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Thunderbird/Icedove notes

Mozilla Thunderbird or Icedove is a great free and open source email program and works for GNU/Linux, Mac, and Windows.

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/

https://wiki.debian.org/Icedove

Add-ons

Encryption

The content of your emails should be encrypted so your mail provider cannot read your messages.

Follow the directions at Email Self-Defense and test your setup with the Edward bot.

Tell your friends to do the same and swap public keys.

Never share your private key with anyone and store it securely.

Unencrypt Subject line

The subject is also encrypted which turns the subject line into ... which is unhelpful and makes searching for relevant emails difficult.

  • Menu Icon (Sandwich) > Preferences > Preferences > Advanced > General tab
  • Click on the "Config Editor..." button.
  • Click on the "I accept the risk!" button.
  • In top search, type: protectSubject
  • Look for the entry: mail.identity.default.protectSubject
  • Double click to toggle true to false.
  • Close config editor with CTRL+W.
  • Click on the "Close" button to save changes.

Based on https://blog.effenberger.org/2020/12/08/thunderbird-78-do-not-encrypt-subject/

Adding an email signature

  • Menu Icon (Sandwich) > Hover over the arrow to the right of Preferences > Account Settings
  • Click on the email address in the left side to bring up the options for that address.
  • In the Signature test: box add your email signature.
  • Repeat the last two steps for any other email addresses you may want to configure.
  • Click on the OK button.

Remove the dashes before your email signature

From https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1019583

  • Menu Icon (Sandwich) > Preferences > Preferences > Advanced > General tab
  • Click on the "Config Editor..." button.
  • Click on the "I accept the risk!" button.
  • In top search, type: separator
  • Look for the entry: mail.identity.default.suppress_signature_separator; false
  • Double click to toggle false to true.
  • Close config editor with CTRL+W.
  • Click on the "Close" button to save changes.

Move signature above quoted text for replies and forwards

From http://www.pctips4u.com/2016/10/add-email-signature-above-quoted-text.html

  • Menu Icon (Sandwich) > Preferences > Account Settings > Composition & Addressing
  • Use the [...] and place my signature: pull down box to change: below the quote (recommended) to below my reply (above the quote)
  • Click on the "OK" button to save changes.

Open links in the browser of your choice

Problem: I have to use Google Chrome for many of the websites I need at work. On Ubuntu, Thunderbird would open a new Chrome window and would not open the link.

Based on Vitaly Kazakov and Kevin Bowen at https://askubuntu.com/questions/130158

  • Menu Icon (Sandwich) > Preferences > Preferences > Advanced > General tab
  • Click on the "Config Editor..." button.
  • Click on the "I accept the risk!" button.
  • In top search, type: network.protocol-handler.warn-external.
  • Look for the entries:
network.protocol-handler.warn-external.ftp; false
network.protocol-handler.warn-external.http; false
network.protocol-handler.warn-external.https; false
  • Double click each of them to toggle false to true.
  • Close config editor with CTRL+W.
  • Click on the "Close" button to save changes.
  • Send an email to yourself with ftp, http, and https links.
  • Click on one of the links.
  • Click on the Choose... button.
  • Navigate to /opt/google/chrome/google-chrome or the location of the browser of your choice.
  • Click on the Open button.
  • Check the Remember my choice for X links. box.
  • Click on the Open Link button.
  • If the link opens correctly, repeat the last seven steps until ftp, http, and https are configured.

Message Filters and Folders

I would recommend creating local folders and using Message Filters to sort incoming mail into different categories.

After years of use, Thunderbird/IceDove does slow down. Purging old mailing list archives and subscriptions every once in a while helps which can be automated through Message Filters.

Example filter to delete a mailing list after ~2 months:

Match all of the following From, To, CC, or BCC contains MAILINGLISTADDRESSHERE Age in Days is greater than 60 Perform these actions: Delete Message

Hide tasks from Lightning's Today Pane

Click on the < icon at the top of the Today Pane to cycle through the different modes. I use task warrior for my tasks so I do not need to see an empty list while checking my email. This leaves me with upcoming events from my calendar.