Thunderbird is a popular open-source email client that’s easy to set up and works well across many platforms.
Can you use it for Hotmail? How can you set it up? Read on as I answer these questions for you.
Can You Use Thunderbird With Hotmail?
Yes, you can use Thunderbird with all Microsoft email accounts such as Hotmail, Live, and Outlook. Like any other email client, Thunderbird can send and receive emails, besides managing your Hotmail calendar and tasks. You can also manage your contacts through it.
Next, let’s see how you can set up Hotmail with Thunderbird.
Steps To Configure Hotmail In Thunderbird
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how you can set up Hotmail with Thunderbird.
- Open the Thunderbird email client and head to Tools > Account Settings.
- Next, click on Add Account.
- On the next screen, enter your Hotmail username and password. Click the Continue button
- Thunderbird will automatically configure the rest of the settings for you. Note that this can take a few minutes.
Now that you have added your Hotmail account in Thunderbird, it’s time to know about Hotmail-specific settings that can provide a better user experience.
What Are The Hotmail Server Settings For Thunderbird?
To send and receives emails on Hotmail, you must configure the incoming and outgoing servers. On the left-hand pane, look for an option called Outgoing Server (SMTP) and click on it.
This should open a new screen on the right-hand pane.
The Hotmail server may be called Microsoft Live Hotmail or Outlook Email. Select this server and click on the Edit button. In the new window that opens, make the following changes.
- Server name: smtp-mail.outlook.com.
- Port number: 587
You can also set up your connection security and user name.
Click OK and your outgoing email messages are configured.
Now, move on to the incoming mail settings.
Configuring Incoming Server
On the left-hand tab, look for Server Settings and click that.
Change the server name to imap-mail.outlook.com and set the port number to 993.
You can choose to customize the other settings such as the frequency in which Thunderbird should check for new messages, where should a message go when deleted, etc.
With this, you’re all set to send and receive Hotmail emails on Thunderbird.
That said, there can be issues at times, and let’s now look at some possible solutions when Thunderbird does not work with Hotmail.
Solutions If Thunderbird Not Working With Hotmail
There are many reasons why Thunderbird may not work with Hotmail. First off, Microsoft made many changes to its default parameters while migrating everything to Office 365. So, this solution may work for you if the reason is due to Hotmail’s settings.
- Log into your Hotmail account through your web browser
- Go to your Profile Photo on the right-hand top corner and click View Account
- In the new Window, click on “Your Info”. Then, navigate to “Manage how you sign in to Microsoft”
- Set your current Hotmail account as the primary email.
- Click the radio button next to Create a new email address and add it as an alias. In the box that opens, enter your [email protected] A catch here. Many times, your current username in Hotmail may not be available with the Outlook domain. In such cases, you may have to choose a different one. But don’t worry, as this is just an alias and won’t impact your Hotmail username.
- Finally, click the “Add Alias” button.
Now, go back to Thunderbird and log in with your alias username that ends with outlook.com. This should resolve the problem for you.
Tips If Thunderbird Doesn’t Download Hotmail
So, you’ve been using Hotmail with Thunderbird, and suddenly none of your emails seem to get downloaded to your email client. What do you do?
Here are some tips to consider.
Restart Thunderbird
The simplest of all solutions – close your Thunderbird and start it all over again. This can help to remove any cache-related issues.
Create A New Account
There can be incompatibility issues between Hotmail and Thunderbird. It’s best to create a new account with the same email address to see if that works. Just make sure to give a different account name, otherwise, Thunderbird will not create a new account for you.
Create A New Profile
Just like how you can create a new account, you can also create a new profile on Thunderbird and add your Hotmail account to it.
On the face of it, all these may sound absurd. But with experience, I can tell you that some of these simple solutions work. They just iron out some possible configuration issues in both Thunderbird and Hotmail.
Check For Common Language
Sometimes, Hotmail and Thunderbird may be configured for different languages and this can cause incompatibilities between them. This is often an overlooked setting, but one that may fix the problem for you here.
I hope one of these solutions works for you. Moving on, let’s look at some tips if you can’t send Hotmail emails from thunderbird but can receive emails
Tips If You Can’t Send Hotmail Emails From Thunderbird But Can Receive Emails
Here are some things you can do to fix this issue.
- Check your IMAP and SMTP server settings
- Whitelist Thunderbird
- Disable your firewall and antivirus to see if that resolves the issue. Make sure to turn them back on again.
- Contact your Internet Service Provider to see if there are any issues at the provider’s end.
- Restart your Thunderbird
- Recreate your profile and Hotmail account.
One of these should work, but you’ll have to run through the list as it’s hard to pinpoint the exact problem.
Before we conclude, one last doubt I’d like to clear up.
Is Thunderbird Email Discontinued?
Mozilla handed Thunderbird over to the community in 2014 and since then, there has been no support from Mozilla whatsoever. Some issues have been fixed or workarounds were found by community members for some existing problems, but there have been no official upgrades.
