Howto change the password for an account in Mozilla-Thunderbird

In the current version of Thunderbird you are not able to change the saved
password for a server of a profile by the gui. You have to edit a
config-file according to the following instruction, therefor:

1) Close thunderbird, if it is running.

2) Open the file ~/.thunderbird/XXXXXXXX.default/XXXXXXXX.s in an editor
(e.g. vi, nano). It is expected that you are logged in as the user, which
invokes thunderbird, otherwise replace ~ by the home directory of this
user. XXXXXXXX stands for varying numbers. You have to replace these X's
by the certain numbers, which are a part of the filenames on your system.

3) You will see in this file regions like the following, where the X's
stand for your encoded password: *\=password=\
~XXXXXXXXXXX=

4) Remove this region beneath the server(s) you want to reset the password
for.

5) Invoke Thunderbird.

6) Connect to the server who you have deleted the password-entry for (e.g.
by sending a mail over it or getting mails from it).

7) Now you will be asked again for the password and you are able to save a
new password by enabling the checkbox beneath.


Howto by Sebastian Noack