Where did you install Firefox from? Help Mozilla uncover 3rd party websites that offer problematic Firefox installation by taking part in our campaign. There will be swag, and you'll be featured in our blog if you manage to report at least 10 valid reports!

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Have unistalled TBird and reinstalled 3 times. Still getting error messages

more options

I started getting error messages from Thunderbird eg "Add security exception". The email address of the account has the port number added to it. I was unable to use TBird. After several weeks I uninstalled TBird. I cleared the profiles and tried reinstalling. I get the same or similar messages. I have just retried but get "Thunderbird failed to find settings for your email account" when trying manual setup and still get Add security exception as well.

I started getting error messages from Thunderbird eg "Add security exception". The email address of the account has the port number added to it. I was unable to use TBird. After several weeks I uninstalled TBird. I cleared the profiles and tried reinstalling. I get the same or similar messages. I have just retried but get "Thunderbird failed to find settings for your email account" when trying manual setup and still get Add security exception as well.

All Replies (6)

more options
Have unistalled TBird and reinstalled 3 times.

You've been wasting your time. The problem is with your Thunderbird profile, or more likely, with your security software. Profile files are stored separately from the Thunderbird program files. The program files are static and do not change (except when you upgrade the Thunderbird application version). Because we store profile and program files separately, you can uninstall Thunderbird without losing your messages and settings, and if something goes wrong with a Thunderbird update your information will still be available. It also means that you don't have to reinstall Thunderbird in order to delete your information or troubleshoot a problem.

I started getting error messages from Thunderbird eg "Add security exception".

What is the exact error message? Please post a screenshot. https://support.mozilla.org/kb/how-do-i-create-screenshot-my-problem

What is your anti-virus/security software?

more options

Thank you for your reply. I am aware that I have wasted considerable time with this.

I have deleted and/or renamed all the Thunderbird profiles I found to try and force it to create new ones.

I am using Windows Defender as my security software together with Malwarebytes.

I have attached a screenshot.

more options

Your picture shows some IMAP server that uses port 143. The default security for that is STARTTLS, but since you obscured the server name, we can't tell if that is correct, and we don't know what you have for the account in Account Settings/Server Settings, i.e. server name, server type, port, security, authentication.

more options

OK. Here is another screenshot of the server settings.

more options

It looks to me your site is hosted by iPage, and they recommend these settings:

incoming IMAP server: imap.tony-n.com on port 993, SSL/TLS security, authentication = normal password, User Name = full email address; outgoing SMTP server: smtp.tony-n.com on port 465, SSL/TLS security, authentication = normal password, User Name = full email address.

For iPage, port 143 for the incoming would only apply for connection security = None, instead of STARTTLS as in your picture.

more options

Thank you. I will try that soon.

Tony