Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Can not print a DRAFT message open in compose window

  • 3 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 16 views
  • Last reply by DaveTheNerd

DaveTheNerd
DaveTheNerd
more options

I routinely print messages right before I send them** and Thunderbird v115.3.2 doesn't let me do that. It acts like it's going to do it, but then nothing happens. I'm on a Mac, and if I choose "Save as PDF" from the PDF Services menu, literally nothing is saved. This tells me that Thunderbird is acting like it is going to print something, but doesn't actually pass anything to macOS to print.

If, I save it in Drafts and then go to the Drafts mailbox and print from there, it works as expected, but that's a lot of extra steps.

It seems this same bug happened a number of years ago: [Can no longer print a DRAFT message open in compose] and was classified as a bug and fixed. Hopefully the same can happen again?

Thanks!

    • OK, I don't print them, I save them as PDFs, but the workflow and problem is the same.
I routinely print messages right before I send them** and Thunderbird v115.3.2 doesn't let me do that. It acts like it's going to do it, but then nothing happens. I'm on a Mac, and if I choose "Save as PDF" from the PDF Services menu, literally nothing is saved. This tells me that Thunderbird is acting like it is going to print something, but doesn't actually pass anything to macOS to print. If, I save it in Drafts and then go to the Drafts mailbox and print from there, it works as expected, but that's a lot of extra steps. It seems this same bug happened a number of years ago: [[https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1119277 Can no longer print a DRAFT message open in compose]] and was classified as a bug and fixed. Hopefully the same can happen again? Thanks! **OK, I don't print them, I save them as PDFs, but the workflow and problem is the same.

Modified by DaveTheNerd

All Replies (3)

david
david
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

I cannot duplicate this. I create a message in compose window and can print it.

DaveTheNerd
DaveTheNerd Question owner
more options

david said
I cannot duplicate this. I create a message in compose window and can print it.

Good to know, and thank you!

I've confirmed it on two different Macs, one running macOS Ventura, the other running macOS Sonoma. However, I copied my Thunderbird profile from one to the other last week, so if there's something in the profile causing this, that would be consistent between the two.

I also have a separately-created (but similar) profile on a third Mac that I will test later today.

If it *is* profile related...where would I even begin to look? Thanks!

DaveTheNerd
DaveTheNerd Question owner
more options

Ok. I have found the bug:

On macOS, if `print.prefer_system_dialog` is set to True, then it will print nothing (to a printer nor to a PDF) when printing from Compose mode.

However, if `print.prefer_system_dialog` is set to False, then it will work. Of course, this introduces (seemingly unnecessary) additional steps in order to print to a PDF this way. Because with this False, you invoke File > Print, then (with the mouse) have to click "Print using the system dialog", and THEN choose the PDF option from there.

For clarity: either way, I'm getting to the system dialog, but it seems the rendering of the message only properly happens if I first detour through Thunderbird's dialog.

Is it possible to remedy this so that we can just skip the Thunderbird dialog and yet still print from Compose view?