New email notifications in Thunderbird

Revision Information
  • Revision id: 302711
  • Created:
  • Creator: Roland Tanglao
  • Comment: Added Windows 11 screenshot of a notification WIP, do not localize or approve please :-) For discussion please leave comments in https://github.com/thunderbird/knowledgebase-issues/issues/89
  • Reviewed: No
  • Ready for localization: No
Revision Source
Revision Content

In order for this feature to work, you have to enable and configure notifications both in Thunderbird and in your operating system.

1. Turn on native notifications in Thunderbird

  1. Thunderbird app menu ☰ > Settings > General > search for When new messages arrive. Ensure Use the system notification is ticked "✓"
  2. Click Customize...
  3. Ensure the fields and actions you would like to display in your new email notifications are ticked "✓" (Archive is only available in 141 and newer releases).
    borderless customize new mail alert
Some operating systems have limits on how many action buttons are displayed in a notification. Windows 11 for example will only display 4 action buttons even if you have selected 5 or more actions.

2. Configure your operating system's native notifications

Please follow your operating system's documentation to enable and configure notifications native to your operating system.

Windows

Turn on Thunderbird email notifications

(Refer to Microsoft's Knowledge Base Article for more details: Notifications and Do Not Disturb in Windows.)

  1. Enable notifications globally: In the Settings app on your Windows device, open System > Notifications and then toggle the switch next to Notifications to On.
  2. Under Notifications from apps and other senders, scroll down to Mozilla Thunderbird and then toggle the switch to On.
  3. Click on the chevron > to configure more options.

Example: Windows 11 notification

Here's how notifications look in Windows 11.

windows11-tb142-new-email-os-notification

macOS

Linux