

Step #3: Set Connection Method

1. Fill out the Account Information fields using the instructions below as a guide.
2. Click Done to complete the setup process.
3. If you're using standard (non-SSL) connection settings or are using secure (SSL) connection settings and have an SSL certificate installed on your mailserver, that's all you'll need to do set up the account. If you're using SSL connection settings and are using the server's self-signed SSL certificate, you will have one more step to complete.

Standard (non-SSL) settings

• Server hostname column: Enter your domain name (e.g., mail.yourdomainname.com or yourdomainname.com) on both the Incoming and Outgoing rows.
• Port column:
  • Incoming: For an IMAP connection, select "143"; For POP3, select "110".
  • Outgoing: Select "25" or "587"
• SSL column: Select "STARTTLS" on both the Incoming and Outgoing rows.
• Authentication: This should be set to "Normal password" on both the Incoming and Outgoing rows.
• Username: Your full email address, not just the part before the “@” symbol, on both the Incoming and Outgoing rows.

Secure (SSL) Settings

• Server hostname column: Enter your server’s hostname (e.g., host.yourdomainname.com) on both the Incoming and Outgoing rows.
• Port column:
  • Incoming: For an IMAP connection, select "993"; For POP3, select "995".
  • Outgoing (SMTP): Select "465".
• SSL: This should be set to "SSL/TLS" for both the Incoming and Outgoing rows.
• Authentication: This should be set to "Normal password" on both the Incoming and Outgoing rows.
• Username: This is your full email address, not just the part before the “@” symbol, for both the Incoming and Outgoing rows.

Step #4: Security Certificate

1. If your server has a self-signed (free) SSL certificate installed on the mailserver and you attempt to make a secure connection using Thunderbird, you should see a warning in a popup window such as the one on the right.
2. If that is the case, you will need to click the Confirm Security Exception button to accept the certificate and complete the setup process.
3. If you choose, you also may check the box to Permanently store this exception so that you don’t need to continue to accept the certificate each time Thunderbird connects to your server.