Change a POP account to IMAP in Thunderbird

I have Thunderbird 68.21.1. I have 2 email accounts: an old one from Time warner cable (taken over by Spectrum) & a gmail account. I have no problem with the gmail account.

The old account ends in @SoCal.rr.comI wanted to switch my old account (a POP3) to IMAP. I had so many problems with doing so, I finally deleted the account from Thunderbird & tried to recreate it. I lost years of local emails.

When I try to recreate it, it says the username or password is incorrect (it isn't). I can logon to Spectrum webmail & see my emails (which have the username@socal.rr.com. I can send email from my gmail account to the socal account & they show up online.However, I can't get my socal.rr.com to show up in Thunderbird, only gmail.

1. When I first open Thunderbird, I get this message:



I do see my gmail account, but that's all.



2. However, if I click on the vertical lines in the upper right corner of TB>click New> & try to create a new account, I see this:


3. I put in the same name, email address & password that get's me into Spectrum webmail. Then I see this:


4. When I click Done, I see this



5. However, when I click on my gmail account (on the left screen) & then click "View settings for this account", I see the following:



6. I click on the server settings for each of the username@socal.rr.com & see the following:



The last 2 are identical.I don't know how to make the IMAP of username@socal.rr.com

If I were to just restore the whole hard drive to yesterdays, would that at least get me back all my emails & put everything back the way it was?

Thanks in advance.

Maybe not just be a matter of changing your email client (Thunderbird), if your account type is not interchangeable POP/IMAP.

Not sure how it works with your internet service, but had a couple of experiences here with mine. I found out that one allowed "interchangeability" between IMAP and POP - the user account name (email address) and password worked equally as well whether the account was set up as IMAP or POP.

However, another internet account didn't allow the same. The settings related solely to the internet service providers servers, such that they had to set my email account as either a POP or an IMAP account. My settings in my email client had to match their settings (even though the same email address and password worked, provided they determined whether it was POP/IMAP)

So, I think you may need to check with your ISP as to what type of account. I have heard of instances where an additional annual charge is required for IMAP (justification is because they're required to allow server storage space for IMAP, whereas POP is your local storage - they can limit number of days how long they keep old emails, then they're gone and their server space is freed).

idgat said:

Maybe not just be a matter of changing your email client (Thunderbird), if your account type is not interchangeable POP/IMAP.

Not sure how it works with your internet service, but had a couple of experiences here with mine. I found out that one allowed "interchangeability" between IMAP and POP - the user account name (email address) and password worked equally as well whether the account was set up as IMAP or POP.

However, another internet account didn't allow the same. The settings related solely to the internet service providers servers, such that they had to set my email account as either a POP or an IMAP account. My settings in my email client had to match their settings (even though the same email address and password worked, provided they determined whether it was POP/IMAP)

So, I think you may need to check with your ISP as to what type of account. I have heard of instances where an additional annual charge is required for IMAP (justification is because they're required to allow server storage space for IMAP, whereas POP is your local storage - they can limit number of days how long they keep old emails, then they're gone and their server space is freed).

Thank you for your reply. I did call my ISP, and they said that IMAP and POP we’re both available through them. And I’ve been using Thunderbird for at least 20 years, probably more. I know it’s support suppose I am up and POP. I just don’t understand how this is happening. When I called my ISP the person who answered knew less about email and setting it up than I do.

phrab said:

When I called my ISP the person who answered knew less about email and setting it up than I do.

Unfortunately, if it's anything like here, you're not actually talking to your ISP but a generic call centre (who's next question is likely to be about a washing mashing problem) somewhere in the world. And in most cases, if your problem is not one listed on the call centre's "answer" sheet, then there's little hope of any help or solution.

idgat said:

Unfortunately, if it's anything like here, you're not actually talking to your ISP but a generic call centre (who's next question is likely to be about a washing mashing problem) somewhere in the world. And in most cases, if your problem is not one listed on the call centre's "answer" sheet, then there's little hope of any help or solution.

Well, I decided to restore settings. I don't get an error message, but I've lost a lot of old emails. Not sure I can get them back or not. I have File History set up, so I may try that next.

Thanks for your help.

- - - Updated - - -

After spending an entire day on this, what I've learned is that I am an idiot. I have an extension in Thunderbird (on both machines) called Folder Pane View Switcher. It allows me to switch between seeing all folders & just favorites. That way I don't have to scroll every time I want to get to a folder that I frequently use.

On both machines, I had "show favorites" on. When I switched it to "all folders", all my years of emails magically appeared. Sorry @idgat for wasting your time (and anyone else who looked at this).

quandary said:

Take it as a warning signal. If those emails are important to you then you must back them up. There are many ways of doing this all with what you have already, free tools, and paid ones.

Thank you. They are backed up...several times in many ways. I just didn't see them.