Thunderbird

Address Book

 * Click on the Address Book icon
 * In the open address book window in the left hand column click on the address book you wish to back up
 * Tools >> Export >> Save in the appropriate format

Message Filters
The filters rules for any account are simply stored in a file called msgFilterRules.dat, that you can easily find in your TB profile folder. You can just copy that file into your new profile, restart Thunderbird and that's it, no extension needed.

Message Tags
The Tags used to mark messages are save within the 'prefs.js' file found in each mail accounts profile. Each Tag has two entries, one for the tag name the other for its colour.

Example:

user_pref("mailnews.tags.printed.color", "#3366FF"); user_pref("mailnews.tags.printed.tag", "Printed");

Firefox Stealing Focus When Opening Browser Links In An Email Client
NOTE: This fix requires alteration of Firefox's about:config settings not Thunderbird's.

If Firefox is your default browser then when you click on an URL in Thunderbird it is opened and Firefox springs to the foreground.

IMAP Synchronisation (v3 >)
In v3 > IMAP accounts created or imported are set to automatically synchronise email with the server, if you have a large amount of emails and you use roaming profiles this can greatly impact on log on/off times.

 Importing/Recreating An Old IMAP Profile: 

If importing an old IMAP profile copy it to the local drive and then unplug the network cable or temporarily disable the network card. If recreating an existing account just unplug the network cable or temporarily disable the network card.

Import the old profile, then:

Linux: Edit >> Account Settings >> Synchronisation & Storage Windows: Tools >> Account Settings >> Synchronisation & Storage

Under 'Message Synchronising' untick 'Keep messages for this account on this computer'

 Safe Mode: How To 

Windows:

Run thunderbird -safe-mode

 Setting Up A New IMAP Account 

Linux: Edit >> Account Settings >> Synchronisation & Storage Windows: Tools >> Account Settings >> Synchronisation & Storage

Under 'Message Synchronising' untick 'Keep messages for this account on this computer'

 NOTE:  Synchronising is done on an account by account basis.

If you are setting up a fresh account untick the box while creating your settings.

Tabs
If you do not wish to read your messages in a tab but in a new window you can disable the feature:


 * Windows >> Tools >> Options >> Advanced >> Reading & Display >> Open messages in: >> An existing message window.
 * Linux >> Edit >> Preferences >> Advanced >> Reading & Display >> Open messages in: >> An existing message window.

This however leaves an open tab which displays the name of the folder you have selected. If you wish to disable this tab you can do so in the Config Editor.


 * Windows >> Tools >> Options >> Advanced >> General >> Config Editor
 * Linux >> Edit >> Preferences >> Advanced >> General >> Config Editor

mail.tabs.autoHide

Change from false to true by double clicking on the entry.

Thanks to Ghacks.

INTEGRATION IN TO THE UBUNTU MESSAGING MENU
Terminal:~$ sudo aptitude remove thunderbird-mozilla-build sudo aptitude install thunderbird-globalmenu thunderbird-locale-en

ENABLE FILELINK
Preferences >> Attachments >> Outgoing

Then either sign up for a Box or Hightail account or enter your details for an existing account.

After entering your account details whenever you attach a large file to a new email message a pop-up will appear at the bottom of the compose window (see picture below):



Click on the 'Link' button and watch the attachment uploading to your chosen online file storage provider (see picture below):



At the same time there will be a new pop-up at the bottom of the compose window (see picture below):



The message is self-explanatory and if you do not wish to see it again click the 'Never show this again' button.

After the file is uploaded another pop-up at the bottom of the compose window with appear (see picture below):



As well as this pop-up a file link will be inserted in to the body of the message similar to that in the following picture:



Whenever the file is downloaded by a third party you will receive an email conformation.

Custom Dictionary
With Thunderbird closed, navigate to the Profile Folder and locate the file persdict.dat. Open that file with a text editor, edit as needed, then save the file.

Signature Transparency
Alter the 'opacity' value to your liking. Test it here - http://www.w3schools.com/cssref/tryit.asp?filename=trycss3_opacity_js

Create a folder in your profile folder called 'chrome' and then create a file called 'UserContent.css' with the following...

/* * Disable TB22 style transparency */ .moz-txt-sig, .moz-signature { opacity: 0.5 !important; }

...then restart Thunderbird.

Font Sizes in Pane & Menus
Method 1

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Pane_and_menu_fonts

Method 2

Theme Font & Size Changer

Error: Segmentation Fault On NFS Mounted Home Directory With LDAP Auth LINUX
A mad but simple solution (and no-one out there seems to know why it works)... install the Name Service Caching Daemon package.

Terminal:~$ sudo apt-get install nscd

Now you can start Thunderbird. Yep, bizarre. But who cares? It works.

Error: "Could not initialize the application's security component"
http://mzl.la/1a9lYoa

Open Links In Google Chrome / Chromium Browser - Linux
Thunderbird > Edit > Preferences > Attachments > Incoming > http > Use other... > /usr/bin/chromium Thunderbird > Edit > Preferences > Attachments > Incoming > https > Use other... > /usr/bin/chromium Close Restart

Fix #1
Check your Firefox path:

'''Terminal:~$ which firefox

Thunderbird > Edit > Preferences > Advanced > Config Editor

network.protocol-handler.app.http = /usr/bin/firefox network.protocol-handler.app.https = /usr/bin/firefox

Fix #2
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Register_protocol

No Option To Select A Printer
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=205050

Not Printing To Default Printer
http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=224248

Scanning And Attaching To Email From A Brother All-In-One Printer
Brother does not provide built-in support for Thunderbird so this facility has to be provided by a third-party application FileAttach

HOWTO: Archive IMAP Emails To Local Folders
Some internet hosting companies set a limit on the total size of messages and also the total number of messages in your IMAP mailbox account.

With 1&1 (SCHLUND) the total size of messages is 2GB and the total number of messages is 40,000.

To stop from going over this limit of number of messages, you can use Mozilla Thunderbird's Archive feature.

Account Settings > Copies & Folders > Message Archives Keep message archives in: > Archive options > A single folder + Keep existing folder structure > OK "Archives" Folder on: > Local Folders > OK

Now, choose a message in one of your IMAP folders, and then click the Archive button.

Then, scroll down to the Local Folders folder and check it has copied the message, whilst recreating the folder structure.

Space, sorted! :-)

Thanks - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/archived-messages

Vacation / Out Of Office Plugin for Mozilla Thunderbird
NEW VERSION

https://github.com/opensolutions/sieve-out-of-office

OLD VERSION

http://adullact.net/plugins/mediawiki/wiki/milimail/index.php/Out_of_Office

Sieve Settings Server Name: 192.168.0.207 Port: 4190 Authentication: Use login from IMAP Account User Name: test@domain.org.uk Secure Connection: false

Just create a ~/.procmailrc file in your user's home directory...

DEFAULT=$HOME/.maildir/ LOGFILE=$HOME/procmail.log DELIVER="/usr/libexec/dovecot/deliver" DROPPRIVS="YES" :0 w | $DELIVER

...and then check the server email logs for the entry...

dovecot: lda(sieve): sieve: msgid=<201307151456.r6FEusZI017531@mail.server.com>: sent vacation response to 

Or, a global /etc/procmailrc for the whole server...

DEFAULT=$HOME/.maildir/ LOGFILE=$HOME/procmail.log LOGABSTRACT=all VERBOSE=no DELIVER="/usr/libexec/dovecot/deliver" DROPPRIVS="YES" :0 w | $DELIVER
 * 1) Use maildir-style mailbox in user's home directory
 * 1) Log actions to file
 * 1) Log synopsis of messages
 * 1) Be verbose
 * 1) Pass to Dovecot for Sieve

HOWTO: Minimize Profile Size
If you have a IMAP account offline folders are enabled that automatically download copies of the messages in all of your folders. You can disable this feature by unchecking Tools -> Account Settings -> Synchronization & Storage -> "Keep messages for this account on the computer". However, this doesn't delete any existing offline folders. If you have some look at the local directory setting at the bottom of Tools -> Account Settings -> Server Settings to see where Thunderbird stores the files for that account. Exit Thunderbird and delete any files in that directory (and its children) that have the name of a folder but no file extension (mbox files). For example, "inbox." for the inbox folder. Leave the *.msf files alone. The *.sbd files are renamed directories.

from here: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Minimize_the_size_of_a_profile

HOWTO: REMOVE: Unwanted Dictionaries
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-942972.html

HOWTO: SETUP: Autoreply
http://tbirdhowto.wordpress.com/category/auto-reply/

http://tbirdhowto.wordpress.com/2007/02/16/how-to-set-up-an-out-of-office-auto-reply/

about:config Information
http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config_entries

Thunderbird Configuration Files
For the times that you cannot use the about:config editor to manipulate Thunderbird's setting then you can edit the following files:


 * userChrome.css is used to change the appearance of the browser
 * userContent.css is used to change the appearance of web pages
 * user.js is used to change various preferences

All of the above files are in a plain text format so can be edited with any run of the mill text editor.

More here.

HOWTO: Compact Folders
 Manually: 

File --> Compact Folders

 Automatically: 

Linux: Edit --> Preferences --> Advanced --> Network & Disc Space

Windows: Tools --> Options --> Advanced --> Network & Disc Space

Under the 'Disc Space' section:


 * 1) Clear the cache and then set it to 50Mb
 * 2) Change the 'Compact folders when it will save over' to 10Mb

Notification Problem
http://forums.cnet.com/7723-6638_102-515492.html

Lightning Versions With Thunderbird Versions
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Calendar/Calendar_Versions

Install Lightning Extension in Thunderbird for use with Google Calendar

 * 1) Thunderbird > Tools > Add-ons > Get Add-ons
 * 2) Search for Lightning and Install.
 * 3) Search for Provider for Google and Install.
 * 4) Restart Thunderbird.
 * 5) Firefox or Chrome > Log into your Google Calendar web interface.
 * 6) Left hand side > My Calendars > Little down arrow> Settings
 * 7) Click the blue underline link for one of the Calendars to show the Details page
 * 8) Find the Private Address: section > Click on XML and copy the URL
 * 9) Thunderbird > File > New > Calendar
 * 10) On the Network > Format > Google Calendar > Paste XML URL into Location
 * 11) Enter your Google username and password, and choose Remember password
 * 12) Name the calendar the same as in Google, and choose a colour, and click OK.
 * 13) Thunderbird > Events and Tasks > Calendar

Thanks to Make Use Of

Links to follow up
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Thunderbird#Tips_and_tricks

https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/cscf/howto/thunderbird/

http://www.thegeekylinux.com/2014/10/how-to-install-mozilla-thunderbird-in.html