Thunderbird 2.0 installation issues

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This article documents some common problems installing Thunderbird 2.0 that were discussed in the forums. It doesn't attempt to duplicate the release notes.

Issues

  • If you get a "Error opening file for writing: r\n\r\nmozMapi32.dll\r\n\r\nClick Retry to try again, or\r\nCancel to stop the installation." error message it may be due to a Logitech webcam. If you having Thunderbird set as your default email program in the Quickcam software, Quickcam will not let Mozilla update the file. Disable the webcam (right-click Quickcam icon in system tray and select "Exit") and try again. A drastic alternative would be to rename the mozMAPI.dll file in the Thunderbird program directory. Another approach is to temporarily set Quickcam to use a different email program as default.
  • If you get two or more toolbars after installing:
  • If you have the McAfee toolbar, uninstall McAfee spamkiller. Uninstall Thunderbird. Delete the contents of the extensions directory in your profile. Then try again.
  • Otherwise delete the localstore.rdf file in your profile. Thunderbird will create a new version of that file when you start using the default settings for your toolbars, buttons, and window positions.
  • If you have unusual toolbars with strange buttons, problems clicking on menu commands, or when you right click on a message and try to copy/move it to a new folder it won't list all of the folders try switching to a new theme. They changed the extension manager again and that causes problems with many themes. Older themes will probably also not show new features such as the "advanced folder views" and "message history navigation", and may not have the tag button in the toolbar. If you check the list of recently updated themes any from March 2007 onward will probably work.
  • If you get garbled/overlapping text in the message list pane, it is most likely caused by a bug in your graphics driver. See this hotfix for a picture of the problem. The add-on provides a workaround by disabling the features triggering the issue. Further options include upgrading to the latest driver, or changing the driver's acceleration settings, which may affect other applications as well. You can also work around the bug by manually removing the "Zebra striping" from the theme you are using, or by switching to a theme such as Whitehart that doesn't have any alternating colors. (For a technical discussion, see Thunderbird bug 352694.)
  • If you enable "allow anti-virus clients to quarantine individual messages" in Tools -> Options -> Privacy -> Anti-Virus that will prevent tags from being assigned when message filters are run automatically. It may also prevent any filters from working. The problem doesn't occur if you run the filters manually.
  • The custom installation doesn't give you the option not to install the Quality Feedback Agent. In a few cases everytime you run Thunderbird it runs the Quality Feedback Agent, and then crashes the PC. If this happens delete the "extensions\talkback@mozilla.org" subdirectory in the Thunderbird program directory (NOT the profile). The other subdirectory in the extensions subdirectory is for the default theme by the way.
  • Some users occasionally lose a message if they copy or move multiple messages. This occurs most often when dragging and dropping. While that problem existed in 1.5.x it seems to occur more often in 2.0. See this article for more information, including how to recover the messages.
  • If your folders disappear run Thunderbird in safe mode (not to be confused with windows safe mode) to temporarily disable any added extensions/themes to see if they could have caused this. The ScheduleWorld extension can cause this problem when upgrading from 1.5.x to 2.x. The folders re-appear after disabling that extension and starting Thunderbird again.
  • Some older versions of certain add-ons (extensions) (ie. "Buttons! 0.5.2") can cause the following text to be displayed at the bottom of the screen on all Thunderbird windows:
    menu id="offlineMenuItem" insert after="trashMenuSeparator" label="&offlineMenu.label;" accesskey="&offlineMenu.accesskey;"
    Uninstalling the add-on (extension), or upgrading to "Buttons! 0.5.3" (or later) resolves the issue. Also, see Gray bar below status bar.

Minor annoyances

  • A relatively unknown feature was the ability to click on the throbber and launch Firefox. That was deliberately removed. The "Mr. Techs Local Install" extension restores that feature.
  • Dragging and dropping of addresses to a mailing list no longer works as expected. You can still drag and drop, but its confusing to figure out when it copies, when it moves, and why it doesn't work in some cases. You can now add addresses to a list by right clicking on the list, selecting properties and starting to type a email address. It will try to autocomplete what you're typing.
  • See this article if you don't like the large icons in the attachment list.
  • See this article if you don't like the default theme using alternating background colors for each row in the folder listing.
  • Several users have had problems adding additional dictionaries. Its not clear why yet. Note that different dictionaries are used for 2.0.
  • View -> Messages doesn't appear unless you add the View list box to the toolbar. Right click on the toolbar, select the View list box, drag and drop it to the toolbar and press OK.
  • In 1.5 you could right click on an account and choose to just get mail for that mailbox. That feature is gone, though you can still use the drop down list box by the get mail button to do that. This article explains how to add the missing functionality.
  • The start page in the preview pane connects to en-us.www.mozilla.com (63.245.213.11, the same as www.mozilla.com) on port 80. Some users report the same thing the first time they click on a folder. You can disable this by going to Tools -> Options -> General -> Thunderbird Start Page and either uncheck it or specify a local .jpeg file you'd like it to display instead. If you connect though a proxy this can cause Thunderbird to use 100% of the CPU until you select a message in a folder. You can prevent this by either disabling the start page or configuring the proxy settings.
  • Thunderbird 1.5 had a checkbox to enable remote images at Tools -> Options -> Privacy -> General. Its gone, though you can still change that setting by modifying mailnews.message_display.disable_remote_image in the Config editor. Thunderbird 2.0 blocks all remote images by default. You can enable remote images for an email address by clicking on "click here to always load remote images...". That adds an entry to an address book that has "allow remote images in HTML mail" checked. You might want to create a images address book and select it instead of the personal address book if its for a newsletter that you can't reply to.
  • The Email-Scams feature at Tools -> Options -> Privacy can cause Thunderbird to use 90% of the CPU and consume large amounts of memory. This is due to the maximum number of URLs it will try to check. Disable the feature if you run into this problem. Many users have already disabled the feature due to false alerts.
  • Movemail support has been removed for OSX. The assumption appears to be that if you could configure a movemail account you can create a movemail.rdf file. See this article on ISP hooks.
  • Thunderbird 2.0 does not create a shortcut to the profile manager. You can still run it from the command line or add a shortcut yourself.
  • If you use a theme that doesn't support 2.0 by disabling the version checking its not going to support any of the new features in the main window such as advanced folder views and message history navigation. You probably expected that. However, it also won't support customizing the new mail alert.
  • The Modern Modoki theme claims it supports 2.0 but some people have reported that tickboxs occasionally disappear when they use it. This appears to be due to a bug in the theme. If controls ever seem to disappear in the GUI try using the default theme. If the problem goes away, then try picking one of the more popular themes that support 2.0.


See also

External links

  • Bug report about "Automatic update restarts infinitely when files to be patched are in use". The problem with the Logitech webcam is one example.
  • [1] [2] Mozillazine threads about the garbled text in the message view pane.
  • Bug report about filters not applying tags when "allow antivirus clients to quarantine individual messages" is enabled.
  • Bug report about 100% CPU due to loading startpage when proxy not set as needed
  • Bug report about View -> Messages not present unless enable View list.
  • Bug report about Don't ship movemail.rdf on the Mac.
  • Forum thread (used to be a sticky) about updating Thunderbird 1.5.0.x to 2.0