Solved Win 8, with Thunderbird, multiple users

JimO

New Member
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5
Hello;
I'm brand new to Windows 8. I purchased a Lenovo 840 computer from a computer business. They put most of the data and programs from my old, failed, XP computer onto the new Win8. This included the Thunderbird email program.

The computer has two logons. They activated one of the thunderbird email accounts for one logon (call it the J account), but not the other (call it the C account) . So, I am trying to activate C's thunderbird activity. For C's computer logon,There is an icon in the desktop for thunderbird, but no icon on the big Start screen.

When I try to run thunderbird for C, it keeps asking me to create an account. I give it the appropriate tbird logon (no password), and tbird searches but finds nothing. I get to the window where I can set up more details, but it can't find anything either.

I probably have not provided enough information to get corrective action, but I hope I've given enough so that someone can ask me more.

Thanks,
Jim
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    System Manufacturer/Model
    lenovo H430
I assume you have two users who log onto one computer and you'd like to have their email accounts separate. One of your users has their Thunderbird profile set up. In order to set up a profile for the second user you'll need to log on as that user and then run Thunderbird's Profile Manager. For directions see: https://support.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/kb/using-multiple-profiles
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro - 64 bit
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Homebrew
    CPU
    AMD 4850e 2.5Ghz
    Motherboard
    Foxconn A7DA-s
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    HD 6450
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP ZR22w
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    HyperX 3K 120GB SSD
    PSU
    Antec 380S
    Case
    Antec Sonata
    Keyboard
    IBM clicky
    Mouse
    Kensington Expert Mouse Pro - trackball
    Internet Speed
    12/1.5mb - ATT Uverse
    Other Info
    Built to be quiet with low power dissipation
Thank you for the response. It got me started in some direction.

Since "C" has no critical emails on the system, I ended up deleting her account, deliberately. So I'm trying to recreate the account. Note that on qwest.net, our email and internet provider, there is already an account as C@qwest.net.

So I create the new account in the "choose user profile" tool. I see Thunderbird start, and under Accounts it says "create new account". I click on that, and get the Mail Account Setup window, which asks for a user name, email address, and password. I enter her user name and the existing C@qwest.net, and get a window that lists gandi.net and hover.net (which I know nothing about but seems to be trying to sell something).

So then I click on "skip this and use my existing email", fill in the user name and email address again, click on continue, and receive a message with data that says "Thunderbird failed to find the settings for your email account" Everything in the settings is in auto, and looks similar to my account on my win8 logon and thunderbird account.

At this point I'm going in circles, and appear to be missing something.

Do you have another idea?

Thanks ever so much!

Jim
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    System Manufacturer/Model
    lenovo H430
I'm not clear on what you'd like to do. Do you have two Windows 8 Logon accounts and want them to have separate Thunderbird profiles, each with their own email accounts?

Or do you have one Thunderbird profile and want to have it retrieve email from multiple email accounts?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro - 64 bit
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Homebrew
    CPU
    AMD 4850e 2.5Ghz
    Motherboard
    Foxconn A7DA-s
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    HD 6450
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP ZR22w
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    HyperX 3K 120GB SSD
    PSU
    Antec 380S
    Case
    Antec Sonata
    Keyboard
    IBM clicky
    Mouse
    Kensington Expert Mouse Pro - trackball
    Internet Speed
    12/1.5mb - ATT Uverse
    Other Info
    Built to be quiet with low power dissipation
I have two Win8 logons, C and J.
Each of us has our own email account, c@qwest.net and j@qwest.net.
There are two separate accounts up on qwest.
The J account works.
The C account does not.
I BELIEVE that each account has its own profile on the computer (prior to the loss of XP and the reinstall of stuff into win8). We each download our own email, and we can't see each other's email unless we send it to each other (or change computer logons). This seems obvious (I think) to me, because I can receive response emails from this forum but cannot get the C email to work.

Does this help? Thanks for your assistance!
Jim
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    System Manufacturer/Model
    lenovo H430
That is very helpful. To get things set up you'll need to do a couple things.

First, log on to Win8 as C -- add a Win8 account for C if this isn't there already. While logged on as C, create a Thunderbird profile for C. Use the Thunderbird Profile Builder linked above to do this.

Then run Thunderbird as C and click Tools/Account Settings. At the bottom left side of the pop up window, click Account Actions/Add Mail Account and fill in the email account information for C. Thunderbird has a data base of settings details for the common ISP's so this is much easier than it was when setting up OE accounts under XP. If users have multiple email accounts it is best to set one up at a time, get it working, then do the next. You can adjust the settings for a previously set up account at Tools/Account Settings by clicking on the account in the block at the left side of the pop up. (Since you have the J account working you can look at the settings for that and translate as needed for C's settings.)

The result should be that when J is logged on to Win8 and runs Thunderbird he gets the mail for his email account(s). And when C is logged on to Win8 and runs Thunderbird she gets the mail for her account(s).
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro - 64 bit
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Homebrew
    CPU
    AMD 4850e 2.5Ghz
    Motherboard
    Foxconn A7DA-s
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    HD 6450
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP ZR22w
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    HyperX 3K 120GB SSD
    PSU
    Antec 380S
    Case
    Antec Sonata
    Keyboard
    IBM clicky
    Mouse
    Kensington Expert Mouse Pro - trackball
    Internet Speed
    12/1.5mb - ATT Uverse
    Other Info
    Built to be quiet with low power dissipation
GREAT!
Almost there.
It looks like a lot of things have changed with the latest version of Tbird. The click paths don't seem to be the way you mentioned, and I sometimes get a message when I start the program that things changed last December,but I'm almost as creative as they are, and got again to the popup wherein I set the server options. I had done that before, but apparently had not gotten the correct setup. Now, I am able to send email from the C account. yay.

But dontcha know, I can't GET email. It's not the email setup. When I try to get email, it asks for a password. She never set up a password, so previously it never asked for one. Now it demands one. I don't know if one was set up on the qwest account or not. So I'm either going to have to find out how to keep Tbird from asking for it when it isn't necessary, or trying to figure out how to get the qwest system to tell me what it is. I seem to remember having a similar problem with my own account years ago, and put in a password. Any ideas?

And I keep thanking you!

Here's an aside... A couple years ago I also had major computer problems. My computer was down for a week and I absolutely needed to get emails. Someone gave me a website that would allow me to access emails, and it worked, but it did NOT ASK FOR A PASSWORD! It occurs to me that if the Tbird password is only for the program on my computer, that anyone who knows the email address of someone could use that website to read anyone else's emails. yipes.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    System Manufacturer/Model
    lenovo H430
Not sure where I went awry on click paths. I'm running Tbird v17 which is the latest release. But you persevered and made it work except for the password detail.

I suspect C has forgotten that she set a password up previously. It is set it up initially and then the mail program uses it automatically so it's easy to forget that it was ever needed. People often use the same password for many things. You may have used the same password for both your email systems if you set it up for her. If you can't figure out what the current password is then you can always reset that password: Password Reset | Internethelp | CenturyLink

I believe every email system requires a password to read email, otherwise you could read other people's email if you simply knew their email address. Most likely you have forgotten the minor detail of entering a password to access web mail while your computer was down. I know when we travel I carry a 3x5 card with the info needed to retrieve email from all our addresses via web because it is easy to forget or become unsure while using an unfamiliar computer.

John
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro - 64 bit
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Homebrew
    CPU
    AMD 4850e 2.5Ghz
    Motherboard
    Foxconn A7DA-s
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    HD 6450
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP ZR22w
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    HyperX 3K 120GB SSD
    PSU
    Antec 380S
    Case
    Antec Sonata
    Keyboard
    IBM clicky
    Mouse
    Kensington Expert Mouse Pro - trackball
    Internet Speed
    12/1.5mb - ATT Uverse
    Other Info
    Built to be quiet with low power dissipation
Hi again
Did you ever have one of those situations where you do something and it doesn't work, but someone else advises you to do the same thing and this time it works?
The link you provided above was the one thing that was missing. I had gone to the qwest site and not found what I was looking for. But now I have both the emails set up the way they should. Thanks so much.

This particular computer change did not go as planned. I may have to find another tech support company in the area. bummer.....

Thanks again. I'm up and running!!!!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    System Manufacturer/Model
    lenovo H430
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