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Thunderbird annoyances

  • 4 uphendule
  • 1 inale nkinga
  • 5 views
  • Igcine ukuphendulwa ngu Wayne Mery

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Background: I have been a user of Thunderbird for many years, starting before it became open-source. I have been on Windows 10 since it first came out.

1. I have turned off everything I can find in T-bird that might designate a message as junk, but still many messages that are OBVIOUSLY not junk are immediately placed in the junk folder. For example: messages from my wife, some of my own messges, messages from businesses (even my bank) that I have daily interaxtions with. Thus, every session with T-bird I must first go to the junk folder and evaluate each "new" so-called junk message and mark most of them as non-junk. Then I go back to the input folder, run my filters (none of which will call any of these questionable messages "junk",) and find that several of them have been put back in the junk folder. I "un-junk" them again, and then go to the inbox, where I must run each individual filter to place each such message in the appropriate folder. This is a tremendous waste of time, and it never happened until the last few months.

The filter at the top of my filter list (the first one to be run) is supposed to mark ALL incoming messages as "non-junk," but that does not seem to help.

2. With one of the recent "updates" it became impossible to scroll, minimize, maximize, or shrink the contents of any filter while editing it. I have ten filters that have many more specs in them than can fit on one screen. The "edit" window for a filter looks like a standard Windows window, with an X in the upper right corner to clode it, but without the icons for shrinking, maximizing, or minimizing the window, and no scroll bar to permit scrolling through the filter's conditions. That means that a filter now is limited to about a dozen conditions, and there is no way I can make changes to those ten large filters (I cannot get down to the "Save" or "Exit" buttons. This limit is not mentioned in any documentation that I can find.

3. In just the last couple of days while running my filters I have been getting warnings that "The --- folder cannot be found, so messages cannot be moved to it." In every case, I have had no difficulty finding the folder mentioned, and every filter referring to it has it listed correctly.

4. Very recently, whenever I start Thunderbird, and sometimes when I delete a message, I get an annoying message offering to remove all deleted messages from my hard drive automatically whenever one is deleted. The only choices are "Yes" and "No." I do NOT want Thunderbird to delete messages, because I cannot trust Thunderbird to determine junk messages in any rational way. THERE SHOULD BE AN OPTION TO TURN OFF THAT ANNOYING MESSAGE PERMANENTLY.

5. A minor annoyance is the recent unnanounced change in the way a new message is addressed. Once I accidentally stumbled on how the new systemt worked, I could deal with it. However, any change in the way a user interface is to be used should be accompanied by a brief note to all users about how to use the new interface. I should NOT have to read all the tedious detail in the change log every couple of days to find out what new trick you have decided to play. I don't see ANY advantage to the one-line for addresses over the old multi-line address procedure.

I have gotten to the point where I am for the first time ever starting to look at alternatives to Thunderbird. I will try to stay with Thunderbird for a few more months to see if you can fix some of these issues. Migrating to another email client is surely going to be a significant challenge, but I am getting close to the point of needing to.

Sincerely, Eric Myrvaagnes

Background: I have been a user of Thunderbird for many years, starting before it became open-source. I have been on Windows 10 since it first came out. 1. I have turned off everything I can find in T-bird that might designate a message as junk, but still many messages that are OBVIOUSLY not junk are immediately placed in the junk folder. For example: messages from my wife, some of my own messges, messages from businesses (even my bank) that I have daily interaxtions with. Thus, every session with T-bird I must first go to the junk folder and evaluate each "new" so-called junk message and mark most of them as non-junk. Then I go back to the input folder, run my filters (none of which will call any of these questionable messages "junk",) and find that several of them have been put back in the junk folder. I "un-junk" them again, and then go to the inbox, where I must run each individual filter to place each such message in the appropriate folder. This is a tremendous waste of time, and it never happened until the last few months. The filter at the top of my filter list (the first one to be run) is supposed to mark ALL incoming messages as "non-junk," but that does not seem to help. 2. With one of the recent "updates" it became impossible to scroll, minimize, maximize, or shrink the contents of any filter while editing it. I have ten filters that have many more specs in them than can fit on one screen. The "edit" window for a filter looks like a standard Windows window, with an X in the upper right corner to clode it, but without the icons for shrinking, maximizing, or minimizing the window, and no scroll bar to permit scrolling through the filter's conditions. That means that a filter now is limited to about a dozen conditions, and there is no way I can make changes to those ten large filters (I cannot get down to the "Save" or "Exit" buttons. This limit is not mentioned in any documentation that I can find. 3. In just the last couple of days while running my filters I have been getting warnings that "The --- folder cannot be found, so messages cannot be moved to it." In every case, I have had no difficulty finding the folder mentioned, and every filter referring to it has it listed correctly. 4. Very recently, whenever I start Thunderbird, and sometimes when I delete a message, I get an annoying message offering to remove all deleted messages from my hard drive automatically whenever one is deleted. The only choices are "Yes" and "No." I do NOT want Thunderbird to delete messages, because I cannot trust Thunderbird to determine junk messages in any rational way. THERE SHOULD BE AN OPTION TO TURN OFF THAT ANNOYING MESSAGE PERMANENTLY. 5. A minor annoyance is the recent unnanounced change in the way a new message is addressed. Once I accidentally stumbled on how the new systemt worked, I could deal with it. However, any change in the way a user interface is to be used should be accompanied by a brief note to all users about how to use the new interface. I should NOT have to read all the tedious detail in the change log every couple of days to find out what new trick you have decided to play. I don't see ANY advantage to the one-line for addresses over the old multi-line address procedure. I have gotten to the point where I am for the first time ever starting to look at alternatives to Thunderbird. I will try to stay with Thunderbird for a few more months to see if you can fix some of these issues. Migrating to another email client is surely going to be a significant challenge, but I am getting close to the point of needing to. Sincerely, Eric Myrvaagnes

Isisombululo esikhethiwe

To run a profile in 68 that has been used in 78, try this: Windowskey+R, type thunderbird.exe -p --allow-downgrade

You will probably have to enter the complete path to the 68 thunderbird.exe if you also have 78 installed.

This will open Profile Manager, where you can select the 78 profile. If that doesn't work, mail, contacts, filters etc. can be transferred manually between profiles.

Funda le mpendulo ngokuhambisana nalesi sihloko 👍 0

All Replies (4)

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1. Have you considered if junk filters are being applied at the server end? I don't use TB's built-in junk controls, yet all of my accounts apply junk/spam/bulk filters independently, and quite effectively.

2. In the attached picture, you can see a filter editing window that is the height of my display. Place your cursor at the lower right corner until it turns into a double-arrow, then click and drag to resize the window. There is also a movable separator between the rules and the actions. Same procedure in the Tools/Message Filters window.

3. Enable the filter log and see if it provides any clues.

4. Have never seen that message. Screenshot? Is it a warning from TB about compacting or from an external security/AV app?

5. TB 78 documentation is lagging the deployment, because it is only intended for new users or existing users who are aware (if only after the fact) of bugs. Auto upgrades from 68 are not likely for a couple of months.

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Your answer to my point #1 is helpful, and I will look into that. I now think the other issues are the result of my having somehow upgraded to TB 78 without realizing that it wasn't officially released yet.

I have now downloaded TB68.10, which I think I should have been offered, in a separate installation from my TB78 version.

Is there some place where I can find out how to migrate the profile, folder collection, and filters from TB78 to TB68.10?

Thanks for your quick response.

Eric M.

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Isisombululo Esikhethiwe

To run a profile in 68 that has been used in 78, try this: Windowskey+R, type thunderbird.exe -p --allow-downgrade

You will probably have to enter the complete path to the 68 thunderbird.exe if you also have 78 installed.

This will open Profile Manager, where you can select the 78 profile. If that doesn't work, mail, contacts, filters etc. can be transferred manually between profiles.

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> 3. In just the last couple of days while running my filters I have been getting warnings that "The --- folder cannot be found, so messages cannot be moved to it." In every case, I have had no difficulty finding the folder mentioned, and every filter referring to it has it listed correctly.

This issue should be resolved in 78.2.0 in a couple weeks.