Thunderbird : FAQs

Mail

E-mail Account Setup

• Basic e-mail account configuration (a guide for beginners)
• Use webmail, including Gmail, Hotmail, MSN, AOL, or Yahoo! Mail, with Thunderbird
• One Inbox (global Inbox) for multiple e-mail accounts
• Multiple identities (return addresses) for one e-mail account
• Multiple SMTP (outgoing mail) servers or accounts
• SMTP (outgoing mail) authentication

Sending and Receiving Mail

• Download mail for all accounts at once
• Automatically download new messages
• Disable the warning dialog when you try to send a message without a subject
• Enable session logging for diagnosing problems with email server

Composing E-mails

• Add signatures to e-mails
• In replies, begin above/below the quoted message
• Quote only selected text when replying
• Use plain text (ASCII) instead of HTML/MIME
• Set the default font for outgoing messages
• Create and use message templates
• Resend messages you've already sent
• Add dictionaries, including in other languages
• Add inline spell-checking or auto-correction

Organizing and Finding Messages

• Display the Inbox (or another folder) when Thunderbird starts
• Search messages other than by subject or sender
• Using Saved Search folders (virtual folder basics)
• Using Message Grouping
• Using the Junk Mail Controls (spam filtering)
• Using the message filters
• Remove duplicate messages
• Archiving your e-mail

Reading and Printing Messages

• Read messages in plain text, without formatting or HTML
• Print messages without their full headers
• Print the selected text in a message instead of the entire message

Using the Address Book

• Sort the entries by last name
• Create and use a mailing list (without typing the addresses one at a time)
• Import an address list from a text file
• Rename the Personal Address Book and Collected Addresses
• Run Thunderbird's Address Book from the command line
• Move an address book to another profile
• Synchronize my Address Book with my Palm OS PDA
• Enter more than two email address for an address book entry
• Import from Mac OS X Address Book

Misc.

• Specify a different IMAP Trash folder.
• Detach or delete attachments from messages.
• What are "Local Folders" for? Can I change the name or get rid of them?

Profiles: File Locations, Migration, and Backup/Restore

Your e-mail, address book, settings, and other info are stored in your profile.

• Find your profile folder
• Descriptions of files in your profile
• Use the Profile Manager (to create, delete, rename & switch profiles)
• Back up and restore profiles (including moving to another computer)
• Changing your profile folder location
• Move your e-mail storage location
• Combine two profiles
• Recover e-mail from a deleted account
• Move e-mail and settings to and from other programs (Mozilla Suite, Netscape, Outlook Express, Eudora, AOL, etc.)
• Migration from kmail (maildir) to thunderbird (mbox)

Newsgroups

See the Mail section, above, for info on composing, organizing and finding, and other newsgroup basics.

• Join a newsgroup
• Display full (not abbreviated) newsgroup names
• Sort newsgroups alphabetically, or in any other order
• Make Thunderbird your default news reader.

RSS

• How do I set up an RSS account and subscribe to RSS feeds?
• How can I get Thunderbird's RSS reader to use cookies?
• I formerly used the Forumzilla extension but now Thunderbird's built-in RSS reader doesn't work for me. What should I do?
• How do I use a proxy server with RSS feeds?

Security

• How do I block/unblock the loading of remote images in messages?
• How do I set or reset a master password?
• How do I install/import an S/MIME certificate?
• How do I import a certificate authority (CA) certificate? What do I do if my personal certificate is not trusted by Thunderbird?
• How do I get an S/MIME certificate for secure e-mail?

Miscellaneous

• Can I run Thunderbird from a USB drive?
• How do I minimize Thunderbird to the system tray? (Windows only)
• How can I make a desktop shortcut to launch Thunderbird with a specific profile?
• How do I change the date/time format?
• How do I upgrade to a newer version of Thunderbird?
• How do I set Thunderbird as my default mail client?