How can i access my old correspondense with old password in Mozilla Thunderbird? How can i check out from my password?

Question

I had my website moved to other hosting. Accordingly, i changed a password, and when i checked in on my computer the first time with a new password, i stupidly checked the box "remember me on this computer", but i lost access to all my old emails that were laying in Thunderbird on my PC. How can i check out from the current password and log in with the old one so that i could access my old correspondense?

Answer 1

'''Pop mail accounts '''can only access the server Inbox.
Messages are downloaded to your computer and stored in the Thunderbird Profile mail account.
Usually, the copy on the server is removed unless you select to 'leave messages on server' in Account Settings..
'Tools' > 'Account Settings' > 'Server Settings' for pop mail account.
These emails are stored on your computer and can be accessed in both 'online' and 'offline' mode.
You would need to make sure you periodically create a backup of these emails.
'''IMAP mail accounts '''see a remote view of any subscribed folder on the server.
Subscribed folders download headers only and when you select to read an email, it is retrieved from the server and stored in a temporary cache to faciltate quick access to reading.
These emails are not stored in your Thunderbird profile folders on your computer, so would not be visible if you changed to 'offline' mode. They are stored on the server.
If you did not synchronise those subscribed folders then a copy was never stored in your Thunderbird profile imap mail account.
As you have modified the IMAP mail account and it is currently accessing the new hosting server, so cannot display anything on a different server, I would leave it alone because it is working just fine.
What you could try is to create a new IMAP mail account with server settings to the old host server using the old password.
File > New > exisitng mail account
Enter name, email address and password
click on 'Continue'
If you do manage to get access, then synchronise the subscribed folders to get a copy downloaded to Thunderbird Profile folders. As those folders are constantly updating to match the server, once you have the emails downloaded, go into 'offline' mode and move them into 'Local Folders'; you will need to make new folders in Local Folders account for those emails.
However, it is possible that you may not get access as that contract has ended. There is no obligation for the old host company to keep your emails if you do not have an account with them. In which case those emails will be lost.
After creating new imap mail account, if you get access do as advised to get emails into Local Folders, once emails are in Local folders you can remove/delete the imap mail account. If it does not work, you can delete the imap mail account.
Information on synchronising subscribed folders:
* https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/imap-synchronization
Information on backup:
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/IMAP_backup