Release Notes

Thunderbird Desktop

Version 68.0 | Released August 27, 2019

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

** Thunderbird version 68.0 is only offered as direct download from thunderbird.net and not as upgrade from Thunderbird version 60 or earlier. A future version 68.1 will provide updates from earlier versions. If you have installed Lightning, Thunderbird's calendar add-on, it will automatically be updated to match the new version of Thunderbird.** Refer to this Calendar troubleshooting article in case of problems.

System Requirements: • Window: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 or later • Mac: Mac OS X 10.9 or later • Linux: GTK+ 3.4 or higher. Details here.

What’s New

new

File link attachments can now be linked to again instead of uploading them again

new

Mark all folders of an account as read

new

Run filters periodically. Improved filter logging.

new

OAuth2 authentication for Yandex

new

Language packs can now be selected in the Advanced Options. Preference intl.multilingual.enabled needs to be set (and possily also extensions.langpacks.signatures.required needs to be set to false)

new

On Windows a 64bit installer and MSI package are now available, see the Thunderbird for Organisations page for details

new

Added a policy engine that allows customized Thunderbird deployments in enterprise environments, using Windows Group Policy or a cross-platform JSON file

new

TCP keepalive for IMAP protocol

new

Full Unicode support for MAPI interfaces: New support for MAPISendMailW

new

To protect your profile data against a downgrade, Thunderbird 68 may display a message "You have launched an older version of Thunderbird" and will not allow opening a specific profile. Workaround: start with option --allow-downgrade. See this support article for details.

new

Calendar: Time zone data can now include past and future changes. All known time zone changes from 2018 to 2022 are included.

new

Chat: In each conversation an individual spellcheck language can be selected now

What’s Changed

changed

Add-on support: Add-ons are only supported if add-on authors have adapted them

changed

** Dictionary support: Only WebExtension dictionaries are supported now.** Both addons.mozilla.org and addons.thunderbird.net now provide WebExtension dictionaries.

changed

** Theme support: Only WebExtension themes are supported now.** Both addons.mozilla.org and addons.thunderbird.net now provide WebExtension themes.

changed

The stand-alone options window has been removed, all options are now shown in a tab

changed

Changed UI when installing add-ons

changed

Various theme improvements including a dark message list/thread pane

changed

Application menu aka "Hamburger menu"

changed

Improvements when entering, selecting and removing recipients in the Write window

changed

FileLink: WeTransfer is already included. Dropbox and Box.com using the new WebExtensions FileLink API are available as add-ons, amongst others.

changed

Text and background colors in the Write window and custom colors for tags are no longer restricted to a fixed 10x7 matrix of HTML colors

changed

Composition text and background colors no longer sent by default. New option in "Tools > Options, Composition".

changed

UI improvements for external and detached attachments, now showing as links with new menu option "Open Containing Folder"

changed

Textual attachments (plain text, HTML, XML, etc.) are no longer displayed inline. Toggle preference mail.inline_attachments.text to display them inline again.

changed

Improved phishing attempt detection for messages with certain forms

changed

Improvements to scam warnings

changed

Reply to self will now search all identities (default of preference mailnews.reply_to_self_check_all_ident changed to true)

changed

Maildir now uses the message ID as file name and "eml" as file extension

changed

Auto-compact threshold increased from 20 MB to 200 MB

changed

Calendar: UI improvements for event dialog

changed

Calendar: Thunderbird's calendar add-on Lightning now uses the same version numbering scheme

changed

Thunderbird 68 distrusts most SSL/TLS certificates issued by the Certificate Authorities (CA) with the brand names Symantec, GeoTrust, RapidSSL and Thawte. Consequently, any SSL/TLS connections to servers using an affected certificate will fail. Affected servers must be updated to use a different certificate. If Thunderbird displays an error message which states that an additional policy constraint has failed, you should check if the server uses a certificate issued by one of the mentioned brands. Additional information on Mozilla's action is available at here.

What’s Fixed

fixed

Column choice and sort order in "Search Messages" dialog lost after relaunch

fixed

Global indexer causing high CPU loads under some circumstances

fixed

Tags set on IMAP folders sometimes not visible to other users

fixed

"Contribute" button in add-on details not working

fixed

SMTP password wasn't removed when account was deleted or server or user name were changed

fixed

Mbox to Maildir conversion not working if Windows search integration is enabled

fixed

Mails won't get removed from Trash folder using Maildir. Note: Other deletion issues related to Maildir may still persist.

fixed

When sending of a message failed due a security issue, only "unknown error" was displayed. Now more details are given.

fixed

Improvements of SMTP 5.7.1 message

fixed

Calendar: Multiple connections with different users to the same CalDAV server not working

fixed

Chat: Fixed XMPP authentication when using SASL

Known Issues

unresolved

Edit tag not working (will be fixed in version 68.1)

unresolved

Moving messages from "Search Messages" result dialog not working (will be fixed in version 68.1)

unresolved

Issues with list of content types/actions for incoming attachments (will be fixed in version 68.1)

Learn What’s Next

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