Mozilla Thunderbird is a free open source desktop email client that was first released in December 2004. The client nowadays includes email management options but also options to connect to newsgroups, subscribe to news feeds and use various chat protocols so that is is commonly referred as a messaging client nowadays.
Thunderbird manages each email address that you add in accounts, and provides you with a wizard that walks you through the setup process. The developers have added wizards for several popular email services such as Gmail, Hotmail and other online mail services to the client to make setup as easy as possible. For those services, only the email address and password are required to complete the setup.
Thunderbird supports the Pop3 and IMAP protcol, and the client’s manual account creation option makes sure that email accounts from all providers can be added to the client. It furthermore includes a junk filter, an extension system that is identical to the system that the Firefox web browser uses, and various o
Mozilla recently decided to lower the priority of Thunderbird development. While this does not mean the end of the client, it means that development will chuck along at a slower pace.
Please check out our Thunderbird news archive if you are interested in update news of earlier versions of the email program.
Emails are by default just like postcards. That's good on the one hand, as it ensures that sender and recipient can read the email messages without issues. It means however as well that anyone or anything that is in the delivery chain may read those emails as well. This is done by some email providers […]
Mozilla Messaging released Thunderbird 52.3.0 on August 16, 2017 to the release channel and all supported operating systems. The new version of the popular email client is a bug fix release; means, it fixes issues in the client but does not introduce new features to it or make changes to existing ones. Also, no security […]
The Thunderbird team has released Thunderbird 52.2.0 today, a new stable version of the popular cross-platform email client. The new version of Thunderbird is already available through the email client's automatic update system. Most users who have it installed will have their Thunderbird client updated to version 52.2.0 automatically. Update: The Thunderbird 52.2.1 update resolves […]
What's going to happen to the Thunderbird email client? This was one question that most users of the desktop program asked themselves when it was revealed that Mozilla wanted to drop the program. Mozilla's intention in cutting the ties to Thunderbird were mostly caused by a desire to free up resources, and to avoid having […]
Thunderbird 52.0 is out. The new version of the desktop email client for Windows, Mac and Linux devices was released on April 4, 2017 to the public. The new version of the email client is a major new releases, as indicated by the version. It replaces the previous version Thunderbird 45.8.0. Thunderbird installations and portable […]
SeaMonkey and Thunderbird developers may join forces to ensure continued development after Mozilla cuts the ties to the projects (Firefox Exit, FirExit) Mozilla announced back in December 2015 that it wants to cut the tie to Thunderbird completely. Mozilla's core reason for doing so at the time was that Firefox developers were held back because […]
Attach from Clipboard is an extension for the desktop email client Thunderbird to create file attachments from clipboard content. If you want to paste clipboard content into emails, you may be able to do so directly. The content is then added to the email body however, and not as an attachment. If you want to […]
A new version of the popular desktop email client Thunderbird has just been released. Thunderbird 45.5 fixes several issues but does not introduce new features. The Thunderbird 45.5 release notes list six items of which two are marked as changed, and four as fixed. The new release is a bug fix release mostly; it does […]
As you may know, I use Thunderbid as may main desktop email program. I use it with various email providers, including Gmail. Everything worked fine up until this morning. I received mails to the Gmail account and was able to browse mails and compose them as well. About an hour ago I started to get […]
If you have updated the desktop email client Thunderbird to version 45 which the team released recently, you may have noticed several changes that may affect how you are using the application. One of those changes affects the compose window, and there specifically what happens when you tap on the Enter-key to create a new […]
Mozilla has released an update to the desktop email client Thunderbird that brings the version of the program to Thunderbird 45.0. It is a major update of the application which has been on life support ever since Mozilla decided to hand over development to the community in 2012 and use freed up resources for other […]
Mozilla announced last month that it wants to get rid of Thunderbird, the desktop email client that shares code with Firefox. The details were a bit sketchy at the time, but the gist was that Mozilla wants to take away the burden from its engineers and free Thunderbird engineers from having to spent time adjusting […]
Thunderbird usage is on the rise according to latest usage information published by Mozilla on the official blog. The email client that celebrated its eleventh birthday on December 7 crossed the 10 million Active Daily Inquiries (ADI) mark for the first time on November 30, 2015. Mozilla measures usage by counting the pings it receives […]
For years, Mozilla developed and maintained not only the Firefox web browser but also the Thunderbird email client. Both products were received well when they were first released and both managed to attract millions of users who use the products on a daily basis. Mozilla some time ago announced that it would remove staff from […]
The email client Thunderbird lacks options to sort the order of accounts in the email client directly. It is for instance not possible to reorder accounts in the client's main pane via drag and drop. We have covered add-ons in the past that allow you to reorder accounts and folders, but there is also a […]
Development of the email client Thunderbird was more or less restricted to maintenance and security updates ever since Mozilla made the decision to use resources for other projects and move development into the hands of the community. That was back in 2012 and while that did not really affect existing users as Thunderbird is more […]
Mozilla announced plans some time ago to integrate the calendar add-on Lightning natively in the Thunderbird email client. Lightning is without doubt the most popular calendar add-on for Thunderbird and in fact one of the most popular extensions for Thunderbird. The decision to ship Lightning natively with the email program moves it closer to the […]
Thunderbird's Quick Filter toolbar displays options to filter all messages of the current email folder in certain ways. It allows you to only display unread emails for instance, which can be very useful if the client shows unread mails but you cannot locate them in the folder which happens sometimes when senders use incorrect dates. […]
