Articles on: Email

Setting up Mozilla Thunderbird

This guide walks you through setting up an email account in Mozilla Thunderbird.

You should have already configured a mailbox within a Krystal cPanel account. To carry out the instructions in this article you may need the Manual Settings for your mailbox.

There are now two options for setting up your email client. Option 1 is preferred, but does have some prerequisites.Option 1 - Use mail.yourdomain for inbound and outbound mail server (IMAP Hostname and SMTP Hostname) e.g. if your domain is example.co.uk you would use mail.example.co.ukPrerequisitesYour domain’s A record must be pointing to your Krystal hosting server. If your domain is registered with Krystal and you host your website here then this is likely the case.You must have SSL enabled for the domain. Once your domain is correctly pointing to Krystal a free Let's Encrypt™ certificate will be issued automatically.If you meet these requirements then you can use the format mail.yourdomain for the inbound (IMAP Hostname) and outbound (SMTP Hostname) mail servers in the instructions below e.g. if your domain is example.co.uk then you would use mail.example.co.uk as the inbound and outbound mail server names.This option has the benefit of meaning that should you change hosting servers at any point you won’t need to re-configure any email clients. Once the DNS has updated for your new server A record the clients will continue to be able to send and receive email.Option 2 - use the server hostname for inbound and outbound mail serverThis option has no prerequisites. However, you should be aware that if you use this method, and at a later date change hosting servers you will need to re-configure any email clients.If you are a reseller this would also impact all your client accounts.

If this is your first time using Thunderbird, and haven't previously added any email accounts then please open Thunderbird and start from Step 3.

If you are already using Thunderbird with other accounts follow these steps to add a new account.

If you're already using Thunderbird with other email accounts start here. Open Thunderbird and click the hamburger (three lines) icon at the top right, hover over Options and from the menu that appears click on Account Settings.
In the Account Settings screen click Account Actions and then click Add Mail Account...
From here on the instructions are the same whether this is your first email address or an additional account. If this a new Thunderbird installation, when you first open the application this is the first window you'll see.

In the Your name: box type the name you'd like to display when people see emails from this account
Type your email address and password in the remaining boxes.
You can elect to have Thunderbird remember your email account password - if you untick this box you will need to re-enter your password every time you try to send or receive email.
It's likely that Thunderbird will detect some settings, but won't get them all correct.

Click Manual config to check all the settings.
For Incoming you have the choice of either an IMAP or POP connection - leave this as IMAP unless you know you require the mailbox configured for POP.
The Server hostname for both Incoming and Outgoing can either be mail.your.domain or your home server name - see the note at the top of this article for more information about these two options.
Setting SSL for both Incoming and Outgoing to SSL/TLS will also change the Port details to 993 & 465
Finally type your full email address in the Incoming Username field - it will automatically update in the Outgoing field.
Then click Re-Test and finally after the settings have been checked and confirmed, click Done.
Lastly you'll see the System Integration options

Clicking Set as Default will make Thunderbird the default application for the options you have ticked (Email, Newsgroups and Feeds by default)
Clicking Skip Integration will mean Thunderbird will not be set as your system default application.
If you leave the Always perform this check when starting Thunderbird box ticked and click Skip Integration you'll be prompted every time you start Thunderbird, asking whether you'd like to make it the default application.

Updated on: 24/01/2024

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