Adding Gmail to Mozilla Thunderbird over IMAP

There are many among us who still prefer to access their emails through an email client. They mention obvious advantages such as one user interface for all email accounts, offline access, local storage etc. 

So, in this blog, we shall look at the sequence of steps to add a Gmail address to an email client - Mozilla Thunderbird using IMAP. However, before starting the process, we shall check two very important details:

• under Gmail settings Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab, we need to check if IMAP is set as enabled in the IMAP access section.

• under the Google Accounts My Account page security tab, we need to check the status for 2-step verification for the account.

Note: Having 2-step verification is not a requirement for this process. But, I am a huge advocate of having it enabled on the account for enhanced security.

With these two details checked, we can now proceed to open Thunderbird and add this Google account there. 

In the Thunderbird home screen, we locate the Email button under the Set up Another Account section and click on it.

This opens up the Set Up Your Existing Email Address tab, where we enter the name, the full Gmail address and the regular password for that Google account and click on the Continue button.

Now we wait for a period of time as Thunderbird automatically searches for the working and recommended server configuration. We are thereafter shown the confirmation in the green box and we proceed by clicking on the Done button.

This brings up the popup window for user verification with the Gmail username prepopulated in the field. We need to confirm that and click on the blue Next button.

In the next screen, we are asked to enter the password for the account. As in the Thunderbird screen, we enter the regular password for the account and click on the blue Sign in button.

We will now be offered the second verification option to authenticate ourselves. The first option will always be the default option, but we can always avail of other backup options by clicking on the link that reads Try another way to sign in.

We can now see the 2-step verification options available to us to authenticate ourselves. To see the ways we can set up 2-step verification with those options, you can visit https://blogs-on-gmail.blogspot.com/2022/09/setting-up-2-step-verification-options.html.

We select one of the available options and follow the prompts to authenticate ourselves.

Verification done, we are now shown the screen to allow Mozilla Thunderbird the necessary permissions it requires to perform its various tasks as the email client effectively.

The account is successfully created under Thunderbird. We can conclude the process by clicking on the blue Finish button.

We should now see the account added under Thunderbird.

We now can also see Mozilla Thunderbird listed as one of the apps with access to our Google account with mention of the exact permissions by visiting https://myaccount.google.com/permissions.

That's all. If you have any questions related to this topic, please leave them under comments. If you have an issue that requires a look-in, please post about it in the Gmail Help Community by clicking on this link - https://support.google.com/mail/thread/new.