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You are here: Free Email TutorialsMozilla Thunderbird Tutorial › Create a POP3 Email Account in Thunderbird
Windows, Apple Mac OS X, Linux While this Thunderbird tutorial focuses on Windows, please note that Thunderbird is a "cross-platform" email client: it runs and operates the same way on Windows, Apple's Mac OS X and Linux.
Overview: this free tutorial shows you how to setup a POP3 or IMAP email account in Mozilla Thunderbird. No previous knowledge of Thunderbird is required. This information is useful to Windows, Mac and Linux users.

Create a POP3 Email Account in Thunderbird

If you are planning to use Thunderbird with an email account you have already setup in Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, or Qualcomm Eudora, see how you can import settings in Thunderbird instead. It will be faster, and a lot easier.

If you plan on adding an email account from one of the three popular email providers, please see the appropriate tutorial instead:
Setup Hotmail in Thunderbird
Setup Yahoo! Mail in Thunderbird
Setup Gmail in Thunderbird

Creating a New Email Account in Thunderbird

Create a New Email Account Thunderbird should now be open, and display the Welcome Screen.

The default "Local Folders" have been created in the left pane: Inbox, Unsent, Drafts, Sent, and Trash.

You can now click on the "Create a new account" link to associate an email address with Thunderbird.

Note: You 'll be able to add more email accounts to Thunderbird later on.
Choose Option Email Account You can use Thunderbird as reader for RSS feeds or Newsgroup accounts; in this tutorial, we will setup an email account. Choose "Email account," and click Next. Your Name + Your Email Address Under "Your Name," enter your name as you would like it to appear when people receive emails from you. Enter your actual email address in the second field. Click Next.

POP3 (POP) is the most common type of email account

Thunderbird also supports IMAP email accounts. If you must use IMAP, simply select IMAP instead of POP3. IMAP and POP3 are email protocols, whose coverage is beyond the scope of the Thunderbird Tutorial.

POP3 & Incoming Mail Server Choose the email account type: IMAP or POP3. Most email providers use POP3, so you should try POP if you are unsure. (Contact your email provider, or check its documentation to obtain this information.)

In the Incoming mail server field, you should enter the mail server to which Thunderbird must connect to check your emails. In most cases, it will be of the form "mail.yourMailServer.com"

The checkbox "Use global inbox" is checked by default. You should uncheck it if you think that you will add more email accounts later, and if you want them separate in Thunderbird -and you probably will to avoid confusion. If you use only one email address, it makes sense to leave it checked.

Note: By default, if you have multiple email accounts (or at least one email account setup previously) Thunderbird will choose the same "outgoing server" information as the other accounts. In most cases, this will not work. But more on that later.
Email Account User Name Enter your email account user name. This user name will vary depending on your email provider: it usually is either the part that comes right before the "@" character. In some cases, the user name may be the entire email address.
Click Next.
Email Account Nickname "Account Name" is the user friendly nickname you want to give to the email account you just setup. Take your pick!
Summary + Download Emails If you are connected to the Internet (reading this tutorial, you probably are) leaving the checkbox checked will make Thunderbird check for email on your provider's server as soon as you click the Finish button.

Enter Email Account Password & Remember Password
Thunderbird should prompt you for your email account's password.

If you are the only one using your computer's current user name, you will probably want to leave the checkbox checked. Otherwise, Thunderbird will ask you for your password each time it needs it.
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