Thunderbird

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Keyboard shortcuts

From Keyboard Shortcuts TB:

M Mark message as read / unread
R Mark thread as read

Add-Ons

Currently in use

Nostalgy++
  • New version compatible with latest TB (cufrently Nostalgy++ 3.2.17 on Thunderbird 91.8.0)
  • Tip: Scroll folder list without selecting folder: H
  • Worked very well on TB 52.
  • Note: Auto-completion does not appear at first.
Copy Sent To Current
  • Allows to (additionally) save a copy of sent messages to the current folder or choose folder on send
  • Not working when used with MRC Compose.
Virtual Identity
MRC Compose
  • Provides standards fields (TO, CC, BCC) with autocomplete to Thunderbird's compose pane. (See bugzilla 440377).

Tested or no longer used

Quick Folder Move
  • Nostalgy is a better alternative

PGP support

Reference: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/openpgp-thunderbird-howto-and-faq

OpenPGP

  • Enable GPG in account settings.
  • Import private key
# To export all private keys, for later import in TB:
gpg --export-secret-keys --armor > my-secret-keys.asc
  • Select the private key for the account.
  • Import GPG public key ring.

Enigmail - GPG support

New Enigmail no longer supported, GPG support is now built-in

Recommended settings for Enigmail

  • Disable loading of IMAP parts on demand
  • Disable flowed text (RFC 2646)
  • View message body as plain text
  • Use 8-bit encoding for message sending
  • Do not compose HTML messages

Fix Message Integrity errors

This is due to last Enigmail policy to not decrypt anymore without MDC.

To get freedom back, rebuild Enigmail as follows [1]:

Clone the repository: 

git clone https://gitlab.com/enigmail/enigmail/
git checkout enigmail-2.0.8

diff --git a/package/errorHandling.jsm b/package/errorHandling.jsm
index 15f561a..f87554e 100644
--- a/package/errorHandling.jsm
+++ b/package/errorHandling.jsm
@@ -303,14 +303,6 @@ function decryptionInfo(c) {
 
     let mdcMethod = lineSplit[1];
     let aeadAlgo = lineSplit.length > 3 ? lineSplit[3] : "0";
-
-    if (mdcMethod === "0" && aeadAlgo === "0") {
-      c.statusFlags |= EnigmailConstants.MISSING_MDC;
-      c.statusFlags |= EnigmailConstants.DECRYPTION_FAILED; // be sure to fail
-      c.flag = EnigmailConstants.MISSING_MDC;
-      EnigmailLog.DEBUG("errorHandling.jsm: missing MDC!\n");
-      c.retStatusObj.statusMsg += EnigmailLocale.getString("mdcError") + "\n";
-    }
   }
 }

Rebuild: 

./build.sh

In Thunderbird, uninstall previous add-on and install the new one from file.

Tips

Automatically sync all folders in Thunderbird

From here:

  • open the Config Editor (Tools → Options → Advanced → General → Config Editor),
  • change the mail.server.default.check_all_folders_for_new setting to true.

Filter incoming messages based on Bcc:

Say you have subscribed to mailing list, sending to XYZ@mail.com, and want to move these messages to a custom folder.

  • Create a new filter
  • In the header list, click Customize..., and create a custom header named Delivered-To.
  • Use rule Delivered-To contains XYZ@mail.com.

Silent SoGo 'no changes' notification

This is very annoying. Everytime SoGo synchronizes, we get a pop up notification, most of the time saying "no changes" [2].

To silent:

  • Open address book.
  • Right click on SoGo account book, then 'properties'.
  • Untick 'show notifications'.

Disable Ctrl-Enter / Send Now shortcut

By default, ctrl-enter in TB triggers Send Now action.

To disable this behaviour:

  • Install Dorando Keyconfig add-on.
  • Compose a new mail
  • In the mail composition window, go to Tools → Keyconfig, then select Send Now shortcut and click on disable.

Apply current column selection to all folders

This is done by choosing Apply columns to... in the same drop down list that appear when clicking the button Select columns to display in the top of the message list. Select Folder... to apply selection to a single folder or Folder and its children... to apply the selection recursively.

Change account order

This requires to install an extension, or to edit file prefs.js [3]: 

/* mail.accountmanager.accounts - list active accounts, in order of appearance */
user_pref("mail.accountmanager.accounts", "account22,account4,account3,account17,account19,account20,account21,account2");
/* mail.accountmanager.defaultaccount - define default account. Will ALWAYS appear first */
user_pref("mail.accountmanager.defaultaccount", "account22");

Print all mails in a folder

A small script to print all mails in a folder stored by Thunderbird (mbox format): 

# Print content of folder 'logcheck'
#
# Usage:  python3 extract_mails.py
# Source: ChatGPT

import mailbox
from email import policy
from email.parser import BytesParser

# Path to the logcheck mbox file
mbox_file = 'logcheck'

# Open the mbox file
mbox = mailbox.mbox(mbox_file)

# Iterate over each email in the mbox file
for message in mbox:
    # Parse the email to handle decoding
    msg = BytesParser(policy=policy.default).parsebytes(message.as_bytes())

    # Extract and print the email body (ignoring the headers)
    if msg.is_multipart():
        # If the email is multipart, we need to find the part with the text content
        for part in msg.iter_parts():
            if part.get_content_type() == 'text/plain':
                print(part.get_payload(decode=True).decode(part.get_content_charset() or 'utf-8'))
    else:
        # If it's not multipart, the payload is the message body
        print(msg.get_payload(decode=True).decode(msg.get_content_charset() or 'utf-8'))

# Close the mbox file
mbox.close()

Troubleshoot

Sent folder not updated

Like a corruption of the TB database [4]. Go to ~/.thunderbird/*.default: 

sqlite3 global-messages-db.sqlite vacuum

Mail not deleted

Deleting a mail seems a hard task in Thunderbird [5]:

  • Set mail.imap.expunge_after_delete to true.

Also, in account settings, make sure that the option server Settings -> Remove it immmediately is selected.

Missing mails, IMAP folder not synced

  • Right click on IMAP folder, select Properties.
  • In the General Information tab, click Repair Folder button.

Sync bugs

About IDLE, and CONDSTORE flag/support.

Proxy not working

  • Refuse to connect to localhost in all possible ways.
  • Only work-around is to keep the proxy disabled, and enabled it only when e.g. to sync Owncloud address book.

Broken text edition mode

Fix:

  • In Preferences → Composition → General → HTML Font, select Variable Width. This way this makes apparent that edition is in HTML mode. Also, there will not be a weird font change when pasting text at the end of a reply.
  • To force text-edition mode, use Shift-click on either Write, reply or forward.

IMAP folder list not updated

  • Relevant questions on SO question 392320
  • Thunderbird does a refresh on startup. One can force a refresh by collapsing / expanding the parent folder in folder tree view.

Cannot dismiss reminders

I keep getting reminder about a past birthday, although I dismissed it several times.

  • Workaround — Uncheck "Show missed reminder" under Preferences > Calendar > Reminders [6].

Big emojis appearing in the message list

See this bug.

The fix was to install fonts-symbola: 

sudo apt install fonts-symbola
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