220196 - prevent multiple instances

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, enhancement)

Description

[Robert Mohr]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.5a) Gecko/20030728 Mozilla Firebird/0.6.1
Build Identifier: Thunderbird 0.2

If Mozilla Thunderbird is running and I attempt to run a new instance, I should
have my focus switched to the current instance.  For many types of applications
this is annoying, but not so much for an email program.  For those who wouldn't
want this, it could be disabled if the -profilemanager switch is set (allowing
one instance for each profile).

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:

Comment 1

[Benedikt Kantus]

*** Bug 244434 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 2

[Daniel Drucker]

Every time I hit the "Mail" button on my keyboard, a new Thunderbird window is
created. I would like instead for the focus to be switched to the current
instance, as that is the standard expected behavior of other email applications.

I can see the merits of the opposing view, but I see no reason why this
shouldn't at least be an optional behavior.

Comment 3

[Riccardo Cretti]

Using Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8b2) Gecko/20050401
Firefox/1.0+ if I press on mail button of my keyboard Thunderbird is not
launched more than once, after that the instance already opened gets the focus
(if it was minimized it shows on the screen in a strange size, not showing
maximized).
There is still the problem that a double click on a folder open a new instance
of Thunderbird.
It's an awful thing and should be fixed; right now the only way to avoid it is
to install the No New Window On Double Click extension.

Comment 4

[proton]

thunderbird 1.0.2 (20050320) have this bug 
generally i minimize TB to tray & i hate to have sometimes 4-5 windows running

Comment 5

[David A. Cobb]

Is this another symptom of the same thing:
I have Thunderbird running.  In Firefox, I click on a mailto:...  link.

Instead of popping up with the composition window (from the active instance) it
pops up the Profilemanager because my profile is busy with the active instance.

IF SO, please broaden this bug to OS=All, as I am running Linux.

Comment 6

[Alexander Ivanchev]

+1 to #2's comment, thing is I also use a minimize to tray extension, and thus,
I sometime end up with 3 running instances ;-) (pretty annoying usability-wise).

Comment 7

[Morpurgo.nl]

This bug is known from before 2004-05-23 but is there a fix now to open always
one instance? 

Comment 8

[Jeroen Zomer]

Reproducable:

Open and minimize TB
Open FF and choose Tools>Read Mail

Another instance is spawned

Comment 9

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

this is fixed for me - WFM XP version 1.6a1 (20050920)  version 1.6a1 (20050920)
(got fixed by TB somewhere, sometime, but I can't find the bug)

Does it now work for you?  Jeroen, et al


NOTE HOWEVER, these steps exhibit another bug - the window size is not
remembered if I start maximized and then minimize.

Steps to reproduce:
1. maximize TB
2. minimize TB
3. switch to FF
4. tools > read new messages

or for step 4 use:  start > ... > mozilla thunderbird

actual results: TB is restored as a small window
expected results: TB restored to maximized window state

Comment 10

[Morpurgo.nl]

This bug is fixed for me, don't know how!

Tested on: Ms Win XP Pro SP2,
TB 1.5 beta 1(20050908),
Minimize to tray 0.0.1.2005091606+
FF 1.0.7 Gecko 20050919

Test:
1)When minimized to tray and clicking the e-mail button in FF the active
instance opens, no new instance is produced.
2) When minimized to tray and clicking for an instance to open on the windows
task bar (next to start)the active instance opens, no new instance is produced.
3) When minimized to tray and clicking on the shortcut on my desktop the active
instance opens, no new instance is produced.

Comment 11

[mudler]

This bug is semi fixed it seems, but not completely fixed.

I'm running Thunderbird version 1.5 (20051025) (RC1), on Windows XP Pro, with SP2.

If you have an instance of Thunderbird open already, and click on icon it will usually just bring up focus of running instance, BUT you can run multiple instances of thunderbird still like this:

1. Make sure no instances of thunderbird running.
2. Click on thunderbird icon very quickly a few times.

Expected result: One instance run only.
Actual result: multiple instances are run.

I have gotten up to 5 copies running before, I'm sure you could get more.

Seems to be a small race condition that allows for multiple copies of thunderbird instances to run.

Comment 12

[skreemer7]

I have Thunderbird 1.5 with xp pro sp2, and the newest minimizetotray version. My problem is that if I double click an email and open it in a separate window, then whenever I try to close or minimize it, it goes to the tray and then I have to find which one it is before I can close the particular email, since the icons for it and the main window look the same. Is there any way to actually close the message windows but have the main window go to tray?

Comment 13

[Frank]

Apparently this is fixed, but I don't like it this way. It should do one instance *per profile*. I have two shortcuts to two TB profiles, one for my mail and one for my wifes mail. We want to be able to run both of them, but that seems impossible now.

Comment 14

[Morpurgo.nl]

(In reply to comment #12)
> I have Thunderbird 1.5.0.8 with xp pro sp2, and the newest minimizetotray version 0.0.1.2006102615+ and FF 2.0

I can reproduce the bug still exists, sometimes there are 5 to 10 icons next to the clock from TB or an open TB email. You can not see the difference and closing the wrong one is done to simple.

Comment 15

[Jorge Vidal Wulff]

Same thing here.
If There's no TB window running and I click on "mailto:" link or press "new message" or "Ctrl-M", then the main window appears ALONG with the compose window. If I disable the extension on TB, automatically works fine again.

Comment 16

[Jorge Vidal Wulff]

I just installed TB 2.0.0.4 and the bug is still there.

Comment 17

[Jorge Vidal Wulff]

additionally, installing the no new window extension doesn't solve the problem.
TB 2.0.0.5

Comment 18

[Tuukka Tolvanen (sp3000)]

wfm 1.5.0.14 xp, and trunk linux. The original issue is most certainly fixed / wfm for a long long long time now. If there are remaining / other related issues, please file separate bugs on specific cases.

->wfm