Mozilla Thunderbird Known Issues

There are a few known issues with Thunderbird regarding: functionality that existed in Eudora that doesn't exist in Thunderbird, functionality that works significantly differently in Thunderbird compared to Eudora, and things that don't function properly in Thunderbird. While we have found workarounds for many of these issues, we are limited by what is available in the technology and there are some issues that ITS cannot rectify.

Attachments
Attachments Missing From Eudora's Out Mailbox After Importing
Signatures
Some Recipients Cannot View vCard Signatures
Redirect
Message Queuing
Thunderbird's Built-in Junk Mail Controls
The Auto-complete Feature Freezes/Delays When Off-Campus
The Security Button in the Compose Window
Cannot Filter Outgoing Messages
Local Folders are not backed up by default
Old messages have encoding tags & marks in them

Attachments

Thunderbird handles attachments in a different manner compared to Eudora. Thunderbird does not have an 'Attachments folder.' Thunderbird keeps attachments with the messages they came with. If you delete the message, you effectively delete the attachment. Every time you open an attachment from a message, it downloads the file as it was sent. If you want to save an attachment to keep or edit, you should save the attachment to a folder on your computer. You can right-click (Mac users can click and hold) on the attachment and select "Save as..."

There is a setting in Thunderbird to "Save all attachments to this folder:" but please be advised that this setting does not work. If you change this setting to point to a folder, attachments will not go to that folder. This is an outstanding bug in the software.

Also, in Mac OS X attachments will automatically be saved to your default download location (where files you download from web pages go). This may be set to your desktop, so you may wish to change that to a downloads folder. You would set this setting by:

1. Open Safari
2. Go to the Safari menu and select Preferences
3. modify the setting for "Save downloaded files to:" to point to a folder for this purpose.

Attachments Missing From Eudora's Out Mailbox After Importing

When Thunderbird imports local folders from Eudora, it re-attaches attachments to messages as they import. If Thunderbird cannot locate the attachments for a message, the message will import without those attachments. Due to the non-standard way Eudora associated attachments with sent messages in its local 'Out' mailbox, Thunderbird cannot import the attachments with those messages. We currently do not have a work-around for this issue.

PLEASE NOTE: This issue does not impact the IMAP 'Sent' folder on the mail server (the Dominant 'Sent') nor does it affect messages sent from Thunderbird. It only affects the 'Out' mailbox imported from Eudora.

Signatures

Thunderbird has a setting to include a signature at the end of messages you send, but it does not have a built-in feature to compose or edit signatures. You must compose and edit the signature as either plain text (.txt) or HTML with another program, such as Microsoft Word. Instructions for setting up a signature can be found in the following document:
Creating a default signature in Thunderbird

Thunderbird does not include the ability to select from multiple signatures by default. There is an add-on that can be installed that allows you to use multiple signatures in Thunderbird. Instructions for installing and configuring this add-on can be found in the following documents:
Using multiple signatures in Thunderbird (Windows)
Using multiple signatures in Thunderbird (Macintosh)

Some Recipients Cannot View vCard Signatures

Thunderbird includes functionality to create and attach a vCard to e-mail messages. While Thunderbird will display vCards as signatures properly, many other mail programs (such as Communications Express, Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail, etc.) do not display vCards as signatures by default but treat them as attachments.  If you attach a vCard to messages you send through Thunderbird, be advised that Thunderbird users will see it as a signature but recipients who use other mail programs (such as students and colleagues in other institutions) may not see them as signatures. If you would like to attach a signature that should be universally viewable, configure a signature as outlined in the preceding section.

Redirect

Eudora included a function to redirect (or bounce) messages to another recipient, which is a function Thunderbird lacks by default. Some used this function because the message was sent to them by mistake, or because they wanted to send the email to someone else without the formatting that gets added to an email when it is forwarded. There is an add-on that can be installed in Thunderbird that allows it to redirect messages. Instructions on how to do so can be found in the following document:
Installing the Redirect Add-on in Thunderbird

Message Queuing

Eudora included a feature that allowed messages to be sent at a later time. For example, one could set a message to be sent tomorrow at 2:00 PM. Thunderbird does not include this functionality, and at this time we have not found any add-on that addresses this issue.

Thunderbird's Built-in Junk Mail Controls

Thunderbird includes its own junk mail controls to identify and filter spam. ITS has done some preliminary testing with this functionality and, based on our results, we cannot currently provide any assurance that it will detect junk mail accurately. ITS does not recommend enabling these Junk Mail Controls in Thunderbird. Enabling this feature could cause you to lose legitimate e-mail and can prevent your e-mail from displaying correctly.

If you want to filter out spam, you should take advantage of the spam filtering functionality already provided by ITS on the mail server. Refer to the following documentation on how to filter your spam:
Communications Express E-mail Filters
Setting up filters in Thunderbird (Mac & Win)

If you need to 'Blacklist' certain senders, you can do so by using the Advanced features of PureMessage.

The Auto-complete Feature Freezes/Delays When Off-Campus

Our default setup for Thunderbird is configured to automatically look for addresses in Hamilton's e-mail directory (Hamilton LDAP). This LDAP directory is not available off-campus, so the auto-complete feature will freeze or delay because it is looking for a service that is not available. If you are using Thunderbird off-campus, you should disable it from automatically checking the LDAP directory. To do so:

1. Go to the Tools menu and select 'Account Settings.'
2. Click on 'Composition & Addressing' under your account
3. Set the LDAP server to 'None.'

If you bring your computer on-campus you can re-enable this feature to take advantage of the directory lookup.

The Security Button in the Compose Window

When you compose a message in Thunderbird there is a 'Security' button in the toolbar that offers options to encrypt or digitally sign the message. These features require the use of personal security certificates, which is not something that ITS currently provides support for.

Cannot Filter Outgoing Messages

Thunderbird does not include functionality to filter outgoing messages (messages you send). All of the messages you send will be stored in the Sent mailbox, or another mailbox that you manually configured for outgoing messages. A possible workaround would be to Bcc yourself on messages you'd prefer to have filtered, and then create a filter to perform the desired action on those messages that come back to you.

Local Folders are not backed up by default

IMAP folders/mailboxes on the mail server are backed up centrally. Local folders, however, are stored on your computer's hard drive and won't be backed up by default. Windows XP users can find information about configuring a backup in the following document:
Microsoft Backup for Windows XP

Old messages have encoding tags & marks in them

Some older messages that were sent from Eudora will have strange encoding marks in the bodies of the messages, wuch as <br>, </body>, etc. These are from a non-standard HTML encoding used by Eudora that isn't recognized by other e-mail programs. We do not currently have a work-around to enable other e-mail programs to view these messages properly.








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