Five Advanced Thunderbird Tips
Thunderbird is my mail software of choice even though I do have various web mail accounts. I simply prefer my mail to be on my computer and not on a server somewhere on the Internet. I run a fairly customized version of Thunderbird and I would like to share five advanced Thunderbird tips with you that I implemented in my version.
I'm going to show you how to reduce the size of the attachment icon, change the reply header, password protect the message pane of IMAP accounts, only display folders with unread messages and how you can protect Thunderbird with a master password that works similar to the Firefox master password.
If you have a tip on your own reply with it in the comments, I'm always looking for great ways to improve my work flow in Thunderbird.
Reduce the Size of the Attachment Icon
The attachment icon in Thunderbird is fairly large and takes up lots of space beneath the message in Thunderbird. You can change the large icon into a smaller icon in the Thunderbird configuration. A click on Tools > Options loads the Configuration. Click on the Advanced tab and there on the Config Editor button, this loads the about:config menu that you know from Firefox.
Filter for the name mailnews.attachments.display.largeView and double-click it to set the value to false. This will reduce the icon noticeably.
Change the Reply Header
The standard reply header in Thunderbird is "name wrote". It is possible to customize or disable the reply header. This option can be found in the user.js file in the Thunderbird profile folder. Search for a heading named // Change the reply header and change it accordingly. Everything is explained in there.
To go to the profile folder, select Help > Troubleshooting Information > Show Folder.
Password protect the message pane of IMAP accounts
You can password protect the message pane of your IMAP accounts in the Thunderbird configuration. Just open the about:config window again like you did in the first tip. Enter the preference mail.password_protect_local_cache in the filter and change the value from false to true by double-clicking it.
Only display folders with unread messages
I use a rather complex folder structure that gets in my way if I want to just read through all the unread mails. You might have noticed the <> icons above your folder pane that are on the right side of the All Folders text. If you click on one of them you switch to a different folder view mode and the first one when clicking on the right arrow is the Unread Folders mode that displays only folders that contain unread messages.
Update: To display only unread messages, select View > Folders > Unread from the menu bar.
Set a Master Password in Thunderbird
If you do not set a master password anyone can access your mail passwords. Please do not confuse this with disallowing anyone access to your mails. This only prevents users from retrieving new mail and from accessing your mail passwords. You can set the Master Password on the Security > Passwords Tab in the Thunderbird options.
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You said that Outlook isn’t your main email client, so which is your main one?
I think its thunderbird
It is Mozilla Thunderbird.
Awesome! This actually solved my problem… what a stupid bug.
If this is the same bug that I’ve encountered, there may be another fix: (1) hover over open Outlook item in Taskbar, cursor up to hover over Outlook window item, and right-click; (2) this should give you Restore / Move / Size / Minimize / Maximize — choose Move or Size; (3) use your cursor keys, going arbitrarily N/S/E/W, to try to move or size the Outlook window back into view. Basically, the app behaves as though it were open in a 0x0 window, or at a location that’s offscreen, and this will frequently work to resize and/or move the window. Don’t forget to close while resized/moved, so that Outlook remembers the size/position for next time.
THANK YOU Claude!!! I could get the main window to launch but could not get any other message window to show on the desktop. You are my hero!!!!
Solved my issue! 6 years later and this is still problem…
Fantastic. Thank you. Size did the trick.
This solved my Outlook problem, too. Thank you. :)
Thank you so much, this started happening to me today and was causing big problems. You are a life saver, I hope I can help you in some way some day.
You are a god – thank you!
thanks a lot…. work like charm.. :-)
Yah…thanks Claude. I’ve been having the same problem and tried all the suggestions…your solution was the answer. It had resized itself to a 0/0 box. Cheers
Excellent post. This had me baffled even trying to accurately describe the problem. This fixed it for me.
Thank you
Thanks a lot for the article. Don’t know why it happenend, don’t know how it got fixed, but it was really annoying and now it works :-)
Thanks a lot. I was facing this issue from past 3 week. I tried everything but no resolution. The issue was happening intermittently and mainly when I was changing the display of screen ( as i use 2 monitors). The only option i had was to do system restore. But thanks to you.
I’ve been tried to sole this problem for 12hours. Your comment about changing the display of screen helped me a lot!! Thanks!!
Thank you…don’t know why this happened but your instructions helped me fix it. Running Windows 10 and office pro 2007
Great tip! Thanks!
Worked for me, too – thank you!!!
It’s Worked for me, too
thank you very much!
I had a similar issue with Outlook 2013 on Windows 10 and this helped me to fix it. Thank you very much!
Thank you so much. Solved!
Considering you published this in 2012, incredible not been debugged by Microsoft.
Thank you again. M
This problem was faced by only one user logging to TS 2008 r2 using outlook 2010.The issue was resolved.
Thanks.
Great tip. Thank you!!!! If it helps, I had to use the Control Key and the arrow keys at the same time to bring my window back into view. Worked like a charm.
Thank you, this worked !!!!
Man, you are a fucking god. Thanks a lot, what an annoying bug!!
Awesome, this post solved the issue. Many thanks!