re: YOU CAN GAUGE MY FRUSTRATION AT THE STYLE OF MY USER NAME and use of vile language that does not help your situation.

I'm one of the volunteers who tries to help other Thunderbird users, so I'm not impressed, indeed I'm offended by your language towards people like me.

It is obvious you are frustrated , this is understandable. But, remember you are asking people to help you in their free time, so be polite and civil. Do not use any language that could be construed as offensive and using capital letters insinuates you are shouting.

Offer information so people can understand your situation. Information such as what OS you use, what version of thunderbird. Describe your issue clearly. What you do and what occurs. If there are any error messages, please state them word for word. You can post images if this helps to clarify the situation.

i HAVE BEEN USING TB WITH WINDOWS 7 HOME PREMIUM FOR YEARS. NO PROBLEM. For some reason best known to itself my TB has decided to 'lock' the attachment button to another attachment file that was (a) attached to a previously sent email from last week, that it says cannot be found (it's on my email folder) and just shows an error message - saying that the file refers to a location that is currently unavailable. It will not allow me to delete the attachments, or cancel it, change it, or do anything. This started this morning. I've tried closing and reopening TB, restarting my computer, tried downloading a new version of TB but makes no difference. This attachment button will not allow me to attach anything at all, an other words - it's useless and I might as well stick everything in the post. You have no idea how frustrating this is since my entire business is run on the internet and by email - using attachments. If I cannot send attachments with emails I might as well go home. My business folds. I currently have four separate jobs waiting for this to be resolved but the info on your so-called forum is no help at all, since my problem does not seem to be covered - well, not in any common terminology that may be relevant. CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT IS GOING ON AND HOW TO FIX IT BEFORE MY BUSINESS GOES BUST.

I hope someone can offer some sort of insight into what is going on with TB regarding this problem with attachments, and offer clear instructions as to how to fix it. In the meantime, having researched on line I find that recent evaluations in the media reveal that TB has several major security flaws. I have not changed any of my settings at all, so it is possible that the problem I am experiencing may be the result of a conflicting update or system fault - or a virus, although I have some serious system protection in place, however it does reveal that my business is exposed to this kind of obscure system fault, and furthermore that the forums and helplines on offer are confusing and inadequate. I can't be the first person who has had this problem, but unless I come up with an exact form of words or technical jargon to secure a helpful search result I am wasting my time.For that reason I am switching to a 'webmail' provider, preferably one with a helpline that actually is able to help people, since clearly TB is insecure, unreliable, and your help and support 'forums' are pretty well useless.

Is this locked attachment on a USB drive or other removable media? What is the path windows assigns to the location of the file?

I would be interested in what media your searching. I did see an article written by what I would have to describe as a complete moron in a UK based magazine "Computer Active " recently. The fool equates fixed vulnerabilities with risk. Poor deluded soul that he is.

Re this forum. No one here has any control over the administration of this forum. It is run by Mozilla, not us. If you have an issue you might post in one of the contributor forums here https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/forums/contributors

Ranting to us only upsets people for no reason. At least there you might draw the attention of a Mozilla employee.

In addition to Matt's request for info:

Could you perform a test so that we can rule out a conflict with Addons etc.

In Thunderbird 'Help' > 'Restart with add-ons disabled' click on 'Write' button Does the Write window open and auto attach the unwanted attachment? Please report back on results

Matt said

Is this locked attachment on a USB drive or other removable media? What is the path windows assigns to the location of the file? I would be interested in what media your searching. I did see an article written by what I would have to describe as a complete moron in a UK based magazine "Computer Active " recently. The fool equates fixed vulnerabilities with risk. Poor deluded soul that he is. Re this forum. No one here has any control over the administration of this forum. It is run by Mozilla, not us. If you have an issue you might post in one of the contributor forums here https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/forums/contributors Ranting to us only upsets people for no reason. At least there you might draw the attention of a Mozilla employee.

Thanks but the locked attachment is not on a usb drive or on any disk or external media. The file is actually still on my hard drive, although the email it relates to has already been sent early last week so I'm somewhat confused. When I click on an email and try an attachment I get an error message which says the following: I am having to type this error message manually in full as when the error message comes up it wont let me copy & paste either! This is the error message that comes up: C:\Users\Ray Currier \ Desktop\ENTERAMA JOBS BACKED UP 20 AUG 2013\CHRISTINE WALFORD SOLIHULL FUN MONEY 26 SEP 2015 refers to a location that is unavailable. It could be on a hard drive on this computer, or on a network. Check to make sure that the disk is properly inserted, or that you are connected to the internet or your network, and then try again. If the file cannot be located, the information might have been moved to a different location.

THAT'S WHAT I GET. I've tried restarting my computer, I've tried re-installing and update TB, I've tried restarting TB with all 'Add-ons' disabled but nothing makes difference. HELP BEFORE MY BUSINESS GOES BUST.

Toad-Hall said

In addition to Matt's request for info: Could you perform a test so that we can rule out a conflict with Addons etc. In Thunderbird 'Help' > 'Restart with add-ons disabled' click on 'Write' button Does the Write window open and auto attach the unwanted attachment? Please report back on results

Thanks but the locked attachment is not on a usb drive or on any disk or external media. The file is actually still on my hard drive, although the email it relates to has already been sent early last week so I'm somewhat confused. When I click on an email and try an attachment I get an error message which says the following: I am having to type this error message manually in full as when the error message comes up it wont let me copy & paste either! This is the error message that comes up: C:\Users\Ray Currier \ Desktop\ENTERAMA JOBS BACKED UP 20 AUG 2013\CHRISTINE WALFORD SOLIHULL FUN MONEY 26 SEP 2015 refers to a location that is unavailable. It could be on a hard drive on this computer, or on a network. Check to make sure that the disk is properly inserted, or that you are connected to the internet or your network, and then try again. If the file cannot be located, the information might have been moved to a different location.

THAT'S WHAT I GET. I've tried restarting my computer, I've tried re-installing and update TB, I've tried restarting TB with all 'Add-ons' disabled but nothing makes difference. HELP BEFORE MY BUSINESS GOES BUST.

HEY GUYS THANKS BUT AMAZINGLY I'VE GOT IT FIXED. Even more amazing as I'm a total IT dinosaur. It turned out for some reason best known to itself TB was trying to attach the wrong file to an email that had (a) already been sent and received, (b) was on my hard drive, I had moved the file to a different location but this was some time after the message had been sent. I had to relocate the file, restore it to it's original folder, attach the wrong file to the message that I wanted to send - then delete the attachment, and reset the file search on attachments to 'desktop' and then locate and add the file I wanted to send in the first place. What a palaver - but somehow it's sorted the whole thing. I have no idea why this should happen but it may help others who have the same mysterious issue arising on file associations and attachments. Thanks for your assistance - my faith in your forum is restored - and my apologies for the rudeness in the beginning, but boy was I pissed off!

I'm glad to hear that all is ok again.