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Stop automatically saving email attachments to desktop

  • 1 reply
  • 2 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by Toad-Hall

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I've been using Thunderbird for about 2 years and this problem has only started recently. Currently on 31.5.0 and Firefox 36.0.4 on a MacBook Pro. For some reason, every time I *open* an email attachment to view it, Thunderbird automatically *saves* it to my Desktop whether I want to or not. In Preferences>Attachments I have it set to "Always ask me where to save files" (see attached). It's always been that way. Just because I may view an email attachment doesn't mean I necessarily want it saved. I know I can change the destination folder to something other than Desktop, but what if I don't want to save an email attachment at all...how do I stop it? Can't find a solution anywhere on the web even though I've seen the question raised by others over several years.

I've been using Thunderbird for about 2 years and this problem has only started recently. Currently on 31.5.0 and Firefox 36.0.4 on a MacBook Pro. For some reason, every time I *open* an email attachment to view it, Thunderbird automatically *saves* it to my Desktop whether I want to or not. In Preferences>Attachments I have it set to "Always ask me where to save files" (see attached). It's always been that way. Just because I may view an email attachment doesn't mean I necessarily want it saved. I know I can change the destination folder to something other than Desktop, but what if I don't want to save an email attachment at all...how do I stop it? Can't find a solution anywhere on the web even though I've seen the question raised by others over several years.

All Replies (1)

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Try this first:

Thunderbird > Preferences > Attachments > incoming tab

Select 'Save files to' click on 'Browse' choose a suitable folder instead of the default Desktop. then select 'Always ask me where to save files', click on OK

This should put the attachments in the selected folder instead of cluttering up your Desktop.

Please report back on results.