Set up Thunderbird with your Gmail
About 20 minutes. Works on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Nothing gets deleted.
New to this? Read Your email isn’t the website first. It’s short, and it explains why this is safe.
What you’ll need
- Your computer
- Your Gmail address and password
- Your phone, if you normally get a sign-in code on it
Step 1: Download Thunderbird
Go to thunderbird.net and click the download button. Only download it from there. Any other site offering “Thunderbird” may be bundling junk with it.
Install it like any other program, then open it.
Step 2: Add your Gmail account
The first time it opens, Thunderbird asks for your existing email address. (If it doesn’t, open the menu with the three lines in the top right, then choose New Account and Email.)
- Type your name the way you want people to see it.
- Type your Gmail address.
- Click Continue.
Thunderbird recognizes that this is Gmail and fills in the technical settings for you. Make sure IMAP is selected, then click Done.
Step 3: Sign in to Google
A Google sign-in window pops up. This is normal. It’s Google’s own sign-in page, opened inside Thunderbird, so your password goes to Google and nowhere else.
- Sign in exactly like you do at gmail.com, including your phone code if you use one.
- Google asks whether Thunderbird can access your account. Click Allow. This is what lets Thunderbird open your mailbox.
Step 4: Let it catch up
Your mail starts appearing. If you have years of email, the first download can take a while. Leave Thunderbird open and go make coffee. It only does the big download once.
Step 5: Find your way around
Your inbox is in the folder list on the left. A few things look different from the Gmail website:
| In Gmail you see | In Thunderbird you see |
|---|---|
| Labels | Folders |
| Archive | The “All Mail” folder |
| Primary, Promotions, Social tabs | One inbox (the tabs don’t exist here) |
| Stars | Stars (they sync both ways) |
| Compose | Write |
Why does the same email show up twice? Gmail’s labels appear as folders. If a message has two labels, it shows up in two folders. It’s still just one message, stored once. Deleting it from one folder in Thunderbird may not remove it from the others.
Did it work?
Send yourself a test email from Thunderbird. Then open gmail.com in your browser. You should see the same message in your Sent folder there. That’s your proof: two windows, one mailbox.
If something goes wrong
- The Google window never appeared: Close Thunderbird completely, open it again, and retry. Some ad blockers and privacy tools block pop-ups, so try pausing them for a moment.
- “Authentication failed”: Your password or code was mistyped. Try again slowly.
- It connected but no mail is showing: Give it a few more minutes. Then check gmail.com’s Settings, under Forwarding and POP/IMAP, that IMAP isn’t turned off.
What’s next?
You’ve got Thunderbird working. The real payoff is encryption, which lets you send messages Google can’t read. See Contact me for a first encrypted message to try, or Kleopatra and Gpg4win if you’re on Windows.