Replacement for Thunderbird required

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My wife’s PC was recently infected by Locky. After wiping the disc and restoring a two month old image everything is OK, except for Thunderbird. The emails prior to mid January are there, but unable to remember her passwords, she can’t send or receive email.

Having spent many hours trying to sort it out, it’s time to use another email client. There must be something other than TB and webmail, but unable to find any on the Windows Secrets site.

I’m sure some kind soul can name a replacement. Thanks.

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My wife’s PC was recently infected by Locky. After wiping the disc and restoring a two month old image everything is OK, except for Thunderbird. The emails prior to mid January are there, but unable to remember her passwords, she can’t send or receive email.

Having spent many hours trying to sort it out, it’s time to use another email client. There must be something other than TB and webmail, but unable to find any on the Windows Secrets site.

I’m sure some kind soul can name a replacement. Thanks.

A program that is working fine for some of my clients is OE Classic, great for those moving from WinXP’s Outlook Express.
http://www.oeclassic.com/

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

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Thanks Berton..I have been looking for something to replace TB..TB has always been quirky to me..
I am looking into it now..

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Thanks Berton..I have been looking for something to replace TB..TB has always been quirky to me..
I am looking into it now..

I realize I’m coming a bit late to the dance, but *I* use an email client called eM Client that I’ve seen briefly mentioned previously. (http://www.emclient.com/) It is a bit confusing to novices, but eM Cleint has both a free and a paid service. The free service allows up to two email accounts, and the paid service has unlimited accounts, as well as unlocking some of the more advanced features. When first installed, eM Client starts in a 30-day “demo” mode. Both the free and paid services require “activation”. To get the activation key for the free service, one has to go to the company web site and give them a valid email address to which the key is sent. (*I* use a free Juno account SPAM collecting address for such purposes, just in case.) Once you have the activation key, you insert it and the program then won’t bug you about it again. You can only register one email address per activation, so if you want to use the free service on another computer, you need to register that computer with a different email address. eM Client is quite similar to MS Outlook, IMO, but much cheaper if you should need the premium features (approx US $30) I’ve tried a lot of email clients over the years, and used to hack Windows Mail (big brother of Outlook Express) in Windows 7. Since moving up to Windows 10, I didn’t think that hack would be such a good idea, so tried Thunderbird, Evolution, and eM Client. eM Client had the best “feel” to me, so I stuck with that one. My wife has and uses Thunderbird and loves it, so I leave her alone on it.

Cheers,
Phil Heberer

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The emails prior to mid January are there, but unable to remember her passwords, she can’t send or receive email.

I might be a bit dense this morning, but the only password you need with Thunderbird is the one for your email account. If she can’t remember what that is, she won’t be able to access the email regardless of what email client she uses.

Whoever the email provider is should have some provision for a lost password.

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Have you tried Nir Sofer’s MailPassView to retrieve your Thunderbird mail password?
Some antivirus programs object to various instances of his programs, which you can ignore.

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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Thanks guys, but I am still looking.

@Berton.
OEClassic was the first client tried when upgrading to Win 8 forced me to find a new email client. I didn’t like it and finally settled for Thunderbird as an almost acceptable substitute for OE. Assuming it would have improved by now I downloaded it, only to discover it cost $25, too much to pay out for something that has disappointed once. Admittedly, the $25 is refundable if not satisfied, but not the two lots of rip-off exchange fees.

@gsmith-plm
Misunderstood both your messages initially. Puzzled by the heading of the PM, before realising it didn’t relate to the content, then assumed #3 was saying that if she is unable to remember one password she would forget others. Only discovered my mistake after downloading eM client. If unable to find an email client that doesn’t need to know her Sky p/w she will have to make do with her Yahoo webmail.

@BATcher
The initial page says it can recover TB passwords provided there is no master p/w, but every time it’s opened it asks for that. Downloaded anyway, but the only files there are a note soliciting donations and a HTML Help page with no content.

It just hasn’t been my day!
George

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@Berton.
OEClassic was the first client tried when upgrading to Win 8 forced me to find a new email client. I didn’t like it and finally settled for Thunderbird as an almost acceptable substitute for OE. Assuming it would have improved by now I downloaded it, only to discover it cost $25, too much to pay out for something that has disappointed once. Admittedly, the $25 is refundable if not satisfied, but not the two lots of rip-off exchange fees.

As I understand the notes in the list of features, the monetary cost is for the Pro version, a couple of examples shown are if wanting to use Identities or if wanting to request new features.
http://www.oeclassic.com/online-help-identities

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

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As I understand the notes in the list of features, the monetary cost is for the Pro version, a couple of examples shown are if wanting to use Identities or if wanting to request new features.
http://www.oeclassic.com/online-help-identities

In reality there is no free version, at least not initially, as it states that user name and password are only supplied with the Pro version – which is bordering on a scam.

Presumably it is possible to sign up for the Pro version, get the required details and then, at some stage in the trial period, ask for the refund and use the user and p/w supplied to access the free version. However, given the behaviour noted above, I would not put it past them to cancel the log on details along with the refund.

Not the sort of outfit I wish to deal with.

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In reality there is no free version, at least not initially, as it states that user name and password are only supplied with the Pro version – which is bordering on a scam.

Presumably it is possible to sign up for the Pro version, get the required details and then, at some stage in the trial period, ask for the refund and use the user and p/w supplied to access the free version. However, given the behaviour noted above, I would not put it past them to cancel the log on details along with the refund.

Not the sort of outfit I wish to deal with.

I think the point has been missed. One doesn’t need a password to install and use the program, only need the username and password assigned by the ISP for the E-Mail Account so as to access the messages. The program runs without having to set up that account, just doesn’t yet have any data to work with. I’ve had it installed on a couple of computers for some time now without needing a password to open the program. Even Microsoft Outlook can be installed and opened without having a password but then in order to do anything more one has to set up an E-Mail Account, again back to the requirement of whatever ISP is used. Or simply put in other words, E-Mail is 2 steps, install and run an E-Mail Client then set up an Account or open an Internet browser then go to a Webmail provider to set up or access an Account.

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

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I think the point has been missed. One doesn’t need a password to install and use the program, only need the username and password assigned by the ISP for the E-Mail Account so as to access the messages. The program runs without having to set up that account, just doesn’t yet have any data to work with.

Two attempts to divide into paragraphs have failed. Bring back Kathleen Atkins. Apologies for the late response, but this has been a hectic week, not least because of a slow PC constantly ‘not responding’, then the AV giving a grey screen, all of which led to my forgetting all about this thread. Consequently, it was a surprise when reading WS this morning, not only to be reminded of the thread , but to discover a flood of replies. It was the quote above than induced me to revisit Plusnet’s presentation of how to set up a new email account in Thunderbird, without finding a solution, but a few points to query. They went through the whole process with me, and I thought we had nailed it when I noticed something at the bottom of one page which had gone unnoticed previously – it listed two accounts, Sky and Plusnet, with Sky as the default. Changing that made no difference, it was still possible to send to my PC, but not receive. The call ended with them saying my wife would have to use web mail if unable to persuade Sky to close or change the account. So, it would have ended in stalemate if I had not returned to the laptop for some reason and seen a message that the Plusnet server had rejected the test email to me for Login failure. This convinced me that the problem was due to an incorrect password. Another call to Plusnet, this time to request they change the p/w, and after various security checks they informed me that the password had been set as Georgelee + some numerals, when I had requested George + the numbers. As soon as the correct p/w was entered, emails started downloading – a welcome message and 10 test messages sent over the last couple of weeks. My wife is happy to have an email client working again, and later informed me that she can now access her Sky email online – the password I had recovered was correct, but didn’t work because of the incorrect Plusnet p/w. As for me, I’m furious at having wasted a huge amount of time on this, especially on the Thunderbird Forum, which is far from intuitive, all because someone didn’t bother to pay sufficient attention to the what I said. At least I’m glad it’s over. Two attempts to divide into paragraphs have failed. Bring back Kathleen Atkins.

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@gsmith-plm
Misunderstood both your messages initially. Puzzled by the heading of the PM, before realising it didn’t relate to the content, then assumed #3 was saying that if she is unable to remember one password she would forget others. Only discovered my mistake after downloading eM client. If unable to find an email client that doesn’t need to know her Sky p/w she will have to make do with her Yahoo webmail.

Perhaps I’m just not following. Thunderbird does not, by itself, require a password. The email account(s) it’s going to access DO require passwords. If the user cannot remember the password(s) to the email account(s), then regardless of what client is used, they won’t be able to get or send mail.

To repeat – regardless of who the email provider is (yahoo, gmail, comcast, 100’s of others), you must know the password for the email account itself. Without it, you cannot access the mail. If those passwords are missing, then the email provider should be able to help recover them.

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To add about the password, all ISPs require a username [may be the actual E-Mail address] and a password to access the account whether using an installed E-Mail Client or Webmail/Online access they provide on their site. Those have to be what the ISP assigns. Webmail such as Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail.com, Outlook.com, etc., allow more flexibility in what a user can choose and set.

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

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To add about the password, all ISPs require a username [may be the actual E-Mail address] and a password to access the account whether using an installed E-Mail Client or Webmail/Online access they provide on their site. Those have to be what the ISP assigns. Webmail such as Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail.com, Outlook.com, etc., allow more flexibility in what a user can choose and set.

Of course I realise that it is impossible to use email without knowing the p/w, that’s the reason for starting a new account with another email client and a new user name and p/w.

But setting up eM seems especially difficult. It asked for the user name before supplying one, so, not knowing the format they require, I entered ester@emclient, then after being told to use a valid name, ester@emclient.com, and finally her Sky address. They may have sent an email to that address, but as Thunderbird is blocked, it cannot be received. At some stage, before or after this, a licence appeared which had to be inserted in the application, then click Activate, but the only options were Deactivate and Close. This morning I tried sending a message asking how to overcome this, which failed when they requested the password.

There must be some way to open an email account without the need to know the p/w from another account, as everyone has to start with a first account, so why do they make it so difficult.

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Of course I realise that it is impossible to use email without knowing the p/w, that’s the reason for starting a new account with another email client and a new user name and p/w.

But why do you need a new email client program? If you like Thunderbird, and you are going to start a new email account, just change Thunderbird to use a different account.

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But why do you need a new email client program? If you like Thunderbird, and you are going to start a new email account, just change Thunderbird to use a different account.

I agree. I currently use Thunderbird to read 11 email accounts. I have removed other accounts in the past. Thunderbird seems entirely capable to me.

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If email accounts didn’t have a password or if such password was not used to access the mailbox messages, everybody could read such messages, simply by specifying the email address. Surely the provider will provide a password reset mechanism, either through a web access or through customer support.

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FossaMail, “an alternative version of the Mozilla Thunderbird mail&news client, and based on the Pale Moon browser core”, would be an easy conversion but you must find out which passwords are blocking you from connecting (Thunderbird has it’s own Master Password function, as do all legit/secure email providers) before using the FossaMail/Thunderbird Migration tool.

Use a web browser to access the (Yahoo -based) Sky email and reset the password.

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FossaMail, “an alternative version of the Mozilla Thunderbird mail&news client, and based on the Pale Moon browser core”, would be an easy conversion but you must find out which passwords are blocking you from connecting (Thunderbird has it’s own Master Password function, as do all legit/secure email providers) before using the FossaMail/Thunderbird Migration tool. Use a web browser to access the (Yahoo -based) Sky email and reset the password.

Thanks. I have filed this away, in case the need arises to find another email client in the furture. See below for resolution of this thread.

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I tried OE Classic today and I suggest you stay away from that program..It’s really not ready for prime time..
The editing buttons in the message window don’t work…I emailed about it and the author knows about it and says it will be fixed in a future version.

Spell check is not functional and the list goes on and on..
I don’t think it should even be offered for sale..It doesn’t have IMAP.

The author acknowledged there were problems with the program.

Limited import features..

In my opinion, I wouldn’t pay 24.95 for it, I wouldn’t even use the free version with all the problems it has.

The author was nice and forthcoming about it’s flaws so I give him credit for that.
Anyway, that’s my opinion..

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@georgelee:
Thunderbird stores the email account info and the associated password in an encrypted format – but the password only if the user allowed it by checking the box “Allow Password Manager to…” upon first time input of the email password.

Go to Tools, Options, Security and activate Passwords tab.

Click on button Saved Passwords and on button Show Passwords; confirm and you will see the password – if it was originally saved.

I assume that it must have been saved because otherwise your wife would not have been able to receive/send any emails in the past.

Oh, and BTW, if you don;t see the menus I mentioned above: place your cursor to the right (not above and right!) of the tab of whatever is open, right click and turn Menu Bar on.

Good luck.

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@georgelee: Thunderbird stores the email account info and the associated password in an encrypted format – but the password only if the user allowed it by checking the box “Allow Password Manager to…” upon first time input of the email password. Go to Tools, Options, Security and activate Passwords tab. Click on button Saved Passwords and on button Show Passwords; confirm and you will see the password – if it was originally saved. Good luck.

Thanks for that, although it was about the only useful thing I learned from a long thread on the Thunderbird Forum. As it happens the password shown there was correct, and is still in use, but I now know it was invalidated by plusnet not using the p/w requested.

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eikelein, thanks for your reminder about the password! I should have remembered that!

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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Phebe, I tried emclient also but you can only install it on one computer and they want you to buy a license for each computer..Too expensive..Besides, I really didn’t like it that much..Very limited customization in it.

I also hacked Windows mail in 7…Don’t use it because of security reasons.

I’ll just stick with TB for now..At least it works and it’s free.

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I agree that tbird is easier to navigate than eM Client. Because my tb imploded and I’m unable to fix it, I had to go with eM Client. Actually, I wish I could use Eudora Pro again, like I did long ago before I had to go with tbird.

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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…. Because my tb imploded ….

…. My TB also got messed up ….

Naturally we don’t know what really happened but one mistake I have seen several times wreak T-Bird havoc was the user creating too many(?) individual mail folders in the Inbox folder instead of under Local Folders. Years ago and when there were folders in the Inbox I have seen many crazily weird T-Bird symptoms that I always could repair by
1. Compact Folders from the File menu and
2. Drag all folders one by one(!) out of the Inbox and dropping them under Local Folders and finally
3. Compact Folders from the File menu.

…. I just un-installed TB and re-installed it and now it works fine. My problem with TB was I never upgraded it from 3.1..

There are doubts but if my memory serves me correctly in that ancient 3.1 past was a major change in the internal T-Bird database structure. I once had to upgrade a (back then) quite old 3.1 installation to something in the 20s and that raised hell. I had a backup (of the …usernameappdataroamingthunderbird folders) and it turned out 17.1 was the last version that could update the database from the “old” format to the “new”one. Installed 17.1 first which took care of the internal changes and then (the back then) current version and all was peachy.
And:
Keep care of thy updates and thy updates shall take care of you — or something like that.
But where have I heard or read that before? 😉

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Well Roland, I didn’t have any problem navigating EMclient. It was just two basic for me and having to buy two licenses were a bit much.
My TB also got messed up also so I was looking for another mail program and came across that one.
I just un-installed TB and re-installed it and now it works fine. My problem with TB was I never upgraded it from 3.1..LOL And when I finally did all hell broke out…

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I don’t understand too many folders in the Inbox Folder. Do you mean too many folders in the area that is not in the Local Folders area? In other words, too many folders on the “server side,” when the folders should have been placed within Local Folders area? If that is what you mean: I never knew about that! Thanks for heads-up! 🙂

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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I don’t understand too many folders in the Inbox Folder. Do you mean too many folders in the area that is not in the Local Folders area? In other words, too many folders on the “server side,” when the folders should have been placed within Local Folders area? If that is what you mean: I never knew about that! Thanks for heads-up! 🙂

Roland,
Thanks for pointing that out; I did not express that all too clearly.

Your “… on the server side …” would IMHO apply only to IMAP accounts where all the emails remain on the server. With VERY few exceptions most of my customers are quite conservative in matters of privacy and do NOT use IMAP for exactly that reason – including me btw. We use POP accounts only where the Inbox and all other folders and emails are actually managed and stored on the local computer. And definitely older versions of good old T-Bird did not fare too well when the user created too many folders for storage in the Inbox folder in a POP account.

And yes Roland, that is exactly what I mean, at least for POP accounts.

Side note for the not-so-much-geeky readers here: With IMAP accounts all folders and all emails physically reside on the ISP’s server system; what we see are only “pointers” to the ISP’s files and folders. And yes, that creates MUCH, MUCH more internet access traffic when we handle emails in an IMAP accounts, in T-Bird at least; I don’t know all that much at all about other email client programs. How much more WAN traffic? Well, on a slower DSL connection that is quite clearly felt!

With POP accounts all emails are downloaded to the local computer’s Inbox folder and mails and all other user-created folders for permanent storage are physically located, stored and maintained on the local computer only.

In T-Bird and when using a POP account I can tell the systems involved to “Leave messages on server” so they remain additionally out there and are still accessible from mobile devices. Personally I call this a “hybrid” set up to accommodate “cell phone addicted” email usage. My own dear wife is an excellent example for that way of life. Once she gets the emails on her computer at home in the POP account with a.m. “Leave messages on server” turned OFF they are gone from her cell phone Inbox. And she and a few others among my clients like it that way.

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Actually I believe any ‘folders’ created on the Gmail side are called labels…

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Actually I believe any ‘folders’ created on the Gmail side are called labels…

Banyarola, you are quite correct.

T-Bird sets up GMAIL accounts automatically as IMAP accounts and I believe that it then uses Gmail’s “Labels” as folder names. But I only “believe” that to be so.

For the not-so-geeky readers here I have explained that in more detail in my reply #27 to RolandJS in this thread.

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My wife’s PC was recently infected by Locky. After wiping the disc and restoring a two month old image everything is OK, except for Thunderbird. The emails prior to mid January are there, but unable to remember her passwords, she can’t send or receive email.
Having spent many hours trying to sort it out, it’s time to use another email client. There must be something other than TB and webmail, but unable to find any on the Windows Secrets site.

I’m sure some kind soul can name a replacement. Thanks.

George, this is your opening.
I see a request for opinions about using another email program — Thunderbird.
I see that your other half forgot the password — which several posters pointed out that tbird as a password recovery attempt – is not the answer.
I mentioned eM Client ’cause I thought maybe your original program was somewhat destroyed by Locky.
What did some of us miss? You mentioned other details further and further into your thread. 🙂

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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