Setup Mozilla Thunderbird to work with Microsoft Exchange Server

1. Setup a new account under Tools/Account Settings/Add Account…
Select “E-mail Account” and add your details.
Use IMAP and input your incoming exchange server.

2. Subscribe to all required folders by right clicking on the account name and choosing ‘Subscribe…’.

3. Change the trash folder’s name to ‘Deleted Items’:
Follow the instructions in the Mozilla Zine.

4. Go to Tools/Options/Advanced/Config Editor:
Set boolean mail.check_all_imap_folders_for_new to true.
Set boolean mail.imap.expunge_after_delete to true.

5. Go to Tools/Account Settings for the IMAP account:
Have it place a copy of sent mail to the ‘Sent Items’ folder.
Also have it save drafts and templates in the ‘Drafts’ folder.
Go to Junk Settings and have it send all junk to ‘Junk E-mail’.

6. If you are not using the Thunderbird default SMTP server, go to Tools/Account Settings/Outgoing Server and configure your outgoing SMTP server.

And that should be all…

9 Responses to “Setup Mozilla Thunderbird to work with Microsoft Exchange Server”

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1 Rajesh.N May 7, 2008 at 11:58 pm

Thanks
This page is very helpful
2 acgc May 10, 2008 at 4:41 am

I have the following problem with this message:

“The current command did not succeed. The mail server responded: Protocol Error: “One of the supplied fetch items is invalid”

I get the mail headers but cannot read the messaged.
3 fourforces May 17, 2008 at 5:45 pm

Hi acgc,

You can log the protocol transaction to try to identify the error.
4 Anonymous May 19, 2008 at 4:42 pm

Perfect! It really works well.
5 R. Wilson July 10, 2008 at 2:42 pm

This was JUST what I needed. Hard to find this information on any other site. Thanks for making it accessible and easy to follow!
6 maya July 13, 2008 at 12:18 am

This page is very helpful, I could configure Thunderbird very easily.

Thanks and regards,
Maya
7 Rayan July 27, 2008 at 12:14 am

Guys I have tried this and I got an error saying that I may have exceeded the maximum number of connections to this server…

Any help plz
8 Allen July 29, 2008 at 1:36 pm

Sorry to be the one with a problem, but this doesn’t work for me… At step 2, it asks for a password then pops up “login to server exchange.#######.### failed” - likewise, when trying to get mail, it wants a password - the password for exchange server web access is the only one set according to IT dept and it doesn’t work here… Help me get back to TB and off of Outlook!! Thanks.
9 fourforces July 30, 2008 at 12:45 pm

Hi Allen,

Make sure that IMAP support is enabled by your IT dept for the exchange server. Also check that you are using the right server name, port number (usually 993) and the correct security settings (try using SSL secure connection and disabling secure authentication). Hope this helps.