Thunderbird 3 Beta 3 Release Notes

Thunderbird 3 Beta 3 is a preview release of the next major version of Thunderbird. It is available for testing purposes only and is intended for developers and our testing community.

This release does not represent the final product. Some of the features listed below may change before the final release. They may come with crashes and bugs and may potentially cause data loss in profiles (configuration data, preferences, and downloaded mail).

Please do not use Thunderbird 3 Beta 3 in a production environment.

Please see below for a list of features and enhancements found in Thunderbird 3 Beta 3, as well as known issues and frequently asked questions. As always, we appreciate your feedback either through this feedback form or by filing a bug in Bugzilla.

What's New in Thunderbird 3 Beta 3

Thunderbird 3 Beta 3 is based on the Gecko 1.9.1.1 platform including some major re-architecting to provide improved performance, stability, web compatibility, and code simplification and sustainability.

There are over 500 changes in this release, many laying the groundwork for future changes. Some notable changes include:

Developer Improvements

Thread Pane and Tab Refactoring
See Thread Pane UI refactoring discussion for additional details.
Fixes For Extension Developers
See Thunderbird Extensions and Thunderbird HowTos for developer documentation.

User Experience Improvements

Tabbed Email Messages
Double-clicking or hitting enter on a mail message will now open that message in a New Tab window. Middle-clicking on messages or folders will open them in a Tab in the background. When quitting Thunderbird, visible tabs will be saved and will be restored when you open Thunderbird the next time. There is also a new Tab menu on the Tab toolbar to help you switch between Tabs.
New Message Summary View
Selecting multiple messages will give you a summary view of the emails you have selected.
Column Headings
The column headings that are displayed and the order in which they are displayed can now be set on a per-folder basis.
Smart Folders
The folder pane offers a Smart Folders mode which combines special mailboxes (e.g. Inbox) from multiple accounts together.
Improved Gmail Integration
Better recognition and integration of Gmail's special folders such as Sent and Trash including non-English versions of Gmail. Thunderbird also uses All Mail as the Archives folder.

We are also testing an early version of a new Mail Account Setup Wizard to make configuring e-mail accounts in Thunderbird easier and less error-prone. Learn about how this is implemented and how it has been carefully designed with your privacy in mind, by taking the the time to read this blog post with more information.

For a more detailed list of bug fixes, see the Rumbling Edge.

Downloading and Installing

System Requirements

Before installing, make sure your computer meets the system requirements.

Please note that Thunderbird 3 Beta 3 no longer supports versions of Windows prior to Windows 2000 (e.g. Windows 95, 98, ME and NT) and Mac OS X versions prior to 10.4 Tiger. Linux requirements have also changed. Do ensure that compatibility mode for unsupported Windows platforms is disabled for the Thunderbird executable in Windows.

Downloading Thunderbird 3 Beta 3

Mozilla Messaging provides Thunderbird 3 Beta 3 for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X in a variety of languages. You can get the latest beta version of Thunderbird 3 here.

Installing Thunderbird 3 Beta 3

Please note that installing Thunderbird 3 Beta 3 may overwrite your existing installation of Thunderbird on Linux. Windows and Mac OS X will install to different locations, however it is recommended that you check the messages during installation. For all systems, you won't lose any of your messages or address books, but some of your extensions and other add-ons might not work until updates for them are made available.

Users are highly encouraged to install Thunderbird 3 Beta 3 in another folder (on Windows, this is done using Custom Install) and backup their profiles before testing Thunderbird 3 Beta 3.

Removing Thunderbird 3 Beta 3

You can remove Thunderbird 3 Beta 3 through the Control Panel in the Start Menu on Windows, by removing the Thunderbird application on OS X, or by removing the thunderbird folder on Linux.

Removing Thunderbird 3 Beta 3 won't remove your emails or newsgroup messages. This data is stored in your profile folder, which is located in one of the following locations depending on your operating system:

Windows Vista	Users\<UserName>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird
Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003	Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Application Data\Thunderbird
Mac OS X	~/Library/Thunderbird
Linux and Unix systems	~/.thunderbird

Any version of Thunderbird that you install after removing Thunderbird 3 Beta 3 will continue to use the data from this profile folder.

Extensions and Themes

Extensions installed under previous versions of Thunderbird may be incompatible and/or require updates to work with Thunderbird 3 Beta 3. Please report any issues to the maintainer of the extension.

When you install Thunderbird 3 Beta 3 all of your Extensions and Themes will be disabled until Thunderbird 3 Beta 3 determines that either a) they are compatible with the Thunderbird 3 Beta 3 release or b) there are newer versions available that are compatible.

Known Issues

This list covers some of the known problems with Thunderbird 3 Beta 3. Please read this before reporting any new bugs.

All Systems

If you use or had previously used the master password feature, you may be prompted to enter your master password when you first start up Thunderbird. (Bug 338549)
Your passwords are stored in a new location. If you go back to using a previous version of Thunderbird, or switch back and forth between Beta 3 and an older version, your password lists do not get updated.
If using SSL or TLS, and the certificate that comes from the server is self-signed, expired, or has a domain that does not match the server domain, a dialog will be shown asking if Thunderbird should permanently make an exception for the cert. This should only be done if the error is understood.
The toolbar drop down folder picker does not work in Beta 3. (Bug 465269)
If a person has two email addresses in your address book, only one email address will be displayed during autocompletion when composing an email message. (Bug 447927)
The new autoconfig dialog is displayed in English in localized versions of Thunderbird. (Bug 490097)
The extended columns in the folder pane was removed in Beta 1. There is an add-on that restores this functionality.
The compact header view was removed in Beta 3 (Bug 480623); see this blog entry for details.
Ensure extensions either come from a secure server using the HTTPS protocol or are digitally signed, or they will fail to install.

Microsoft Windows

The keyboard shortcut for 'Mark All Read' has changed from Ctrl+Shift+C to Shift+C.
For Windows XP users, setting Thunderbird as the default email client does not work during the installation process. (Bug 493060)

Troubleshooting

Poorly designed or incompatible extensions can cause problems with your email client, including make it crash, slow down message display, etc. If you encounter strange problems relating to parts of the email client no longer working, the email client not starting, windows with strange or distorted appearance, degraded performance, etc, you may be suffering from Extension or Theme trouble. Restart the email client in Safe Mode. On Windows, start using the "Safe Mode" shortcut created in your Start menu or by running thunderbird.exe -safe-mode. On Linux, start with ./thunderbird -safe-mode and on Mac OS X, run:
cd /Applications/Thunderbird.app/Contents/MacOS/ ./thunderbird-bin -safe-mode
When started in Safe Mode all extensions are disabled and the Default theme is used. Disable the Extension/Theme that is causing trouble and then start normally.
If you encounter strange problems relating to email, feeds or newsgroup messages, it is recommended that you try creating a new profile and attempting to reproduce the problem before filing bugs. Create a new profile by running Thunderbird with the -P command line argument, choose the "Manage Profiles" button and then choose "Create Profile...". Migrate your settings files (Emails, feeds, etc) over one by one, checking each time to see if the problems resurface. If you do find a particular profile data file is causing a problem, file a bug and attach the file, being sure to remove any private information as necessary.

Frequently Asked Questions

What can I do to help?
We need help from developers and the testing community to provide as much feedback as possible to make Thunderbird even better. General feedback can be provided via the feedback form. Please read these notes and the bug filing instructions before reporting any bugs to Bugzilla.
Where can I discuss Thunderbird 3 Beta 3 features or issues?
If you want to join the conversations about new features or need troubleshooting advice, check out the MozillaZine forums. You can also post questions in the "mozilla.support.thunderbird" newsgroup, available on Mozilla's news server, or via the web, using Google Groups. It is also available as a mailing list. Please read the Mozilla Forum Etiquette page before posting.
Where can I get extensions and themes (add-ons)?
Extensions and Themes can be downloaded from Thunderbird Add-ons.

Note that because this is an early alpha, most add-ons won't be compatible with it until the add-on developer explicitly upgrades their add-on.
Who makes Thunderbird 3 Beta 3?
Many people! Mozilla Messaging is the organization that produces it, but it is the result of collaboration between hundreds of people around the world.
Where's the Thunderbird 3 Beta 3 source code?
A tarball of the Thunderbird 3 Beta 3 source code is available for download. The latest development code can be obtained by Mercurial. For more details on the layout of the source, see the comm-central information page. Please follow the build instructions.