Changing Incoming and Outgoing servers in Thunderbird

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Follow these steps to point Mozilla Thunderbird at your new mail server. You'll update two things: the incoming server (how you receive mail) and the outgoing (SMTP) server (how you send it). These steps apply to Thunderbird 115 and newer.

Settings you'll need

Use these with the mailbox address and password you were given. Wherever you see mail.example.com, use the exact server name we provided.

Purpose Protocol Port Encryption
Receiving (recommended) IMAP 993 SSL/TLS
Receiving (POP3) POP3 995 SSL/TLS
Sending (recommended) SMTP 465 SSL/TLS
Sending (alternate) SMTP 587 STARTTLS

 

Your username is your full email address. Sending (SMTP) must have authentication enabled, using the same username and password as receiving. The account type (IMAP or POP3) is fixed when the account is created — you're updating the server and port for whichever it uses.

Incoming server — receiving mail

  1. Open the menu ☰ (top-right) and choose Account Settings. (Or use the menu bar: Tools › Account Settings.)
  2. In the left sidebar, under your email address, click Server Settings.
  3. Set Server Name to mail.example.com.
    • Replace mail.example.com with your own domain — the exact server name we provided.
  4. Set Port to 993 for IMAP (or 995 for POP3).
  5. Set Connection security to SSL/TLS.
  6. Confirm User Name is your full email address and Authentication method is Normal password.

Outgoing server (SMTP) — sending mail

  1. In the same left sidebar, scroll to the bottom and click Outgoing Server (SMTP).
  2. Select the server used by your account, then click Edit.
  3. Set Server Name to mail.example.com.
    • Replace mail.example.com with your own domain — the exact server name we provided.
  4. Set Port to 465. (If sending is blocked on your network, use port 587 with STARTTLS instead.)
  5. Set Connection security to SSL/TLS.
  6. Set Authentication method to Normal password and User Name to your full email address, then click OK.
Heads up
Thunderbird shares one SMTP list across all accounts. After editing, click your account name in the sidebar and make sure the Outgoing Server (SMTP) dropdown on that page points to the server you just edited.

If it isn't working

  • Mail arrives but won't send: re-check the SMTP server, port 465 / SSL/TLS (or 587 / STARTTLS), and that authentication is set to Normal password.
  • Password keeps prompting: confirm the username is your full email address and re-enter the mailbox password (the one you use for webmail).
  • Can't connect: check the port and security match (993/SSL-TLS in, 465/SSL-TLS out) and that the server name has no typos.

Still stuck? Open a ticket with a screenshot of the error and we'll sort it out.

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