Modify Thunderbird settings: Difference between revisions

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m (Removed reference to ChromeEdit. It is not compatible with any version of Thunderbird beyond 0.8. Apparantly it's no longer being developed.)
m (linkify prefs.js)
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Thunderbird stores any settings you created using "Tools -> Account Settings" in the prefs.js file in your [[profile folder]]. You can edit them using a text editor. You can also create a optional [[user.js]] text file in the same directory. Any settings you add to it will be merged into prefs.js by Thunderbird. Adding preferences via user.js helps to minimize the damage if you don't know what you're doing, and requires less knowledge.  
Thunderbird stores any settings you created using "Tools -> Account Settings" in the prefs.js file in your [[profile folder]]. You can edit them using a text editor. You can also create a optional [[user.js]] text file in the same directory. Any settings you add to it will be merged into [[prefs.js file|prefs.js]] by Thunderbird. Adding preferences via user.js helps to minimize the damage if you don't know what you're doing, and requires less knowledge.  


* The [https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?application=thunderbird&numpg=10&id=423 AboutConfig extension] adds a "Tools -> about:config" menu command. You can search for any preference using the filter edit field, and then double click on it to modify it. (If you have v1.5 or later of Thunderbird you will not need this extension, as [[about:config]] is included as part of the basic Thunderbird program.)
* The [https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?application=thunderbird&numpg=10&id=423 AboutConfig extension] adds a "Tools -> about:config" menu command. You can search for any preference using the filter edit field, and then double click on it to modify it. (If you have v1.5 or later of Thunderbird you will not need this extension, as [[about:config]] is included as part of the basic Thunderbird program.)

Revision as of 16:34, 4 January 2006

Thunderbird stores any settings you created using "Tools -> Account Settings" in the prefs.js file in your profile folder. You can edit them using a text editor. You can also create a optional user.js text file in the same directory. Any settings you add to it will be merged into prefs.js by Thunderbird. Adding preferences via user.js helps to minimize the damage if you don't know what you're doing, and requires less knowledge.

  • The AboutConfig extension adds a "Tools -> about:config" menu command. You can search for any preference using the filter edit field, and then double click on it to modify it. (If you have v1.5 or later of Thunderbird you will not need this extension, as about:config is included as part of the basic Thunderbird program.)
  • There is also a Preferential extension you could use to modify Thunderbird's preferences but it appears to be browser-centric, and not as up-to-date as AboutConfig.

Example:

If you have problems downloading a large message from a POP server or the the webmail extension doesn't fetch all of your new mail you may need to increase the value of the mail.pop3_response_timeout setting to keep Thunderbird from timing out. That setting defaults to 45 seconds. Thunderbird doesn't store a copy of default settings in prefs.js so you can't just edit it. You can increase it to 180 seconds by adding:

user_pref("mail.pop3_response_timeout", 180);

to either prefs.js or user.js. You could also search for pop3 in the filter using about:config, find the entry for mail.pop3_response_timeout, double click on the value, and change it to 180.

The defaults\pref\mailnews.js file in your Thunderbird program installation directory contains most of the default settings. It uses a pref prefix rather than a user_pref prefix on any settings. For example, pref("mail.pop3_response_timeout", 45); . You should not edit that file. However, it's sometimes useful to view that file to find out what preferences exist and what their default values are.