Configure UMail in Thunderbird (Windows)

Note: These instructions follow the latest version of the software noted above. For other versions, there may be some variation, but the information below should serve as a guide to get you started. To identify the version of your software, look for the About link in the software's main menu or Help menu.

1. Open Thunderbird. The first time you launch Thunderbird after installing it, a mail account setup drop-down window will open.
   Note: If you are not opening Thunderbird for the first time, go to Tools > Account Settings... and from the Account Actions drop-down menu (bottom left), select Add Mail Account... The mail account setup drop-down window will open.
2. In the mail account setup drop-down window:
   • In the Your name: field, enter your name.
     Note: This will appear in the From field of your outgoing messages.
   • In the Email Address: field, enter your UMail address
     (e.g., yournetid@student.umass.edu).
   • In the Password: field, enter your OIT Account password.
   • Click Continue. The window will expand to show more options and the message saying Thunderbird failed to find the settings for your email account will appear.
3. In the Incoming: line (first row) of the expanded mail account setup drop-down window:
   • From the drop-down menu next to Incoming, select IMAP.
   • In the Server hostname field, enter mail-?.oit.umass.edu, where ? is the first letter of your OIT Account NetID. For example, if your NetID starts with the letter J, enter mail-j.oit.umass.edu.
   • In the Port field, enter (or select from the drop-down menu) 993.
   • In the SSL field, select SSL/TLS.
   • In the Authentication field, select Normal password.
4. In the Outgoing: line (second row):
   • In the Server hostname field, enter mail-auth.oit.umass.edu.
   • In the Port field, enter (or select from the drop-down menu) 465.
   • In the SSL field, select SSL/TLS.
   • In the Authentication field, select Normal password.
   In the Username: field (third row) enter your OIT Account NetID.
   
   Click Done. The mail account setup window will close and Thunderbird will  attempt to verify your settings. If successful, your email address will appear under Local Folders (top left).
5. To view your email messages in Thunderbird, click Get Mail (top left). Then, to check that your outgoing mail settings are correct, use Thunderbird to send a message to your UMail address. The message should appear in your Thunderbird inbox.

Congratulations! Thunderbird is now configured to send and receive messages with your UMail account.

Now that you've finished setting up your mail to access UMail, we suggest that you configure your software to Look up UMass Amherst Email Addresses with Thunderbird 7.x.