A painting of me

Changing Saved Password in Thunderbird

   28 July 2005, lunch time

I have to change the password I use to log in to the mail server at work every X number of days. I have only been using Thunderbird for a short period of time, so I haven’t had to change the password in Thunderbird till today. Thunderbird is a nice enough mail application, but it is still marred by some pretty obtuse design issues. How do I change the password I use to log in to the mail server? Well, the short answer is:

In the menu, select Tools > Options…, click on Advanced, expand the Passwords section and click Manage Stored Passwords. Select the site/username line you want to delete and click Remove. When done, click Close and restart Mozilla Thunderbird.

The next time you try to check your mail you will get prompted for a password.

The password you use to log in to a mail server isn’t one of the settings in the server settings dialog box. There isn’t even a hint that the passwords are stored in the advanced tab of the options dialog box. I suppose most people won’t need to change their mail server passwords often, but this seems like particularly a poor way to go about doing so.

 

Comments

  1. You have to restart the app? That is weak.

    I gave up on it when I realized that it can’t import PST files. If I need to reinstall Outlook just to import my data files in Thunderbird, why on Earth wouldn’t I just use Outlook?

    by Ryan on July 29 2005, 1:32 am   #

  2. Hey there.

    Thanks so much for the tip! I was looking around for an answer to that exact question! You’re tip worked.

    Thanks again!

    by John Campea on August 4 2005, 10:36 pm   #

  3. Thanks!
    Found this tip via Google after searching the issue out.

    cheers!

    by Brad Fitzpatrick on February 27 2006, 11:44 am   #

  4. Nice hint, however it has changed with TB version 1.5.0.4, you should look at: Options > Privacy > Passwords > View stored passwords.

    by Ferran Foz on June 23 2006, 7:12 am   #

  5. other people my find this via google

    their is this add -on

    https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/2848

    by mike on September 1 2007, 4:41 pm   #

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