For a few months, I have trouble with sending outgoing email via Thunderbird. Previously I was using the default settings for Gmail IMAP and SMTP (port 993 for IMAP and port 465 for SMTP SSL).

A few months ago, everything stops working and I cannot send email with Thunderbird anymore. Little googling and I found several reasons for that.

• My firewall is blocking Thunderbird – check – that was not my problem
• My antivirus software is blocking it – I use Avast, but check – that was not my problem also.
• Your ISP were blocking your SMTP port – (465 or 587) If you have similar problem, check this also, I contact my ISP just to be sure and everything was ok. But there are some ISP’s that are blocking these ports.
• Upgrade Thunderbird to a new version – updated to latest and still stuck with SMTP timeout
• SMTP server port is incorrect – It was good earlier, but ok, I change that into 587 STARTTLS – but SMTP timeout problem still occurs.
• Problem with add-ons. First I try to disable them, then, after problem stays – I remove all addons and still nothing.
• Your password is broken – I try to reset it, and enter new password but again – error.
• Finally, I discovered what my problem was. What was it? An old stuck message into my Gmail account. I logged into my account – from my browser, found that old bitch stucked unread message and delete it immediately.
• Back to Thunderbird. I was skeptic that now will work. Restart it and try to send some emails – everything works like a charm. That’s it. A stuck old message made me a lot of problems more than a 2 months.

So, if you have similar problem, go through my steps to find a solution before doing anything else more complexly.

Tags | Gmail, Howto, SMTP, Thunderbird, timeout

Tweet

| |