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Disable Photos folder

  • 6 replies
  • 0 have this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by Ambyo

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In my Linux installation, there is a folder /home/.thunderbird/<account name>/Photos It contains many small images of people in jpeg format. They have name similar to 69c143ed0a9180b5_1551971368866.jpeg or d36fef86-48fb-4fe5-b036-a42676e2e39f.VALUE=URI-JPEG. I do not know from where these files come, nor what purpose they serve, nor if they can be deleted without creating any problems. In particular, I would like to know if the creation of files in that folder can be disabled. If so, how? If not, can they be deleted without creating any issues?

In my Linux installation, there is a folder /home/.thunderbird/<account name>/Photos It contains many small images of people in jpeg format. They have name similar to 69c143ed0a9180b5_1551971368866.jpeg or d36fef86-48fb-4fe5-b036-a42676e2e39f.VALUE=URI-JPEG. I do not know from where these files come, nor what purpose they serve, nor if they can be deleted without creating any problems. In particular, I would like to know if the creation of files in that folder can be disabled. If so, how? If not, can they be deleted without creating any issues?

Chosen solution

I've more or less solved this. I use the addon CardBook. One of my address books uses a Google account. If any person in that address book has added a photo to that person's account on Google, then that photo is downloaded and stored on my computer and displayed for the record of that person in CardBook.

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I have a few photos in such a folder, I think from the look of them they date from the short period about 10 years ago when Thunderbird did Facebook chat. They are certainly images from facebook profiles from the 2013-2015 time frame.

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Thanks for that, Matt. However, your explanation does not explain my case. I even have a photo of myself, dated to this morning! I cannot imagine what activity today would have led to that file being created.

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Possible sources are

  • from Google Contacts,
  • IRC (chat) contacts,
  • photos embedded in OpenPGP keys

I'm almost certain there are even more.

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I'm on Debian and have no such folder. I only use Thunderbird for e-mail though , IMAP and SMTP, so yours could relate to functions I don't use.

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Haven't ever used IRC; none of the images correspond to either of the two people in my Google contacts; as for OpenPGP, any suggestions as to how I could determine from those filenames if someone has sent me a corresponding message signed with OpenPGP and with the image embedded in the signature (which I presume is the only way the image could arrive via OpenPGP). As for other sources, I do use the Cardbook addon, but none of the people whose images I recognise are in my books.

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Chosen Solution

I've more or less solved this. I use the addon CardBook. One of my address books uses a Google account. If any person in that address book has added a photo to that person's account on Google, then that photo is downloaded and stored on my computer and displayed for the record of that person in CardBook.