How to change mail from popo to imap thunderbird

To change your email account from POP to IMAP in Thunderbird, follow these steps:

  1. Open Thunderbird and go to the "Account Settings" window:
    • Windows: Click on the "Tools" menu and select "Account Settings".
    • macOS: Click on the "Thunderbird" menu and select "Account Settings".
  2. Select the email account you want to change from POP to IMAP:
    • In the "Account Settings" window, select the email account you want to change from POP to IMAP.
  3. Click on the "Server Settings" button:
    • In the "Account Settings" window, click on the "Server Settings" button next to the email account you selected.
  4. Change the "Account type" to IMAP:
    • In the "Server Settings" window, select "IMAP" from the "Account type" dropdown menu.
  5. Update the IMAP server settings:
    • In the "Server Settings" window, update the IMAP server settings as follows:
      • "Incoming mail server": Enter the IMAP server address provided by your email provider (e.g., imap.gmail.com).
      • "Port": Enter the IMAP port number provided by your email provider (e.g., 993).
      • "Security": Select the security type provided by your email provider (e.g., SSL/TLS).
  6. Click "OK" to save the changes:
    • Click "OK" to save the changes to the "Server Settings" window.
  7. Restart Thunderbird:
    • Restart Thunderbird to apply the changes.

After restarting Thunderbird, your email account should be using IMAP instead of POP. You can verify this by checking the "Account Settings" window again or by checking the email account settings in the "Tools" menu.

Note: If you're using a Gmail account, you may need to enable IMAP access in your Gmail account settings before you can use IMAP in Thunderbird. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to your Gmail account.
  2. Click on the gear icon in the upper right corner of the page.
  3. Select "See all settings".
  4. Click on the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab.
  5. Select the "Enable IMAP" checkbox.
  6. Click "Save Changes".

After enabling IMAP access in your Gmail account settings, you should be able to use IMAP in Thunderbird.