Set Up Email in Mozilla Thunderbird

Mozilla Thunderbird is a free email app for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Use it to read and send mail from an address you created in cPanel on your LochStudios shared hosting.

This article is for shared hosting mailboxes. It is not the same product as LochStudios Mail (hosted business email). Those mailboxes are set up on the mail service in the portal, not here. If that is the product you have, open it and click Log in to WebMail, then follow Set up Axigen email in Thunderbird.

Need the address first? Create an email account. Prefer the browser? Access Webmail (Roundcube).

Settings you will enter

Hostname is usually mail.yourdomain.com when the domain uses cPanel Hosting DNS (it is paired with this hosting service). Swap in your domain. Username is always the full email address. Password is the mailbox password from Email Accounts, not your portal password.

We recommend IMAP. Folders, read state, and sent mail stay on the server and match every other device.

Copy the values from cPanel if you want to be sure. Do not guess a server name.

1. Sign in at the portal.
2. Open the hosting service for the domain.
3. Click Log in to cPanel.
4. In the Email section, open Email Accounts.
5. Find the address and click Connect Devices.

That screen lists the incoming and outgoing hostname, ports, and username for that mailbox. Full notes: General IMAP/POP/SMTP mail settings.

Add the account in Thunderbird

The account wizard looks slightly different by Thunderbird version. The fields are the same.

1. Open Mozilla Thunderbird.
2. Start the mail account wizard:
- On first launch, Set Up Your Existing Email Address (or Add your existing email) appears on its own.
- Later: open the menu (three lines) → New Account → Email.
- Or File → New → Existing Mail Account.
- Or menu → Account Settings → Account Actions → Add Mail Account.
3. Enter:
- Your name: the name people should see on mail you send.
- Email address: the full address (sales@yourdomain.com).
- Password: the mailbox password from Email Accounts.
- Leave Remember password ticked if this is your own computer.
4. Click Continue (or Set up).
5. Thunderbird will try to fill the servers for you.
- If it finds settings, choose IMAP (recommended) unless you specifically want POP, review the hostname and ports, then click Done.
- If it cannot find them, click Configure manually (or Manual config) and use the table above.
6. For a manual incoming server:
- Protocol: IMAP or POP3.
- Hostname: mail.yourdomain.com.
- Port: 993 (IMAP) or 995 (POP).
- Connection security: SSL/TLS.
- Authentication: Normal password.
- Username: the full email address.
7. For the outgoing (SMTP) server:
- Hostname: mail.yourdomain.com.
- Port: 587 with STARTTLS, or 465 with SSL/TLS.
- Authentication: Normal password.
- Username: the same full email address.
8. Click Re-test if the button is there, then Done.

Thunderbird should open the inbox. Click Get Messages (or right-click the inbox and choose Get New Messages) to fetch mail.

IMAP or POP

IMAP keeps mail on the server and shows the same folders, read state, and sent items on every device. Use IMAP if you also check mail in Webmail, on a phone, or on another computer.

POP (POP3) downloads messages to this Thunderbird profile. Many setups then remove the copy on the server. Use POP only if you want mail stored on this one computer and you do not need it elsewhere.

We recommend IMAP.

After it connects

• IMAP usually downloads headers first. The full message loads when you open it. To pull a folder now, right-click it and choose Get New Messages.
• POP downloads whole messages to this computer. That first fetch can take longer on a large mailbox.
• Send a test message to another address, then reply to it, so you know both receive and send work.
• Thunderbird checks for new mail on its own. Change how often under Account Settings → the account → Server Settings.
• Contacts live in Thunderbird's Address Book. They are separate from the mailbox.
• Message Filters in Thunderbird (Tools → Message Filters, or the account's filter list) run on this computer. Rules that should run even when Thunderbird is closed belong in cPanel. See Create email filters.

Add another mailbox the same way. Each address is its own account.

Shared hosting allows 1000 emails per hour from the account. Split large sends, or open a support ticket if you need a different setup.

If Thunderbird will not connect

Cannot sign in

• Username must be the full address, not only the part before @.
• Use the mailbox password from Email Accounts. Portal and cPanel owner passwords are different unless you set them the same.
• Reset the mailbox password in Email Accounts, then update Thunderbird.

Cannot reach the server

• Hostname should be mail.yourdomain.com for that domain, not a name you invented. Copy it from Connect Devices.
• IMAP is 993 with SSL/TLS. POP is 995 with SSL/TLS. SMTP is 587 with STARTTLS, or 465 with SSL/TLS. Do not mix those pairings.
• Check that this computer's firewall or security software is not blocking those ports.
• Confirm you can still send and receive in Webmail. If Webmail works, the mailbox is fine and Thunderbird's settings need another look.

Certificate warning

• The hostname in Thunderbird must match the name on the certificate, usually mail.yourdomain.com.
• Do not add an exception for a name you typed by guesswork. Fix the hostname, or open a support ticket.

Mail is not arriving in Thunderbird

• IMAP: right-click the folder and choose Get New Messages.
• POP: Account Settings → Server Settings, and check whether mail is left on the server.
• Open Webmail and look in Inbox and Junk. If it is missing there too, the mailbox is not receiving yet.
• New messages land here only if this domain's MX records point at this hosting account. See MX records and how email routing works.

Cannot send

• Open Account Settings → Outgoing Server (SMTP) and confirm hostname, port, username, and that authentication is on.
• Try 465 with SSL/TLS if 587 with STARTTLS does not connect (or the other way around).
• Use the mailbox password, not your portal password.

Still stuck? Open a support ticket and we will help. Unsure which product or DNS mode the domain uses? Say so in the ticket and we will check with you.

Related

• Create an email account
• Access Webmail
• General IMAP/POP/SMTP mail settings
• Set up email in Microsoft Outlook
• Set up email on Android
• Set up email on iPhone/iPad (Apple Mail)
• Email is not sending or receiving
• Set up Axigen email in Thunderbird