Fix for Thunderbird not opening links
I have configured the Thunderbird email client to block links from being opened when I click on them. This may sound strange to some as it makes it less convenient to open links posted in emails but it improves the security of the system.
Some Thunderbird users may on the other hand experience issues opening links in emails even though they'd prefer that to be available to them. If you are one of them read on how to fix the issue in the email client. Note that this is just one of the solutions and that it may not be the one working for you. I suggest you check out the Mozilla Zine article for additional solutions that may help you resolve it if the one published here does not resolve the issue for you.
- Open the Thunderbird email program and wait until it is idle.
- Click on Tools > Options to open the settings. If you only have a single Thunderbird button click on the button and then on Options there.
- Switch to Advanced > General and click on Config Editor here.
- Filter for the term network.protocol-handler.external-default by copying and pasting it into the search field at the top.
- A value of false indicates that Thunderbird won't open links in external clients.
- Double-click the value to set it to true.
- Keep the editor open for now.
The change takes effect immediately and you should be able to open links in the default browser from that moment in time on. Note that this will only fix the issue if the value of the parameter was set to false initially.
If that is not working, try the following option.
- Go back to the editor
- Filter for the term network.protocol-handler.warn-external.http and set it to true with a double-click (it is false by default)
- This displays the "open with" dialog when you click on a link for the first time which you can use to pick a program for the protocol. If you want to always open links in the application check the remember my choice for http links at the bottom of that screen.
- Repeat the procedure for network.protocol-handler.warn-external.https and network.protocol-handler.warn-external.ftp to display the prompt for http and ftp links as well.
The parameters should be enough to resolve the links not opening issue in Thunderbird.
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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!