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
• Importing and exporting your mail

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
• Replace other reply indicators than Re: when replying
• 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
• Creating complex mails with inline images

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
• Setup the Address Book to access LDAP

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?
• Turn off or change the Thunderbird Start Page
• How do I update Thunderbird?

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
• Modify your settings
• 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.)

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?
• How do I turn off animated images in RSS feeds?

Security

• How do I block/unblock the loading of remote images in messages?
• How do I password-protect my profile?
• 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 temporarily disable extension and themes using safe mode?
• How do I set Thunderbird as my default mail client?
• How do I spell Thunderbird? How can I abbreviate it?
• What are the menu differences when running Thunderbird under different operating systems?