Private Email account setup in Thunderbird

Email clients, like Thunderbird, allow you to easily check your emails not going to the web interface. This tutorial will help you configure your Namecheap Private Email account in Thunderbird.

Private Email service supports the autoconfig feature, which allows setting up an email account automatically in Thunderbird.

NOTE: Before setting up an email account this way, make sure you already have the required DNS records and mailbox created.

Automatic setup
Manual setup
Checking settings

We will use a test email account test@nctest.us in this tutorial.

Automatic setup

For automatic email account setup, you need to do the following:

1. You will be prompted to set up your existing email address when starting Thunderbird if no email accounts are set up yet. Otherwise, go to Firefox Menu > New Account > Email:

2. In the Mail Account Setup or Account Hub window, enter the following details:

Your Name: the name you would like the recipients of your emails to see
Email Address: your full Private Email address

Once all the fields are filled, click Continue.

3. You will see the Configuration found in Mozilla ISPDB message. Verify that our Incoming and Outgoing configuration was detected properly and match the one you can see in the screenshot below:

After that, click Continue.

4. Now, fill in your password and press Continue:

NOTE: In case you do not remember your password, you can easily reset it using the following guide.

5. Now, the account has been added.

Thunderbird now attempts to find other services such as Address Book and Calendar. Click Continue to finish the setup:

The Calendar can be set up additionally following this article.

NOTE: If Thunderbird asks you to "Add security exception", you can close that window or click Cancel.

The Email account connected successfully message should appear. Click Finish to close the setup window. That's it!

Manual setup

If the configuration was not detected properly for some reason (e.g., missing CNAME record for autoconfig subdomain), you can configure your Thunderbird manually this way:

1. In the Account setup tab (appears when no email account was added in Thunderbird), fill in the fields:

Your full name: the name you would like the recipients of your emails to see
Email address: your full Private Email address
Password: password for your Private Email account.

Make sure you do not have blank spaces in it.

NOTE: In case you do not remember your password, you can easily reset it using the following guide.

Once all the fields are filled, click Continue:

2. After that, click on the Configure Manually button:

3. Then select POP3 or IMAP from the Account Type list (we recommend using IMAP, which is selected automatically), and enter your details as follows:

For IMAP protocol, use the following settings:

Hostname (for Incoming and Outgoing servers): mail.privateemail.com (it should not be changed)

Protocol: IMAP     Port: 993    SSL: SSL/TLS     Authentication: Normal Password
Protocol: SMTP    Port: 465     SSL: SSL/TLS     Authentication: Normal Password

When you have entered the details, click Re-test, and after a message about verifying settings appears, click Done.

Your account is set up now!

Alternatively, you can use the following settings for IMAP/POP3 (incoming) and SMTP (outgoing) protocols:

Protocol: IMAP   Port: 143 SSL: STARTTLS Authentication: Normal password
Protocol: POP3   Port: 995             SSL: SSL/TLS Authentication: Normal password
Protocol: SMTP       Port: 587 SSL: STARTTLS     Authentication: Normal password

NOTE: Also, smtp.privateemail.com can be used as the Outgoing server.

Checking settings

Once your account has been created, you will be able to check your account settings or choose additional settings for IMAP or POP3 incoming/outgoing server.

1. Right-click on your account in the list of accounts and choose Settings:

2. To manage incoming server, go to Server Settings:

3. If you need to change settings for outgoing server, select Outgoing Server (SMTP):

Here you can find your current settings for accounts you have and click on Edit… to make changes in the next window:

That's it!

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Updated

8/26/2025

Viewed

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