Open Bug 1482674 Opened 6 years ago Updated 5 months ago

Thunderbird needs a persistent "new mail" indicator on Linux (notification)

Categories

(Thunderbird :: OS Integration, enhancement)

Product:
Thunderbird
Component:
OS Integration
Platform:
x86_64
Linux
Type:
enhancement

Tracking

(Not tracked)

People

(Reporter: lisken, Unassigned)

References

Details

(Keywords: ux-userfeedback)

Attachments

(2 files, 1 obsolete file)

notification.png
14.69 KB, image/png
Details
Attachment 8999970 is obsolete.
31 bytes, text/plain
Details 
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/52.0
Build ID: 20180621064021

Steps to reproduce:

I have been a user of the FireTray add-on that is no longer working in Thunderbird 60. (The author has seized supporting their add-ons.) I have tried to replicate its basic functionality in TB 60 (Linux, XFCE) but there does not seem to be an option for it. I strongly believe that Thunderbird needs a persistent indicator showing that new mail has arrived (not unread mail in the mailbox, but new mail of the kind that lets the corresponding folder name turn blue in the folder pane). If a TB process is running (minimised) and I leave my screen for a while, or if I have been fortunate enough to really focus on some work, I now have to maximise the window and check if any of those folders that receive new mail have turned blue (a couple of accounts, several candidate folders in each due to filtering). That is both cumbersome and distracting. I cannot believe that TB developers want to force us to do constantly unminimise the window and inspect the folder pane. So I think that options should be added to show an icon for new mail, not just pop up a transient notification or play a sound.


Actual results:

Since TB 60, when running minimised, there is no way of knowing if new mail is waiting after I’ve been away for a while (physically or mentally).


Expected results:

Some icon should change or appear as soon as new mail has arrived, and disappear once I’ve been to all the folders that have new mail.
Component: Untriaged → Mail Window Front End
Summary: Thunderbird 60 needs a "new mail" icon → Thunderbird 60 needs a "new mail" indicator on linux
See bug 471772?

Anyone is free to write an add-on. Why should Thunderbird core developers maintain even more code for the next years? :)

On a general note, this ticket proposes a specific solution without explaining what the problem is and why the current behavior doesn't cover your use case.
Flags: needinfo?(lisken)
The Ubuntu version of Thunderbird comes with an extension called, "Messaging Menu and Unity Launcher integration", which provides a visual indicator of new mail.

I don't see it anywhere on the ATN site.
I don’t know why a “needinfo” flag was set when the only actual question in the corresponding comment was a rhetorical one. My description shows that I am aware of an add-on that is no longer working. It is not clear if the new add-on architecture will allow this kind of add-on, and in any case, I don’t have the resources to write one soon. In any case, I tried to convey that such a function should become part of the application itself.

I also believe that I did describe the problem. I’m happy to paraphrase it again:

The problem is the lack of a persistent indicator that new mail has arrived. The notifications that can be set through TB 60’s options are all transient.

With the absence of a persistent indicator, the user has a lingering sense of uncertainty whether they’ve missed a transient notification. The process of dealing with that uncertainty is so tedious that the user experience becomes slightly annoying. Have a look at any current messaging service. You will have a hard time finding one that does not inform its users of new messages. Most of these use a changed icon and/or a number of messages. That should be enough evidence for a clear and problematic gap in what TB 60 offers.
Flags: needinfo?(lisken)
> It is not clear if the new add-on architecture will allow this kind of add-on

If the unity launcher still works, that should reduce uncertainty that others can make it work.
That’s just it – nobody has clearly said that it still works in TB 60. This add-on has been around for a long time (I didn’t know of it, but a web search yields several support questions). Given that TB 60 (even with legacy add-ons enabled) breaks a lot of existing add-ons, I highly doubt that it still works.

Anyway, this bug report is about trying to convince the developers that this should be incorporated into the main app. I have tried to give reasons why. Dwelling about this or that add-on (especially one that probably only works on Linux or even just on some particular desktop) feels like an unnecessary distraction.
Severity: normal → enhancement
I think this is a fundamental feature. After years of usage of thunderbird as main mail reader in Linux I'll be forced to migrate to other app if this feature will not be available again in a short time :(
This report seems to duplicate https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=208923 which was closed with resolution "want fix" about an hour ago. The discussion there is pretty interesting. However non-destructive ways of notification about incoming e-mails  and chat messages are quite important. So I hope that Thunderbird devs reconsider their position.
Thanks for the heads-up, dpolivaev. However I don’t think these two bugs are duplicates exactly. Both refer to functions that Firetray used to offer and that often go together. But my focus here is on the persistent indicator for new mail (usually but not necessarily implemented by changing a tray icon) and the other bug is about having a tray icon and making the task bar button disappear “to the tray” when the main window is minimized.

[P.S. I thought it might be helpful to mention that you are mixing up the words “want” and “won’t”, as I have seen you do this twice now – here and on support.mozilla.org.]
Why status of this report is "UNCONFIRMED"??
All users in this thread confirm it. And many users have same trouble, but don't write here. 
Many of them (including myself) will be forced to migrate to another application.
And I think that this feature has very high severity.
So this one is NOT about minimizing to tray, but about an indication whether new mail has arrived since last interaction with TB. This can be indicated with a number on the existing TB icon (as in the screenshot), but the icon may be too small (not everybody uses Unity). Or it can be made via an additional icon in the tray, as Outlook does.

Does TB on Windows have this, is this really Linux specific?
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Ever confirmed: true
Keywords: ux-userfeedback
OS: Unspecified → Linux
Hardware: Unspecified → All
Summary: Thunderbird 60 needs a "new mail" indicator on linux → Thunderbird 60 needs a "new mail" indicator on Linux
Yes, TB on Windows has it. 

However  I do not know if TB on Windows has indication about new chat messages and calender events which would be at least as important as new mail notifications. Unfortunately I use chat and calender only at work under Linux and therefore I do not upgrade to TB 60 there.
Windows has a icon but no counter. Mac has a new mail counter on the launchbar TB icon.
On linux (Plasma) I have installed Mailnag.

https://github.com/pulb/mailnag

Still no mail caounter but at least I have new mail notification Pop Up and Plasma notification integration.
Using Preferences > Advanced > General > Config Editor, I toggled "mail.biff.use_system_alert" to "false" in my TB 60.

I get notifications and can click an email in the notification which will go to TB with the selected email displayed. No mail counter appears on the TB icon though.

Still no update from 52.9.1 to 60.0 from Ubuntu to see if the Messaging Menu and Unity Launcher integration extension ships with it. I think that is because there are no Thunderbird specific security fixes.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1066095/when-thunderbird-vulnerability-updates-will-be-available-for-version-52-9-1-in-u
Attached image notification.png — 
This is the notification I now see with "mail.biff.use_system_alert" set to "false".

It can be set to display for as long as the user wants in Preferences > General.
Select Customize for "Show an alert" and set "Show New Mail alert for:" to whatever value works for you. My setting was 120 seconds for testing.

I can click an email in the notification and Thunderbird will display that message.
Thanks for trying to be helpful. However, this is not what this bug is about. These notifications take up extra space and are more than an indicator that new mail has arrived. The same goes for the suggestion about mailnag, wich is an external program that would launch Thunderbird. In my scenario Thunderbird is present in the background all the time. By the way, if the desired indicator would be a tray icon then I do think it would also make sense to “minimise to it”, but that is a secondary thought.
Summary: Thunderbird 60 needs a "new mail" indicator on Linux → Thunderbird 60 needs a persistent "new mail" indicator on Linux
I just released the first version of Birdtray, systray email notification counter for Thunderbird. Only notification at this moment, no systray hidding. GPL v3, available at github: https://github.com/gyunaev/birdtray
Hi gyunaev.
I thank you for your work on this extension and it/you may end up saving us in a near future.

However, I don't think current situation (native new mail indicator on both Mac/Windows while Linux users have to use extensions) is good at all.
We need feature parity there. What's the point of Thunderbird as cross-platform project if we don't ?

So I'd very like to know the Thunderbird team's stance on this issue.
Are "new mail indicators" obsoletes and should be removed in a future version ?
Are they an essential feature of Thunderbird ? If they are, why is this bug report getting so few attention ?


Honestly, the current situation is a mess and need to be addressed.
Some users want "close in tray/persistent tray", other just want "new mail indicator".
Some users think "new mail indicator" comes with "persistent tray". (I was one of them.)
Some users have "new mail indicator" (Mac/Windows) but other don't (Linux).

The bug reports and comments can't be clear if the situation isn't.
Minimizing TB to the tray, to me, seems like an extremely limited set of functionality and I am scratching my head wondering what could possibly have changed in TB 60 to make FireTray not be able to work. I suspect it would work but it's simply checking to see if the version number of TB is supported. One has to wonder why this is so hard and why people here will waste hours of time arguing the point when the fix is probably a one line change...
(In reply to gyunaev from comment #17)
> I just released the first version of Birdtray, systray email notification
> counter for Thunderbird. Only notification at this moment, no systray
> hidding. GPL v3, available at github: https://github.com/gyunaev/birdtray

Hi gyunaev, thanks a lot for this excellent piece of code! Are you aware about any packaging for common distros?
And, btw, there's also a new firetray release which seems to work:

https://github.com/Ximi1970/FireTray/releases

I think the standard way to provide this would be to set the WM_URGENT hint on the window. The window manager would then adjust the minimised icon accordingly and consistently with other applications:
https://tronche.com/gui/x/icccm/sec-4.html#s-4.1.2.4
eg. i3wm.org would by default draw the window or containing workspace red.

The FireTray plugin does achieve this somehow, but it it should definitely be part of the standard TB exe. It is really essential and expected behaviour and plugins invariably get broken by some version change. It is probably only a few lines of extra code if it is already there on Windows and a negligible maintenance effort.

Further more Firefox already sets the urgent hint. eg. if you click on a URL in TB and Firefox is open in another workspace, it will then be highlighted with the urgent hint to show it has new content.

(In reply to Rob from comment #22)

The FireTray plugin does achieve this somehow, but it it should definitely be part of the standard TB exe. It is really essential and expected behaviour and plugins invariably get broken by some version change. It is probably only a few lines of extra code if it is already there on Windows and a negligible maintenance effort.

I support this comment. The FireTray plugin is also not compatible with a counter/badge to the Thunderbird Icon in the Dash-To-Dock in Ubuntu.
Thanks in advance for any work on this!

I concur too: Thunderbird needs natively to be able to show a persistent notification when there is new unread mail (that is not in a junk folder or a draft folder). This is needed cross-platform (and on Linux not just for Ubuntu). At least in the past extensions provided such functions. Most of those extensions no longer work and even the new ones, I find, do not work well.

(In reply to signupemail from comment #25)

I concur too: Thunderbird needs natively to be able to show a persistent notification when there is new unread mail (that is not in a junk folder or a draft folder). This is needed cross-platform (and on Linux not just for Ubuntu). At least in the past extensions provided such functions. Most of those extensions no longer work and even the new ones, I find, do not work well.

Has anybody tried setting Preferences > Display, click Customize, edit the new mail alert and setting the "Show New Mail Alert" to something like 1800 seconds? That's 30 minutes.

Maybe I just don't understand persistent in this instance.

For some time a new email indicator/counter is shown on the Thunderbird Icon in the Dash-to-Dock on my system (Thunderbird 60.9.0, Ubuntu 19.04). Not sure what made this appear again. It seems not to be always consistent, though.

I want to share that I use an add-on which works on my both Windows and Linux computers. It is available at https://github.com/Ximi1970/FireTray.

(In reply to dpolivaev from comment #28)

I want to share that I use an add-on which works on my both Windows and Linux computers. It is available at https://github.com/Ximi1970/FireTray.

And does it works with ThunderBird-68 ?

(In reply to WaltS48 [:walts48] from comment #26)

(In reply to signupemail from comment #25)

I concur too: Thunderbird needs natively to be able to show a persistent notification when there is new unread mail (that is not in a junk folder or a draft folder). This is needed cross-platform (and on Linux not just for Ubuntu). At least in the past extensions provided such functions. Most of those extensions no longer work and even the new ones, I find, do not work well.

Has anybody tried setting Preferences > Display, click Customize, edit the new mail alert and setting the "Show New Mail Alert" to something like 1800 seconds? That's 30 minutes.

Maybe I just don't understand persistent in this instance.

Yes, persistent means "forever until you click it or log out".
Afaik, this is achieved on Windows and Mac by having a new mail indicator. Why does Linux cannot have it too ?

(In reply to Eugene from comment #29)

(In reply to dpolivaev from comment #28)

I want to share that I use an add-on which works on my both Windows and Linux computers. It is available at https://github.com/Ximi1970/FireTray.

And does it works with ThunderBird-68 ?

Unfortunately not, see https://github.com/Ximi1970/FireTray/issues/45

See discussion in https://github.com/Ximi1970/FireTray/issues/47

(In reply to dpolivaev from comment #31)

(In reply to Eugene from comment #29)

(In reply to dpolivaev from comment #28)

I want to share that I use an add-on which works on my both Windows and Linux computers. It is available at https://github.com/Ximi1970/FireTray.

And does it works with ThunderBird-68 ?

(In reply to Yamashita Ren from comment #30)

(In reply to WaltS48 [:walts48] from comment #26)

(In reply to signupemail from comment #25)

I concur too: Thunderbird needs natively to be able to show a persistent notification when there is new unread mail (that is not in a junk folder or a draft folder). This is needed cross-platform (and on Linux not just for Ubuntu). At least in the past extensions provided such functions. Most of those extensions no longer work and even the new ones, I find, do not work well.

Has anybody tried setting Preferences > Display, click Customize, edit the new mail alert and setting the "Show New Mail Alert" to something like 1800 seconds? That's 30 minutes.

Maybe I just don't understand persistent in this instance.

Yes, persistent means "forever until you click it or log out".
Afaik, this is achieved on Windows and Mac by having a new mail indicator. Why does Linux cannot have it too ?

My Ubuntu 18.04.3 and Linux Mint 19.2 have a new mail indicators.

Do you have your Thunderbird setup to "Show an alert" in Preferences > General?

Do you have Notifications enabled on your Linux system?

For Ubuntu that would be in Show Applications > Settings > Notifications.

What you are talking about is not an indicator but a "Notification".
By design, a notification is not persistent.

So this persistent new mail indicator would update every time the new mail notification would be activated?

Would a user like me be able to disable it, and does this exist on Windows and Mac?

While Linux users wait for a persistent - and persistently visible - notification of new mail, might we at least be advised on how we can get another program to provide such a notification?

I have a way of detecting in shell the number of unread messages in my (combined) Thunderbird inbox. To wit:

grep -oE 'A2=.{0,1}' ''<path>/smart mailboxes/Inbox.msf' | tail -1 | cut -c 4

I have yet to find a way of extracting the number of new unread e-mails, which is what I would like. Anyone?

I have a Perl script I put together that connects to my IMAP server and checks for new messages. If found it extracts the Sender and the Subject and throws it a message like "From <sender> - <msg>" to another script I got off the Internet that uses Google Text to Speech to actually say message! Hardly persistent but very useful when you are couch potato'ing so you can decide whether or not it's worth getting off the couch to respond to the email. You're welcome to it - https://github.com/adefaria/clearscm/blob/master/bin/announceEmail.pl

As for persistent mail indication I could have sworn that I had that before. Perhaps it was from FireTray. Ah yes - https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/firetray/: "display unread messages count in tray icon". You know for the life of me I cannot fathom why FireTray's functionality is not built into TB itself. Nor can I understand why this is so hard to do in an extension. On my Ubuntu desktop I had the new mail indicator with a count of how many new messages as well as libnotify's notification. Didn't need both. Couldn't figure out how to turn off libnorify either...

It is time for a bit of editing since Thunderbird 60 is near EOL, 68 is on the horizon, and this is request for an enhancement.

I still don't think this exists on Windows. I don't recall seeing it when I'm using Thunderbird on Windows 10.

Eckard is there a persistent notification with Thunderbird on a Mac?

Flags: needinfo?(de.berberich)
Hardware: All → x86_64
Summary: Thunderbird 60 needs a persistent "new mail" indicator on Linux → Thunderbird needs a persistent "new mail" indicator on Linux
Version: 60 → 68

@Andrew DeFaria

Thanks, but I am after code that yields the new message count only by querying local files, not by getting into the buisness of actually querying e-mail servers.

(In reply to WaltS48 [:walts48] from comment #39)

Eckard is there a persistent notification with Thunderbird on a Mac?

Yes, there is a persistent notification in the form of a little red badge on the app icon in the Dock. By default this badge displays the number of unread messages but one can choose to display the new messages count via Preferences > General > App Icon Options...
Once one opens a new message the red badge disappears.

Flags: needinfo?(de.berberich)

this is indeed seriously needed.

previously i relied on the new mail attention extension, which was working great (even with custom conditions using the filters), but it only works with thunderbird up to version 39. then i switched to seturgent, which is more basic (always sets the urgent flag), but it only works with thunderbird up to version 60.

now i’m trying to survive with the built-in notification, but either it doesn’t show up or i might be missing it (even though i set it up to persist for 600 seconds). this is hindering my work, as i’m not always thinking about checking thunderbird while i’m busy working, and urgent requests may arrive.

i think that thunderbird should at the very least allow to set the urgent flag on the window when new mail arrives (custom conditions would be even better). a persistent tray icon would be great also.

(In reply to Eckard Berberich from comment #41)

(In reply to WaltS48 [:walts48] from comment #39)

Eckard is there a persistent notification with Thunderbird on a Mac?

Yes, there is a persistent notification in the form of a little red badge on the app icon in the Dock. By default this badge displays the number of unread messages but one can choose to display the new messages count via Preferences > General > App Icon Options...

I don't have that preference in Linux builds of Thunderbird.

Once one opens a new message the red badge disappears.

I only see the little badge on the app icon on the dock for the Ubuntu supplied version of Thunderbird. on Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS, and it isn't persistent. Read an email and poof it is gone.

The same supplied version on Linux Mint 19.2 doesn't have the badge in the icon.

(In reply to WaltS48 [:walts48] from comment #2)

The Ubuntu version of Thunderbird comes with an extension called, "Messaging
Menu and Unity Launcher integration", which provides a visual indicator of
new mail.

Thank you, I didn't know what that extension that came preinstalled did, in fact, on Ubuntu 99% of the times that extension causes Thunderbird icon to remain stuck on that "X" new mails colored dot, even when I read all the emails...
I've now been able to deactivate the extension and peace my mind with the useless-over-graphic-ed Ubuntu on my laptop.

(In reply to dpolivaev from comment #28)

I want to share that I use an add-on which works on my both Windows and Linux computers. It is available at https://github.com/Ximi1970/FireTray.

This was already noticed by me a few posts above.

I wish to add that I Ximi modified firetray extension presently works great with the latest Thunderbird 60.9 on KDE.

You can download and test the extension here:
https://github.com/Ximi1970/FireTray/releases

(In reply to rob from comment #46)

You can download and test the extension here:
https://github.com/Ximi1970/FireTray/releases

Unfortunately it doesn't work with TB-68.

You are right. Unfortunately in my case (debian/sid + kde) birdtray does not show unread mail counter for some imap msf.

I have also tried a fork of birdtray named tbtray
https://github.com/JackDinn/tbtray
which works fine, but it cannot make close-to-tray work.

So at present I have three possibilities,

  • firetray (not working on TB-68)
  • birdtray (not showing counter)
  • tbtray (not dealing with close-to-tray)

It is really upsetting that in 2020 an email client such as TB does not come with a tray icon functionality, and that they making one is so complicated!

The indicator icon part could be solved reasonably well by an option to run a script when new mail arrives as an alternative to playing a sound file. Then people can do their own with yad or other utilities.

Being creative, you can exploit that functionality with file access monitoring of a specific .wav file -- but let's face it, that's beyond the average user and they shouldn't have to.

(In reply to vdebris from comment #49)

If anyone wants similar, I'm using Xfce with KDocker for minimise-to-tray -- https://nachtimwald.com/category/kdocker/ -- and a file monitoring script for a persistent notification icon:

#!/bin/sh
inotifywait -m -e access /home/username/.myscripts/watch_silent.wav |
while read output;
do
    sleep 1
    icon_already_exists=$(pgrep -f yad.*mail-mark-unread.*thunderbird)
    if [ -z "$icon_already_exists" ]
    then
        yad --notification --image="mail-mark-unread" --listen --command="sh -c 'thunderbird ; pkill -f yad.*mail-mark-unread.*thunderbird'" &
    fi
done

With the update from Ubuntu to Thunderbird 68.2.1, they no longer supply the extension that provided the amount of email received in this icon in Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS Gnome desktop.

Attachment #8999970 - Attachment is obsolete: true
See Also: → 1601319

Technically speaking, what Thunderbird needs to do here is to natively support the Unity Launcher API--which, contrary to its name, is used by more than just Unity. It's in Ubuntu's GNOME dock, as well as KDE Plasma's Task Manager. It's a commonly-used and still supported API, and various other 3rd-party apps like Telegram support it: https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop/blob/4416dab6c1a555ffe77469a50fe6206d1598053f/Telegram/SourceFiles/platform/linux/linux_desktop_environment.cpp#L123

Gnome tends to plough its own furrow, but it's a long-established feature in other desktop environments by community standards;
https://specifications.freedesktop.org/systemtray-spec/systemtray-spec-0.3.html

A System Tray icon is another option, but IMO it's a worse one that's proposed here. Badging the Dock/Task Manager icon itself with the number of unread emails is more user friendly and doesn't contribute to system tray spam.

Whilst I wouldn't disagree some tray icons are clutter and there should always be options to disable, etc, email is a singularly key application for most people. An option to pick from the few standards that exist for persistent notifications wouldn't be overkill.

For info (was googling earlier) the developer has been able to update the Mailbox Alert plugin, which makes it straightforward again to run a script on new mail: https://tjeb.nl/Projects/Mailbox_Alert/

They note; "Open issue: I am aware that the custom Filter action for Mailbox Alert isn't working (due to the removal of XBL bindings), but have yet to discover how the new interfaces work. In recent versions of Thunderbird (>63) it is currently not possible to set the target action for the MailboxAlert Filter."

Tested working with Thunderbird 68.2.2, I'm using this script;

#!/bin/bash
if ! pgrep -f yad.*mail-mark-unread.*thunderbird &> /dev/null 2>&1; then
	yad --notification --image="mail-mark-unread" --listen --command="sh -c 'thunderbird ; pkill -f yad.*mail-mark-unread.*thunderbird'" &
fi

The ability to run a user-defined action on new mail would still be a welcome addition to stock Thunderbird (if possible passing the number of new items for use in add-ons and scripts?) It'd mean users aren't left waiting for the next thing to break functionality.

I agree that offering choice makes sense. That's what Telegram does, FWIW: you have an option to either badge the program's icon with the number of unread messages, or else show a system tray icon with this information.

A developer of a FireTray fork trying to catch up all recent API changes has written he does not see a way to fix the extension for thunderbird 68 and above any more. In the same post he has written he is going to patch Thunderbird itself. (https://github.com/Ximi1970/FireTray/issues/47#issuecomment-570203252) I can only pray that his patch becomes accepted by the official Thunderbird developers when it is finished.

Until it is solved I block all updates to Thunderbird 68 on my computers because for me e-mail counter and incoming chat information in the tray are indispensable.

The "new mail" icon that is used since a couple of months (white lines with black outlines) is also worse than the one before.

Component: Mail Window Front End → OS Integration
See Also: → 18732
Summary: Thunderbird needs a persistent "new mail" indicator on Linux → Thunderbird needs a persistent "new mail" indicator on Linux (notification)

Please, please implement this. You cannot use a communication system without it somehow implementing an announcer that you have outstanding new messages. This is such a basic feature for this type of product, that it is puzzling for me why it is met with such reluctance by the dev team. It might not be an easy feat given the multitude of systems it needs to integrate with, but that doesn't make it less important. I mean, I'm sure there are other features that were built-in, which presented challenges, but were still implemented and I applaud the developers for them.
Kindly assign some priority to this feature so we can see it implemented soon. Until then I'm back to webmail. Even they have mechanisms to alert of new messages. I'd happily use Outlook for that indicator, but I've no such option on Linux.

I use the "We've received the information we've been waiting for" sound file from the Babylon 5 Sound Clips site. It's under the John Sheridan heading.

Disabled the "mail.biff.use_system_alert" in the Config Editor so Thunderbird doesn't use the native Linux notification on my system.

I'm stuck with 60.9 due to this REGRESSION, and in I'd switch to kmail rather than giving up persistent notification in systray and close-to-systray.

Any fix would be very much appreciated. The bug persists on Ubuntu 20.04.

For me, notifications are sometimes shown when Thunderbird is minimized and a new email arrives on the account that is currently selected (in the tray on the left hand side). However, when a mail arrives in an account that is not currently selected, no notification is shown. A counter is never visible on my system.

I have to admit that I cannot longer use Thunderbird like this and I will switch to a different program if I cannot find a fix soon :/

Absence of new mail indicator makes Thunderbird almost unusable. I've missed too many emails because of this. Now I have to remember to manually check all the time. Really disappointed and looking for alternatives.

The persistance of this issue has been cited as a reason annoying enough for Ubuntu to be recommended swapping Thunderbird for something else as a default email client.

(In reply to Andre Klapper from comment #1)

Anyone is free to write an add-on. Why should Thunderbird core developers
maintain even more code for the next years? :)

This was the very first comment on this issue all those years (?!) ago, and I think it sums up perfectly why the talk of swapping out Thunderbird for a project where the developers are more committed to serving their users is gathering pace.

On a general note, this ticket proposes a specific solution without
explaining what the problem is and why the current behavior doesn't cover
your use case.

The problem is obvious, but seeing as nobody has explained it specifically, here goes.

In the old days of physical mailboxes that sat outside your house, there was a little indicator on the outside that popped up when letters were inserted. The indicator meant that you didn't have to leave your house and walk to the end of your garden every hour (for example) to look inside. You could check the indicator from the window and know when new letters had arrived.

If Thunderbird aspires to be a mail management tool for the digital age, it should properly manage within itself the basic functionality of the physical mailbox. Not some of the time, not when a third-party add-on developer can be bothered, but all the time.

Asking an add-on developer to develop this feature is like purchasing a physical mailbox, having it installed outside your house, and then the installation company saying just after they've installed it:

"Sorry, the indicator is not included because we don't want the hassle of having to design and maintain the extra mechanics. Go to a separate company and buy the indicator. And don't ask me if there are any companies even making indicators for this model of mailbox because I don't know."

Does it sound far-fetched? No, because that is exactly what the current attitude to this feature currently appears to be.

=======

I currently have the same problem with TB 68. I have significant numbers of filters operating on multiple accounts. Every time an email gets routed the indicator (Gnome Indicator Applet, Ubuntu) gets extinguished. Even if a non-routed email enters the default account, filters operating on other accounts extinguish the indicator. That's the technical summary

As it stands, it seriously affects my productivity due to the additional manual checks of the physical email application I have to do, and affects my credibility with colleagues when I am knee-deep in concentration and don't answer an email for hours because I don't even notice it.

I have finally switched to kmail+korganizer some months ago, It's an excellent solution. Try it.

(In reply to Steven Armitage from comment #66)

(In reply to Andre Klapper from comment #1)

Anyone is free to write an add-on. Why should Thunderbird core developers
maintain even more code for the next years? :)

This was the very first comment on this issue all those years (?!) ago, and I think it sums up perfectly why the talk of swapping out Thunderbird for a project where the developers are more committed to serving their users is gathering pace.

On a general note, this ticket proposes a specific solution without
explaining what the problem is and why the current behavior doesn't cover
your use case.

It looks to me like the devs are not using their own product, or else they couldn't be as detached from the reality of the shortcoming that comes from not having a tray notifier.

If the product is not usable and you are not willing to make it usable, why bother making it at all? Why not just quit, do something useful with that time.

Same for me, I mainly use Evolution on Ubuntu. It had a badge counter with Unity and finally again with GNOME and the Dash to Dock!
Hopefully the Thunderbird App icon on the Dash to Dock will also get a badge counter (as Thunderbird is (still) the default email client for Ubuntu).

Much as I – the original reporter – am happy to see this amount of support from other users, I’m asking you to not add any further complaints, recommendations for other software etc. to this bug report. Please red the etiquette for this Bugzilla instance: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=etiquette.html

In my (superficial) experience, if a bug report gets crowded with messages from disappointed users, the devs will be deterred from engaging with it. And with my own experience as a software developer I can understand why.

Hi Sebastian,

I understand your concern, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. There are only a certain number of ways that you can technically describe a problem. You described it one way, I described another way. Once this has been done, however, If people don't continually keep these bugs active they get ignored for years and years and years. Simply repeating the technical arguments for fixing the feature over and over again is not constructive.

The Linux Tray notification problem is, in general, over 20 years old and this thread is not the only thread where comments are being logged continually. See bug 18732. Two years patiently waiting for a fix on this thread is, I guess, a bit longer than some users expect for such a fundamental feature (let alone 20!)

It looks like there is a thunderbird add-on which claims to work for different linux derivatives. It comes together with a small companion app.

https://github.com/Ximi1970/systray-x

I have not tried it myself yet.

All what Comment 68 (among others) says, also I cannot believe there are comments here that try to make it sound normal that an email client doesn't have a tray icon signaling that there is new mail and no way to know whether there is new mail or not except keeping a window with the inbox open and look at whether the list of arrived email shows new entries.

Why would an addon (which BTW is nowhere to be found) be needed for such a basic function in an email client ? Since many years I am using TB for Windows which of course has such feature out of the box (like of course all email clients I ever tried in my whole life), now I just started using TB on Ubuntu and this thing alone means I have to look for another email client on Ubuntu.

Of the people who consider this lack as normal, can anyone name another email client, with any licensing scheme and for any OS, which does not have this feature ?

I am sorry if reading many "complaints" deters the developers from engaging with the problem, but I would have expected the exact opposite, after all nobody seems to be "complaining" about this just to kill time, it's real TB users or would-be users who want to use TB.

(In reply to dpolivaev from comment #72)

It looks like there is a thunderbird add-on which claims to work for different linux derivatives. It comes together with a small companion app.

https://github.com/Ximi1970/systray-x

I have not tried it myself yet.

I have installed this on a non-supported distro (Arch) and managed to break my XFCE environment in that it has affected my tray functionality for other apps. There is no uninstall process so I don't recommend this solution. It may be something coincidental, I cannot be sure the install has caused the issues (Arch is rolling, and other updates might have caused the problem). Suffice to say the plugin did not work as intended, failing to report new mails.

This is a far from perfect solution (i.e. not working at all for some distros)

The release notes for Thunderbird 78 (which has just shown up in Ubuntu 20.10 repos) add;

"Windows users have reason to rejoice, as Thunderbird 78 can now be minimized to tray. This has been a repeatedly requested feature that has been available through many popular add-ons, but it is now part of Thunderbird core – no add-on needed! This feature has been a long time coming and we hope to bring more operating-system specific features for each platform to Thunderbird in the coming releases." https://blog.thunderbird.net/2020/07/whats-new-in-thunderbird-78/

Which gives some hope that Linux users will stop being treated as second-class in future, as well as indicating that the feature is recognised as important.

In the meantime, the Mailbox Alert extension has been updated for 78 and is working alright with the previously posted YAD-based tray icon script.

Anyone tried the latest 78.8? Is there any systray support there? I'm stuck at 60.9 since years...

(In reply to :aceman from comment #10)

So this one is NOT about minimizing to tray, but about an indication whether
new mail has arrived since last interaction with TB. This can be indicated
with a number on the existing TB icon (as in the screenshot), but the icon
may be too small (not everybody uses Unity). Or it can be made via an
additional icon in the tray, as Outlook does.

Does TB on Windows have this, is this really Linux specific?

As I pointed out in Comment 2 there was an extension that provided an icon with a number in it with Thunderbird on Ubuntu with Gnome.

Unity is long gone, and I am now using Fedora 34 Workstation with Gnome 40.

I disabled using native notifications in my Thunderbird 89.0b3 beta.

Sent myself a test email and got the expected Windows style notification, but there is no icon with a number in it anywhere in the Window List on the bottom of my screen. The Window List area is provided by Gnome Extensions.

The application icons are in the Dock(?) which the user has to select Activities in the top bar to see. No number in those icons.

Interesting that Thunderbird Beta and Daily on Windows now has this feature.

On Linux, I have an alpha version of a shell script that gives me the current new message count. I have some more tweaks to make to make it more performant.

Based on what I learn, I may try to fold the performance tweaks back to SysTray or perhaps look for help to fork SysTray to use its systray logic and interface it with the shell script.

Below is the output of my script.

2021-05-13 08:00:10 - Count is 2
2021-05-13 08:01:11 - Count is 2
2021-05-13 08:02:00 - Count is 3
2021-05-13 08:02:10 - Count is 3
2021-05-13 08:02:36 - Count is 2
2021-05-13 08:02:38 - Count is 1
2021-05-13 08:02:39 - Count is 0
2021-05-13 08:02:42 - Count is 0
2021-05-13 08:03:09 - Count is 1
2021-05-13 08:03:11 - Count is 0
2021-05-13 08:04:26 - Count is 1
2021-05-13 08:05:11 - Count is 1
2021-05-13 08:05:13 - Count is 0
2021-05-13 08:05:26 - Count is 0

I optimized the script and stitched in a call to `gdbus' to create a persistent notification (KDE) when the New message count is greater than zero.

The script polls once a second for any change to an .msf file since the last cycle. After which, it narrows its scope on the number of .msf's it has to consider for computation. It tries to be clever by searching bottom-up from .msf files, terminating on first-match when possible, etc. etc.

I'm not sure whether a systray icon is better than the persistent notification. I'll let things bake for a bit.

Below is the output of the script. It shows that on start up, it evaluated 231 .msf files and found two unread messages. Via tbird I marked the two messages as read and at :16, the script caught the change (notification auto-removed). TBird seems to do housekeeping and at :17, one .msf file needed to be evaluated. Nothing happened.

└─▬ $ mail_count
2021-05-13 23:14:10 - 1 of 231 eval'd, found 2 unread msg(s)
2021-05-13 23:14:16 - 0 of 1 eval'd, found 0 unread msg(s)
2021-05-13 23:14:17 - 0 of 1 eval'd, found 0 unread msg(s)

To not clutter this bug, I'm moving the discussion over to http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=3074960 My plan is to move to github (soon!).

(In reply to Pablo from comment #80)

To not clutter this bug, I'm moving the discussion over to http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=3074960 My plan is to move to github (soon!).

I guess the right address is this one:

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=3075001

Severity: normal → S3
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