Install Thunderbird on Linux

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  • Revision id: 264172
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  • Creator: Marcelo Ghelman
  • Comment: Same changes I made in the Firefox article for local installation in user's account
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This article explains how to download and install Thunderbird on a Linux.

This article only applies to Linux. For instructions to install Thunderbird on Mac, see Install Thunderbird on Mac.For instructions to install Thunderbird on Windows, see Install Thunderbird on Windows .

Installing from your distribution package manager (Recommended)

To install Thunderbird using your distribution package manager, please refer to your Linux distribution's documentation. This method is recommended because it ensures Thunderbird and all the required libraries are installed and configured optimally for your distribution.

However, there may be a delay between when your distribution provides a new version or update, and when an official new version or update is available at Thunderbird.net. Your distribution may also provide Thunderbird without the Thunderbird branding.

Install from Snap

To install Thunderbird from Snap:

  1. Install Snap on your computer.
  2. Visit Snapcraft's Store page.
  3. Click Install and follow the instructions.

Install from Flatpak

Flatpak is coming - it still being worked on.

Install Thunderbird manually

Before you install Thunderbird manually, make sure that your computer has the required libraries installed. Missing or incompatible libraries may cause Thunderbird to be inoperable.

System Thunderbird installation (for advanced users)

To install Thunderbird with this method, you must be able to log in as root or execute sudo commands.

This installation will have priority over the Thunderbird version installed through your package manager. To run the version installed with your package manager, you will need to execute the binary from a terminal. To do so in most distributions, open a terminal and type:
/usr/bin/thunderbird

  1. Go to the Thunderbird's page and click the Download button.
  2. Open a terminal and go to the folder where your download has been saved. For example:
    cd ~/Downloads
  3. Extract the contents of the downloaded file by typing:
    tar xjf thunderbird-*.tar.bz2

    The following commands must be executed as root, or preceded by sudo.
  4. Move the uncompressed Thunderbird folder to /opt:
    mv thunderbird /opt
  5. Create a symlink to the Thunderbird executable:
    ln -s /opt/thunderbird/thunderbird /usr/local/bin/thunderbird
  6. Download a copy of the desktop file:
    wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mozilla/sumo-kb/main/installing-thunderbird-linux/thunderbird.desktop -P /usr/local/share/applications

Alternatively, if wget is not installed on your computer, go to the URL mentioned above, right-click on the page to open the contextual menu and select Save Page As. After you downloaded the file, move it to /usr/local/share/applications.

To verify that the installation was successful, click the menu button Fx89menuButton, click Help and select More Troubleshooting Information. In the Application Basics section, the value of Application Binary should be /opt/thunderbird/thunderbird-bin.

Local Thunderbird installation in user's account

If you don't have access to login as root or execute sudo commands, or just prefer to use a local Thunderbird in your account, you can make a local installation. You can also do this to have multiple Thunderbird installations for different builds.
  1. Go to the Thunderbird's page and click the Download button.
  2. Open a terminal and go to the folder where your download has been saved. For example:
    cd ~/Downloads
  3. Extract the downloaded file contents. This will create a folder named thunderbird. After that, you can delete the archive:
    tar xjf thunderbird-*.tar.bz2
    rm thunderbird-*.tar.bz2
  4. If you downloaded a specific build, you may want to rename the uncompressed folder accordingly. For example:
    mv thunderbird thunderbird-beta
  5. You can leave the uncompressed folder into your download folder, or move it to another place in your account. For example:
    mv thunderbird ~/thunderbird
  6. Thunderbird is now ready to be used. You can run it directly from the terminal:
    ~/thunderbird/thunderbird &
  7. Create a desktop shortcut. (It may be different in your Linux distribution.)
    • Right-click on the desktop and choose Create launcher from the context menu.
    • You can also type this on the terminal:
      ln -s ~/thunderbird/thunderbird ~/Desktop/
    • An icon for the desktop shortcut will be found in ~/thunderbird/chrome/icons/default/
Note: This method doesn't change file types binding on the system, so mailto links from other applications will not open in the local installation. You will need to copy the email address and paste it manually in Thunderbird.