Multiple Accounts in Thunderbird

Many people will use Thunderbird simply - always sending mail that comes from their own address, always receiving mail that was sent to that same single address. These people will have a single account set up within Thunderbird. And they don't need any of the information on this page.

On the other hand, there are many people with more complicated situations. Some examples:

• Administrative aides who need to send messages that appear to come from the person they support
• Owners of special mailboxes
• Administrators of e-lists

Thunderbird allows you to set up multiple accounts (Eudora called them "personalities") to organize and manage the various kinds of messages you send and receive.

This discussion is complicated by the fact that there are two different ways for you to receive "other" e-mail.

You can set up Thunderbird to retrieve the other identity's messages, assuming you have the configuration information and the password. If this describes your situation, see our Creating an account to send and receive messages page.

Someone who knows the other identity's password (not necessarily you) can set up Who I Am to forward messages sent to the other address to your primary e-mail address (typically NetID@cornell.edu). If this describes your situation, Creating an account to send only page.

 

Once you have set up this additional account, to send messages from this account, either click on the account name in the left pane before clicking Write or choose the account name from the From drop-down menu in a new message window.