Thunderbird Community Forum

I moving from classic outlook to Thunderbird and I am having trouble finding how to change fonts and color in signatures for my emails. I do not do html it is a simple signature; name company name and phone numbers. I search and found no help. Is there a way to change color and font in the reply to an email? Sorry I know this sounds simple but I have been using outlook since it came out so this is similar but just enough to give me trouble. Thank you for any help, rick

Others have mentioned this but I'm not sure if there is a fix/anything is being done. The threads are all from previous Thunderbird versions.

I use Thunderbird for work. I have to find specific emails and folders - get to them quick. I am no longer able to do this. It's really distressing.

This is something really basic, that should be the default or else really easy to change.

I'm on a Windows machine and using Thunderbird 140.3.0esr. I've been using Thunderbird since 2003 and never had any problems. Now I'm panicking!

I can't find a setting that will allow marking messages as read only after I read them. By that I mean only after I click on the message to open it in its own tab. I view the new messages in a split screen.

The current settings allow me to leave them bold as if I hadn't read them even after I've clicked on the message and viewed it in the full TB pane

or

Mark them as read as soon as they're displayed in the bottom half of the split screen.

I don't find either of these options desirable.

Hello All, I'm new to Thunderbird and here is something I'm wondering about: I created all my accounts and set everything to Unified ... all works fine. All 5 accounts show under "All Folders" ... if it's also checked, but I don't use it usually. In Unified view, however, UNDER the unified folders, my primary account is missing...?!? Again, I'm talking about the account list UNDER the unified folders! ... not the "All Folders" list! (if it's checked) (I usually don't have "All Folders" on)

The drop-down lists of the single unified folders, however, e.g. Inbox, Sent, etc., DO SHOW the primary account! (On a side note: under Drafts only four accounts show ...?)

So, why is the primary account missing in the list UNDER Unified folders ... (there are only four plus "Local Folders") but it is listed in the separate unified folders, if opened..? I hope explained it clear enough.

Please see attachments

BTW, at my home computer, ALL accounts are showing (in Unified view) under the unified folders. Please let me know what I did wrong or if I have to explain it better.

Thanks

Hello,

The latest version, 128.10.0esr, was recently released, and one of the changes is:

Changed color override defaults with high contrast mode on macOS and Linux

https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/128.10.0esr/releasenotes/?uri=/thunderbird/releasenotes/&locale=en-US&version=128.10.0&channel=esr&os=Darwin&buildid=20250425031534

I use dark mode, but I prefer to view the email body in light mode, as this is typically the sender’s default formatting. To achieve this, I previously configured: • Settings → General → Fonts & Colors → Colors • Set Text to black and Background to white • Enabled “Override the colors specified by the content with my selections above:” and set it to “Only with High Contrast themes”

However, since this update, this setting no longer works. Now, the only workaround is to manually click the “Turn dark mode off” button for each email, which does work. But it’s inconvenient to do this every time.

Is there a way to disable dark mode for all email bodies by default, so I don’t need to click the button each time?

Thank you!

Yours,

I can't figure out how to get a threaded view for a conversation in Thunderbird to behave the same as a threaded view for a conversation in Outlook.

1. From what I can tell, the ASCENDING setting works as expected: a) Single messages and thread topics in the selected folder are sorted ascending by date b) Messages within a thread are also sorted ascending.

2. The DESCENDING view does this, which I feel is confusing: a) Single messages and thread topics in the selected folder are sorted descending. For threads, it weirdly uses the timestamp of the FIRST message in the thread instead of the most recent message. b) Messages within a thread are sorted ascending instead of descending.

3. I would prefer the DESCENDING view to do this: a) Single messages and threads in the selected folder are sorted descending. For threads, it should use the timestamp of the LAST message in the thread. b) Messages within a thread should be sorted descending instead of ascending.

Is there a way to get behavior 3?

Thanks!

In both my desktop older installation (now updated) and my new laptop installation, when I go thru Account Settings and check off what I want, it all changes when I leave the setup. I uncheck the startup page, and when I open both versions of Bird, the startup page is there again. Same with table/card setup, and other options. Isn't there a "save" in Account settings? Thanks, Stacy

The File (saving to a folder) Recent function used to have the folders alphabetically. Some genius thought to reorganize the Recent folders to be in chronological order. Is there a setting to have the Recent folders be in alphabetical order again? I could not find anything. Thanks in advance.

View > Folders > Folder Pane Header [v] All Folders All folders is greyed out (cannot select).

I believe being able to make this selection would cause the email account name to display expanded selections. I want to be able to select this for all my email accounts to display properly in the Folder Pane: (example) Inbox Drafts Sent Spam Trash

Uploaded images are:

1. 1. View > Folders > Folder Pane Header > [v] All Folders > All folders (is greyed out - cannot select).
2. 2. My email client name list with no expanded selections.
3. 3. An example of and expanded email client name

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You

I have used Thunderbird for years (now on 128.5.2esr (64-bit) for Mac). I have a very large number of folders, and I would like to have a default setting for columns in new folders I create. I am aware that you can change the column setting in the folder by clicking the "Select columns to display" button and selecting the ones you want, and that you can change the setting for all folders in an account by going to the "Apply columns to..." > "Folder and its children..." > select the account > select the account name at the top of the list. But I would rather not have to do that every time I create a new folder, but I can't find any other way to do it anywhere, including on another answer to a question in this forum, https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1426413.

Then I found two settings in the Config Editor... that seem like they might be where this can be done:

• mailnews.database.global.views.conversation.columns, whose settings in my case are:

{"selectCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":"1"}, "threadCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":"3"}, "flaggedCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":"5"}, "attachmentCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":"7"}, "subjectCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":"15"}, "unreadButtonColHeader":{"visible":false,"ordinal":"9"}, "senderCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":"17"}, "recipientCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":"19"}, "correspondentCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":"21"}, "junkStatusCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":"11"}, "receivedCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":"23"}, "dateCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":"25"}, "statusCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":"27"}, "sizeCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":"29"}, "tagsCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":"31"}, "accountCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":"33"}, "priorityCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":"35"}, "unreadCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":"37"}, "totalCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":"39"}, "locationCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":"41"}, "idCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":"43"}, "deleteCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":"13"}, "xnoteCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":"1"}}

and

• mailnews.database.global.views.global.columns, whose settings in my case are:

{"selectCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":0}, "threadCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":0}, "flaggedCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":0}, "attachmentCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":0}, "subjectCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":0}, "unreadButtonColHeader":{"visible":false,"ordinal":0}, "senderCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":0}, "recipientCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":0}, "correspondentCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":0}, "junkStatusCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":0}, "dateCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":0}, "receivedCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":0}, "statusCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":0}, "sizeCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":0}, "tagsCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":0}, "accountCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":0}, "priorityCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":0}, "unreadCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":0}, "totalCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":0}, "locationCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":0}, "idCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":0}, "deleteCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":0}}

The first one matches the columns I see in a newly created folder better, having the "xnoteCol" entry, but my new folders also have several columns related to my CardBook extension at the bottom of the list. Moreover, the settings' arguments don't make sense in terms of what I see. For example, I see the Thread column, whose settings – ("threadCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":"3"} – make sense since "visible" is set to "true", but I also see the Attachments column, whose settings – "attachmentCol":{"visible":false,"ordinal":"7"} – *don't* make sense because "visible" is set to "false". Similar no-sense settings occur in the second setting.

So there *is* a way to change the default column settings in Config Editor..., which makes a whole lot of sense, but the way the settings are set in these two settings, which apparently are not the ones that fully determine my default settings given the CardBook-related columns that I see, do *not* seem to make sense.

The "Folder and its children..." approach works, but it makes it harder than it should be, and it seems like there must be a way to change the defaults in Config Editor.... If there is, please tell me how.

Thanks for any help you can give...

Is there a way to sort Favorite folders? I've tried dragging them to a new order with horrible consequences. Instead of changing the order, the actual folder was moved to a sub-folder position within the actual folder I was trying to move to the position beneath it.

In other words, if I have Favorite folders: A, B, C, E, F, D and I want to move Folder D to the position after C and before E, dragging D to C will cause the physical location of the Folder D to be moved to a sub-folder position of Folder C in the email account.

If you then move it back to it's correct position AND folder D had sub-folders as well, you will then get the error message for any of Folder D's sub-folders: Unable to open the summary file for FOLDER D's SUBFOLDER NAME. Perhaps there was an error on disk, or the full path is too long.

BTW: is there a way to fix that error as well?

In Thunderbird, how can I stop text in the previous emails in a string turning blue?

I have looked everywhere in Settings where colour is mentioned and everything is set to black text on a white background. Nothing is set to blue.

I do not want to see blue text anywhere.

Please advise.

I find US date format utterly confusing. I want change settings so that my Thunderbird email is in UK date format. 1 - How can I do this please? 2 - If the answer to 1) is "you can't yet" then how soon will this option be made available?

Hi,

I want to delete the amount of emails the Thunderbird stores on my local computer.

I do not want the email on the server deleted.

I went to settings, local folders, disk space and chose the option for Delete messages more than 30 days old.

I made the change and ran compact.

It's not deleting the emails at all.

Why not ?

Again, I do not want to delete the emails anywhere else (on the server), so making the change under the folder or my account is not it.

Anyone able to point me to where the problem is and why the emails are not being deleted from my local disk ?

Mike

I want to send messages I delete to a Trash folder on my laptop, rather than the Trash folder on the server. Is there some way to do this? I'm looking at:

Server Settings > Security Settings > When I delete a message

This only gives me the option save deleted messages somewhere on the server.

(I have given up all hope of convincing Thunderbird to download all my messages, but fixing the Trash problem will make the program at least useable, from my POV!)

I copy/paste emails a lot for my job, which needs to include from, sent, to, cc, bcc, and subject:

From: Sender <sender@email.com>; Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2026 at 11:27 AM EST To: John Doe <johndoe@email.com>; Cc: Jane Doe <janedoe@email.com>; Bcc: Subject: Email Subject

Currently, I am using the plugin ReplyWithHeader, which will produce this style of header on reply/forward, but is there a way to display this in the email body on view, without me having to reply/forward to produce the headers in the email body?

When I am typing an email in Thunderbird, regardless if I have my font size preset to Extra Large, Large, or Medium, the font that appears in the email while I am typing the email, is very tiny, so tiny it is hard for me to read it. Yet when the email is received by the recipient, the font appears the correct size as selected in composition settings. How do I fix this?

Then I click on an email address on a web page, the message, "This file does not have an app associated with it for performing this action. Please install an app or, if one is already installed, create an association in the Default Apps Settings page." pops up. (See image of message) I checked the Default Apps Settings page and "Thunderbird" is not a choice. I was unable to find an App for Thunderbird. With Morzilla on my Windows 10 computer, the email address would open Thunderbird. Now, I have to copy and paste the address. How can I correct this?