Modify Thunderbird settings

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Thunderbird stores any settings you created using "Tools -> Account Settings" or "Tools -> Options" 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. A user.js file is mainly used by administrators to set the same settings in several profiles. Its not recommended for most users since any settings you add to it will be merged into prefs.js when Thunderbird starts, preventing you from permanently changing the settings using the Config Editor.

The prefered way to add or modify a setting is to use Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> General -> Config Editor. You can search for any preference using the filter edit field, and then double click on it to modify it. This is the Thunderbird specific version of about:config . If you are using a version before 1.5 install the AboutConfig extension . It will add a "Tools -> about:config" menu command which provides similar functionality.

Example:

If you have problems downloading a large message or the the webmail extension doesn't fetch all of your new mail you may need to increase Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> General -> Connection Timeout from 60 seconds (its default value) to 120 seconds. However, many preferences can not be set using the GUI. The first step is to figure out the name of the preference. If you can't find the preference in the knowledge base, try using the Config Editor to identify the name of the preference. If you type timeout in the filter you may see something like the following:

accessibility.typeaheadfind.enabletimeout
accessibility.typeaheadfind.timeout
mail.server.server2.timeout
mail.server.server4.timeout
mailnews.tcptimeout
network.ftp.idleConnectionTimeout
network.http.keep-alive.timeout
network.proxy.failover_timeout

along with their status, type and value. Most of the time you want a preference whose name begins with mail or mailnews (it tends to have global settings). mail.server.server2.timeout and mail.server.server4.timeout are obviously mail server specific settings, network.* settings are normally too specialized (NTLM, dialup, cookie related settings etc.) and accessibility.* settings are clearly unrelated. That leaves the mailnews.tcptimeout setting. Double click on it, enter 120, and press the OK button.

If you don't have a mailnews.tcptimeout setting you are using a version of Thunderbird before 1.5 . Modify mail.pop3_response_timeout (which no longer exists) the same way. It defaulted to 45 seconds. You would typically change it to 180 seconds.

Thunderbird doesn't store default settings in prefs.js. If you add a setting that uses the default value it will not keep it. If you don't want to use the Config Editor you could use a text editor or the ChromEdit extension to add user_pref("mailnews.tcptimeout setting", 120); to either prefs.js or user.js. The advantage of the ChromEdit extension is you don't have to know where the file is stored. The disadvantage is its no longer officially supported and you may have problems finding a version that works with future versions of Thunderbird. However, its functionality is included as part of the MR Tech Local Install extension. That extension includes a lot of other options, which may be an advantage if you like them, or a disadvantage if all you see in them is bloat.

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("mailnews.tcptimeout setting", 60); . 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.

See also