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.

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!

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,

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.

Hi, is there a way to get Thunderbird to move to the tray when I press the X button in the top right corner?

I've tried enabling "When Thunderbird is minimized, move it to the tray" but that just changes what the minimize button does. When I press X, Thunderbird still quits.

I've done some googling and I found this extension: https://services.addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/minimize-on-close/

The problem with it is:

1. It doesn't seem to work with modern versions of Thunderbird
2. It lets you either minimize the window or move it to the tray, but not both (X and minimize do the same thing)

Can I get Thunderbird to close to tray only when I press X? So that the minimize button still works normally? Thanks

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!)

When I receive an email with double line spacing I can't find a way to alter this to single line spacing. I'd like to be able to change from one to the other at will. M

Hello everyone

I recently upgraded from TB 69 to the latest TB (after a crucial add-on finally got updated), and I'm generally happy with it, except for one little irk:

In Classic layout, the preview pane now contain multiple messages. As far as I can tell, it contains all messages of the selected thread, in date order (not in message list order). I would prefer the preview pane to contain just ONE message, namely the currently selected message. It is annoying to have to click repeatedly inside the preview pane to access the individual messages in the preview pane. It is also visually confusing (to me).

What's worse, the messages in the preview pane do not follow the normal threading: they appear to be shown in order of date, not in the order of the messages in the message list.

In the screenshot, you can see the thread has 11 messages, and in the message list there are three subthreads. The preview pane also shows the 11 messages, but not in the same order as in the message list. Plus, in order for me to read any messages, I need to click inside the preview pane to fold each message in or out.

I prefer a situation where I can click a single message in the message list, and a single message is shown in the preview pane. Is this possible with the latest TB?

Thanks.

Hello; Windows 10 & current version of Thunderbird. I am trying to add Messages Filters to filter out spam (getting more and more of that!) but the "OK" button on the add message filter is below the bottom of the screen. The window cannot be raised or resized to make the button visible. Photo below. Moving window does not allow me to raise window above top of screen. Keyboard (Alt-Enter) / Move will not work. Changed windows screen size just makes window larger but button still below bottom of screen.

Non-functional work around. Highlight Message name. Press Shift-Tab TWICE. Press ENTER. UGLY!

Tech since DOS 3.0

Thank you for your time and attention.

I installed Thunderbird 138.0.1 (64-bit) on a Win 11 desktop computer yesterday and the column headers for the messages are not displayed. I have View/Headers/All, View/Layout/ Classic View, Folder Pane, Message List Header selected. How can I get access to the message column headers to display them and later select the ones I want ?

Thanks, Corey

Thunderbird 128.14.0esr on Debian 13 KDE. Email is in Classic View.

The mail headers take up far too much space.

Here's an example of the problem: http://map.atownsend.org.uk/tmp/Screenshot_20250829_150825_2.png . As you can see, about 50% of the UI is taken up by headers. I like the general layout (tree at the left, not included in screenshot, list of messages above and the message itself below) and I like the contents of the headers (I don't want to display fewer; I'd just like them to take up less space).

Changing the font via edit / settings / font / size has no effect on the headers (it may be changing the size of the text within the message, but I can't really see enough of that to be sure).

How do I change the font within the headers to a different, smaller, value?

I was viewing a new email in the usual way. At the top, there was the yellow bar with the option: Show remote content in this message

I accidentally chose not to display the remote content. I would now like to display it. However, I could not find a way to do this.

How do I display remote content after choosing not display it? Or, how do I get the "Show remote content in this message" option to return to an email?