# Solved: Thunderbird doesn't automatically check for new mail on pop3



## DvdB (Mar 4, 2009)

Hello,

first I'd like to say that english is not my first language so please have understanding for any spelling or grammar errors.

Most of our clients use Thunderbird as a mailclient. We never really had any problems with it and we are very happy Thunderbird users.

The problem is that one of our clients now connects (on a new external domain) to a POP3 server out of our reach. Thunderbird is configured to check for mail every minute, but it doesn't seem to be able to find new ones automatically. When we check for mail manually, it downloads new messages without a problem. Strange thing is that MS Outlook CAN download/find the new mail each minute. And Thunderbird gives no error or anything.

So in short; Thunderbird (2.0+) seems unable to check for new pop mail each minute, while outlook (2007) can.

Is this a known issue? Any help would be very welcome and thanks in advance :up:


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

Open Thunderbird and go to "Account Setting" and High light "Server Setting" on the left side pane.
Look on the right pane and your see "Check for new messages every 10 minutes. 10 is the default setting. 
Right above it is the check at startup.

If they are already checked but not working then uncheck them and OK your way out. Close down Thunderbird and go back and recheck the boxes and OK your way out. 
Some times a setting that you see is right just needs to be changed and changed back to get it to work.


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## DvdB (Mar 4, 2009)

thanks for the reply,!

I'm afraid that didn't do the trick, I tried it already.

Maybe Thunderbird has trouble when you switch accounts or something, but i've never experienced that before.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

Don't know because I only have one account. Do you have another account you can switch to that does work?


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## DvdB (Mar 4, 2009)

There are still multiple accounts, one on each client for the external POP3 server and one of our own local IMAP, which was voted to disappear within a few weeks. The IMAP accounts still work 100% every minute.

So I strongly suspect that the source of the problem lies with the POP server, but I have not found any similar problems on the net (maybe my search criteria are just wrong).


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

Darn if I know what else to check but I only use the one account so never had to deal with the same things you are.

You try over here at the Firefox, Thunderbird & SeaMonkey forum. Ramona is great at helping out.


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## AKAJohnDoe (Jun 6, 2007)

I have configured Thunderbird for multiple POP email accounts on multiple ISPs successfully before. I have never gone to a 1 minute interval, though. Seems excessive to me. 5 or 10 minutes is plenty often enough for email. Any more often and you really should be using IM or the phone.


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## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

AKAJohnDoe said:


> 5 or 10 minutes is plenty often enough for email. Any more often and you really should be using IM or the phone.


Well said!


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## DvdB (Mar 4, 2009)

Well I agree that 1 minute is a little much.

Maybe it would make a little difference if I change it to 5 minutes. It could never hurt to give it a try.

Still, if this is a limitation, a pop 3 server is no serious option if you ask me for any organisation. Not that mail is a trusted protocol that an entire organisation's communcation should be based on, but IMAP sure has a lot of pro compared to pop.

Thanks for the replies so far. I'm going to try it with 5 minutes now.


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## AKAJohnDoe (Jun 6, 2007)

DvdB said:


> IMAP sure has a lot of pro compared to pop


I am not quite sure how to interpret that, but IMAP does have advantages over POP3, the trade-off being increased complexity.


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## DvdB (Mar 4, 2009)

Well, I am a bit of a IMAP fan since we frequently use it to share mailboxes. But back to the topic;

when changed to 5 minutes, the mail notifation succesfully pops-up when there is new mail (this is all according to my client, how I have not seen since then, but only spoken over the phone).

Again thanks for all this replies!


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