Release Notes

Thunderbird Desktop

Version 78.0 | Released July 17, 2020

Check out the notes below for this version of Thunderbird. As always, you’re encouraged to tell us what you think, ask for help, or file a bug in Bugzilla.

** Thunderbird version 78.0 is only offered as direct download from thunderbird.net and not as an upgrade from Thunderbird version 68 or earlier.** A future release will provide updates from earlier versions.

Add-on support: As of version 78.0, Thunderbird only supports MailExtensions. Your favorite add-ons may not have been updated for compatibility.

At this time, users of the Enigmail Add-on should not update to Thunderbird 78.

OpenPGP functionality for Thunderbird 78 is still work in progress, and is disabled by default in the initial 78.0 release. See the wiki for how to enable and help with testing.

System Requirements: Details

  • Windows: Windows 7 or later
  • Mac: macOS 10.9 or later
  • Linux: GTK+ 3.14 or higher

What’s New

new

New Account Hub for centralized account setup

new

Redesigned recipient address fields (To, Cc, Bcc) as single-line input fields (pills) for multiple addresses instead of one line per address. More improvements to come.

new

Color customization of Folder Pane icons

new

Allow selecting messages via selection boxes instead of classic selection. "Select Messages" column needs to be selected via the thread pane's column picker.

new

"Delete" action column in thread pane (message list). "Select Messages" column needs to be selected via the thread pane's column picker.

new

Themes can be previewed in the Add-On Manager

new

Minimize to tray support added for Windows

new

New config option to anonymize message date header

new

Global Search menu item in app menu

new

Additional Enterprise policies

new

Calendar: Added ICS import support to -file command line option

new

Calendar: Add event preview to ICS import dialog

new

Chat: OTR messaging support

new

Chat: IRC echo-message capability

What’s Changed

changed

Add-on support: As of version 78.0, Thunderbird only supports MailExtensions and MailExtension Experiments. Restartless add-ons and non-restartless legacy add-ons using XUL overlays are no longer supported.

changed

**As of version 78.0, "sideloaded" extensions are no longer supported. Enterprise administrators can deploy extensions using policies.

changed

Linux minimum runtime requirements have changed: GTK 3.14, GLIBC 2.17, libstdc++ 4.8.1 Details

changed

Thunderbird Options/Preferences tab redesigned and with new user interface

changed

Account creation dialog redesigned and with new user interface

changed

Account Manager moved to a tab

changed

Add-ons manager with new user interface and notifications

changed

Improved "Recent" folder list for "Move to" and "Copy to" in message context menu

changed

Improved UI of global search results tab

changed

Improvements to the location bar of a tab displaying web pages

changed

Use scalable icons throughout Thunderbird to improve support for HiDPI monitors and dark mode

changed

Address books are now stored as SQLite databases to prepare for future addressbook improvements. Existing address books in MAB format (using a Mork database) will be converted.

changed

New parser and formatter for vCard. vCard versions 3.0 and 4.0 are now supported.

changed

Various theme and dark mode improvements

changed

Various look and feel improvements

changed

Improved dialog for folder compaction (purging of deleted messages)

changed

Graphics hardware acceleration is now enabled by default

changed

TLS 1.0 and 1.1 disabled

changed

Calendar: The Lightning calendar add-on is now integrated into Thunderbird

changed

Calendar: Lightning version removed from Thunderbird user agent string

changed

Calendar: Web Calendar Access Protocol (WCAP) support removed

changed

Calendar: Storage access is now asynchronous to improve performance

changed

Calendar: Location URLs are now clickable

changed

Addon Developers: Updates to and expansion of MailExtensions APIs. Details

What’s Fixed

fixed

Password display font had characters that were difficult to read

fixed

When copying messages from an IMAP folder to a local folder, offline store wasn't used

fixed

While Thunderbird was in safe mode, the help menu did not offer an item to restart with add-ons enabled

fixed

Mailbox quotas not displayed correctly

fixed

Images not rotated when composing a message

fixed

Email addresses sometimes displayed incorrectly in message composer

fixed

Many accessibility fixes and improvements: message composer, account setup, attachment pane

fixed

Mailbox format conversion fixes

fixed

Address book improvements: exporting, editing contacts, contact photos

fixed

Chat: Renaming contacts in context menu did not work

fixed

Calendar: Task and event dialogs were sometimes too small for their content

fixed

Calendar: URLs in the event reminder dialog were not clickable

fixed

Various security fixes

Known Issues

unresolved

Mail header toolbar (Reply, Forward, Archive, Junk buttons) no longer configurable

unresolved

Preferences search not available

unresolved

Drag and drop of address book contacts not working in some situations

Learn What’s Next

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