Add experimental Dropbox support to Mozilla Thunderbird

If you are a user of the Mozilla Thunderbird email client you are probably aware by now of the program's Filelink feature that allows you to upload files that you want to send to recipients instead of attaching them to the emails directly. Thunderbird handles the uploading and integration of links that point to the files automatically, making it a comfortable feature to use.
Current iterations of the browser support two file hosting services, Ubuntu One and You Send It, with the outlook that additional services will be integrated into the next versions of the email client.
If you have followed development of the feature closely you may have noticed that the popular file synchronization service Dropbox was integrated in Thunderbird for a short time, before it was removed again. While I do not have anymore details on the decision, it appears as if Mozilla and Dropbox somehow could not come to an agreement for the integration of the service.
Instead of integrating it directly in Thunderbird, Mozilla is now planning to release an add-on for the email client that adds Dropbox integration to the software's Filelink feature again. Before you head over to Bugzilla were the add-on is currently hosted on, I'd like to stress that this is beta code and that it may have bugs and other issues that have not yet been fixed or even discovered yet. With that said, I have to say that I did not encounter any issues using Dropbox as the file link provider in Thunderbird.
There seem to be issues sometimes when you try to use the Filelink feature with Dropbox. You receive an error that the file could not be uploaded. It is in this case added as a normal attachment to the email.
Once you have installed the add-on and restarted the email client, you need to authorize Thunderbird to use Dropbox storage. This is done under Tools > Options > Attachments > Outgoing > Add.
Select Dropbox from the list of available providers and click on the set up account button afterwards. A new window opens where you are asked to sign in to Dropbox to authorize Thunderbird. Please note that you need JavaScript enabled in Thunderbird for this to work.
Once done you should see a screen in the outgoing tab similar to the one above. Here you see the available and used storage space of the account, and the attachment size threshold at which point Thunderbird will suggest to use a file hosting site instead of sending the attachment directly with the email.
All Dropbox uploaded files are stored under Apps > Mozilla Thunderbird on Dropbox.
Advertisement
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!