One of the features of my old Exchange box that I was missing (other than the integrated Gmail calendar), was the ability to switch between my webmail account and Thunderbird. When setting up my account with POP I was unable to have the same folder system on both versions which just led to confusion and time wasted searching for messages. Enter IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol)…

IMAP allows your email client to ‘talk’ to the webmail version and replicates the set up you have on your local machine. Any moving of messages, creating of folders etc is immediately reflected in your online account making it far easier to keep track of messages andenables you to work from several computers easily. For example, you can set up your email account with Thunderbird at home, in the office and access it online when out and about all the time maintining a uniform structure.

So without further ado I have provided you with a set of simple instructions for setting up Gmail IMAP with Thunderbird (thanks to the Gmail site for the initial guide!)

Step One – Enable IMAP

1. Log into your Gmail account
2. Go to the settings and click on the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab
3. Look for the IMAP Access option and click the Enable IMAP option
4. Save Changes

Step Two – Add and Configure Thunderbird Account

1. Go to Thunderbird and go to Tools – Account Settings
2. Click on Add Account
3. Select Email and next
4. Enter Your name and your full Gmail address (ie. info@googlemail.co.uk) and hit next
5. Select IMAP as the server and imap.googlemail.com in the incoming server field
6. Set your incoming username as your full email address -hit next
7. Set your account name as your full username and click Next then Finish

1. Click on the account on then left hand pane and go to Edit – Properties
2. Click on Outgoing Server and then Add
3. In the description add any name
4. Add smtp.googlemail.com in the Server Name field
5. Change the port to 993
6. Tick the ‘Use name and password’ and put in your username as your full email address
7. Click the TLS radio button

1. Once that’s all done, click on the server settings option
2. Change the port to 993
3. Under Security Settings click on SSL
4. Finally, I like to click on the Check for messages at startup and Check for new messages every 10minutes option.

Related posts:

1. Integrate Gmail with Thunderbird
2. Popular blog posts 2008
3. Proxy Servers : When they work and when they fail!

Mozilla, Thunderbird and Gmail IMAP, Thunderbird addon, thunderbird Gmail