Thunderbird Community Forum

I recently completely erased an extra old MacBook I have and installed the latest version of Sonoma (14.6.1) on it to experiment with. I then configured Applemail to work with my email provider (outlook.com), which went fine, but I'm really not a fan of the latest version of Applemail, so I thought I'd try Thunderbird (which I used to use years ago, and generally liked OK).

So I downloaded a fresh version of Thunderbird (v128.2.0esr) and configured it with my outlook.com account, which finished the authorization process without a problem. The issue, however, is that Thunderbird will not "see" many of my email folders. I have LOTS of stored email, organized into hundreds, if not thousands, of folders and subfolders. For some reason, about 75% of the folders simply don't appear in the Thunderbird folder tree on the left. I have no problem accessing them via Applemail, but Thunderbird just doesn't seem to realize they're there. The other 25% or so seem to work fine and contain all the messages I expect to be in them.

I've checked some of the folders to make sure that some slightly odd folder names (a few start with a hyphen or have a comma in the names) weren't causing issues, but changing the folder names in Applemail or via the outlook web interface does not make them appear in Thunderbird, and some of the folders whose names contain those characters DO appear in Thunderbird, so I don't think that's the issue.

If I create a new folder in Thunderbird, it appears in Applemail immediately. However, if I try to create a folder with the same name as a folder that appears in Applemail, the operation fails with the message "The current command did not succeed. The mail server for account ******@outlook.com responded: Folder name is reserved." in the Activity Manager window.

If I create a new folder in Thunderbird, then use Applemail to move some messages from a folder that Thunderbird can't see into that new folder, those messages then DO appear in that new folder in Thunderbird. So I assume it's not a problem with the messages that's causing the folders to not be visible in Thunderbird.

It really seems that Thunderbird is simply not iterating through the folder structure completely. Since the folders aren't appearing at all in Thunderbird, I have no way to select or deselect them for synchronization for offline use. Is there some way to view Thunderbird's internal retrieval of the folder structure from the server? I've tried restarting Thunderbird many times, including in Troubleshooting mode and clearing the startup cache, but they made no difference.

Any help would be appreciated! I'm liking Thunderbird's look and functionality, but I need it to access all my email or I will have to go back to Applemail, or, god forbid, try the Outlook email client :-(

Thanks!

I can't seem to update my Thunderbird mailing lists. I know how to do it, and I go through all the steps to add an address, click "OK" but the mailing list remains unchanged. And when I try to create a whole new mailing list, it lets me do it--that is, create the mailing list--but there are no addresses in it. I attach a couple of screen shots:

First, before I hit OK. Second, after I hit OK.

This has been going on for at least a few months. I thought an update would help but it didn't. Please advise how to fix this problem.

Thank you.

Personal emails exhibit no problem. When I send emails to corporations via Thunderbird they do not now receive them. If I re-send them via Gmail, they do. Seems to me there must be some new elements added to Thunderbird that triggers corporate system screening rejection.

Been a long time Thunderbird user. This situation has just recently developed.

Is there a fix on my end?

Mike Hutchinson

I'm running Thunderbird 128.2.0esr (64-bit) on a Windows 11 PC. I can't find any way to associate a *.log file with notepad, even though this is the my windows default.

• Other file types work fine
• But Notepad isn't in the list when I double-click the file and I have to browse for it every time.
• When setting the default for another file type, it said this could be changed in "Options". I have Settings, but not Options. Under Menu > Settings > General, it has "Files & Attachments". Under this there are 2 columns: Content Type and Action. The only thing listed is Portable Document Content (PDF) and no way to add anything.* Bulleted list item

Thunderbird suddenly quit receiving emails although my Mac alerts that one came in, but it's not there. Also it has deleted thousands of emails. I just don't know what to do. I have tried a few things from the internet to no avail. please help.

With Outlook requiring the new sign-in technology, I deleted an account and attempted to re-establish it in Thunderbird. After naming the account and doing the password, said it "Found the configuration...."

Selected IMAP then clicked DONE. Got the attached message. I tried using Firefox browser which was my default. Then I made Chrome the default.

Same message. "We can't sign you in, Java-script is required"

Need some help as to where to go from here.

Thanks B

Thunderbird V115.13.0 (64-bit) With mail sorted by date = descending & unsorted (my preferred setting so newer messages are at the top of the table list) When there is an email with a file that I detach and save then selected/highlighted message in the inbox moves "up" to a newer message vs staying with the same message

With mail sorted by date = descending then when I detach a file the highlighting remain correct on the same selected message

Very annoying as I keep having to select/move down the message

In the old Thunderbird version, I could click on GO TO and select NEXT UNREAD MESSAGE and it would take me to the next unread e-mail. That option appears to be gone now. How can i do that with the new version?

Just recently I'm getting a message that says my IMAP quota is at 75%, but every six months I move older messages stored in folders to Local Folders on my computer, to avoid using too much storage on the Thunderbird/Mozilla server. I don't know what else to do to avoid losing access to my email. Thank you.

Today I changed the password on one of my gmail accounts. I edited the password in Settings in 3 places: imap, smpt and oauth. Next time I started Thunderbird I got a gmail authentication pop-up. Se first screenshot. The email address was shown correctly. When I clicked Next, I got the failure message. See second screenshot. I rebooted and tried many times with same result.

I have several other gmail accounts on this same Thunderbird client and they continue to work correctly. I know my password is correct because I can access this email account both directly on gmail and also on another computer where I set up Thunderbird just to test for this problem.

Any idea what is going on and how to fix it?

Hi, I have configured 2 accounts for E2EE using OpenPGP. I can send signed emails &/or encrypted messages between the 2 accounts. However, if I send a "normal" message i.e. no signing & no encryption selected, it arrives as not signed (correct), but encrypted according to the "Show message security" icon. If I send a normal message to an account that has no known encryption setup, then the message arrives and the "Show message security" button is missing (correctly).

Any ideas why this is happening? Thanks for your help.

Using Quick Filiter, I am trying to find a way to filter on two different fields at the same time, using different search terms for each field. For example, I would like to filter the messages in a folder so that I see only messages from "Jack" with subject contains the word "Thunderbird". I have not been able to find a way to do that using the Quick Filter bar. Is there a way to do this using Quick Filter?

I know I can click Edit > Find > Search Messages and specify multiple criteria in the Search Messages dialog, then click Search, select a found message, and click Open in Folder. But the Search Messages window does not have a Preview Pane, and I'd rather filter the messages in the message list, scroll through the found messages, seeing the preview for each messages as I do.

I was using Thunderbird for Windows 10 normally for many months. Recently, whenever I launch the app it immediately freezes, and I have to force quit the application. Reinstalling the app does not fix the issue. I haven't tried deleting my profiles yet, but I would like to avoid that if possible.

I've been a Thunderbird user for years. I have no idea what they changed recently, but it's incredibly, incredibly SLOW, almost to the point of unusability. Even something as simple as deleting emails.

I usually do these in chunks -- select multiples and delete. We're not talking about hundreds of emails at at time here, just maybe 5-15. Select them all, hit delete, and it should take just a couple of seconds to delete the messages. It did, in the past. But lately, it's taking so long that I could leave and make a sandwich, and when I come back, maybe it will be done. Maybe it will still be working, though, or maybe it will have locked up because it was taking so long.

It's pretty difficult to get work done at this rate.

Hi,

since I installed Ubuntu 24.04 Thunderbird (V. 128.1.0 as snap app) changes the path of the local directory each time I restart Thunderbird. My original path to the local directory points to a mounted drive e.g. /media/username/disk... Thunderbird changes it to /run/usr/1000/doc/.... How can I avoid this? The same thing happens also to the path of the signature file.

Thank you for your help! Ubuntu

I run Thunderbird on a PC, and, to free up space on Drive C:, I have moved the contents of the folder Thunderbird in Appdata to Drive D:. I then changed my Server Settings, in Thunderbird, from C: to D:, and note that any new mail is indeed now appearing there along with those already transferred. This move could save me a valuable 6 gig of space, and more in the future, however, I am unable to remove that original Thunderbird folder entirely, notably I am unable to remove the contents of the Profiles folder, as it is still linked to the application. Notably with cookies.sqlite, cookies.sqlite-shm, store.json, mozlz4, aborted-session-ping and many others, which I note some have continued to be updated. I have been unable to find any other settings in Thunderbird referring to Drive C:, other than those in Server Settings.

I could presume that if I installed another version of Thunderbird on Drive D: and maybe moved those existing contents of the Thunderbird folder on C: onto Drive D:, and made those numerous settings changes to the App it could work. But I ask is there an easier way to complete this move? How can I complete this transition of Thunderbird from Drive C: to Drive D:?

As a Thunderbird user and supporter, I have never had this current problem. I have two PC's this one running windows 11 version 128.2.0 (64 bit)and the other running Linux Mint. However the version on Linux is 115.13.0 (64 bit), and does not have the issue. Both pc's have one add-on for google email, calendar, and contacts. to stay in sync. In trouble shooting I have disabled the extension's.

Before the update to 128.2.0 I could scroll back a month and open any email coming to me. However in this version I can only go back 6 days of messages. The 7th day and older will not open. On my Linux Mint system with 115.13.0, I can go back years and open any message.

Is there a new setting that changed all this? I was under the impression all messages were saved to my local drive and not pulled off the Google server. 73's Ed

I've just started getting error messages that I need to enter my password to send emails. I've tried that but it still keeps saying unable to connect to the server. This has been happening for about two days now. I've tried updating Thunderbird, restarting Thunderbird and restarting my PC. None of this has worked. I made no changes to my system, software or home network. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Dave