Count of new emails no longer appears on Ubuntu Dock icon for Thunderbird
Categories
(Thunderbird :: Untriaged, defect)
Tracking
(Not tracked)
People
(Reporter: jkeenan, Unassigned)
References
Details
Attachments
(1 file)
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11.82 KB,
image/png
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Details |
thunderbird-icon-no-incoming.png
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:70.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/70.0
Steps to reproduce:
OS: Ubuntu Linux 18.04 LTS
Thunderbird: 68.2.1 (64-bit)
Prompted by Ubuntu's Software Update program, I updated Thunderbird to the version described above -- a process I have done many times before. After the update completed, I double-clicked on the Thunderbird icon in the dock.
Actual results:
Thunderbird launched, but the Dock icon did not (and does not despite repeated re-launches) display a "badge" with the number of newly arrived emails. See attachment "thunderbird-icon-no-imcoming.png".
Consequence: I now have to manually switch to Thunderbird as the top window in the desktop and visually scan the entire list of email folders to see whether I have new incoming emails and how many. Previously, I could simply glance at the Dock icon regardless of what was the top program in the Desktop.
Expected results:
Based on over five years' use of Thunderbird on this platform (including on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and 16.04 LTS), I would have expected a badge to be displayed. I would have expected that badge to be a small red circle with the count of new emails displayed within it in white type.
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Comment 1•6 years ago
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You no longer see the red badge with the number of newly arrived emails for a couple of reasons.
- The Ubuntu build would have an extension called Messaging Menu that did not get updated by Ubuntu and it supplied the badge.
- That is probably due to Thunderbird now using native Linux notifications since the release of version 60.
With native Linux notifications you get a notification at the top of the screen with the number of new emails.
I have Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS Gnome with the Ubuntu build of Thunderbird 68.2.1 and also don't have the red badge. I get the native Linux notification.
I have Linux Mint 19.2 Cinnamon with the Ubuntu build of Thunderbird 68.2.1. The icon in the dock is completely different and never showed the number of new emails.
I'm sure other distros and desktops are also different.
I think this is more a Ubuntu Gnome bug and should be brought up on Launchpad.
There is a bug asking for a persistent notification.
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Reporter | |
Comment 2•6 years ago
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(In reply to WaltS48 [:walts48] from comment #1)
You no longer see the red badge with the number of newly arrived emails for a couple of reasons.
- The Ubuntu build would have an extension called Messaging Menu that did not get updated by Ubuntu and it supplied the badge.
- That is probably due to Thunderbird now using native Linux notifications since the release of version 60.
With native Linux notifications you get a notification at the top of the screen with the number of new emails.
When you say "native Linux notifications" which appear at the top of the screen, are you referring to notifications like the "Device can be removed" I get when I have clicked on an icon to eject a USB drive?
If so, then I am not getting notifications there concerning the number of new emails.
Until several months ago, IIRC, the count displayed in the badge would decrement when I clicked on an unread email in the Thunderbird interface. Then something changed and for several months the count in the badge would remain constant until I had clicked on all unread emails (or marked them as read). That was annoying, but tolerable.
In the past week, however, I am not getting the badge at all, causing me to have to scan all folders for incoming mail.
I have Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS Gnome with the Ubuntu build of Thunderbird 68.2.1 and also don't have the red badge. I get the native Linux notification.
I have Linux Mint 19.2 Cinnamon with the Ubuntu build of Thunderbird 68.2.1. The icon in the dock is completely different and never showed the number of new emails.
I'm sure other distros and desktops are also different.
I think this is more a Ubuntu Gnome bug and should be brought up on Launchpad.
There is a bug asking for a persistent notification.
Well, I'll try at Launchpad. However, given the fact that I've updated the Thunderbird package via Software Update multiple times since the last OS upgrade, I doubt that Thunderbird is entirely off the hook.
Thank you very much.
Jim Keenan
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Comment 3•6 years ago
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(In reply to James E Keenan from comment #2)
(In reply to WaltS48 [:walts48] from comment #1)
You no longer see the red badge with the number of newly arrived emails for a couple of reasons.
- The Ubuntu build would have an extension called Messaging Menu that did not get updated by Ubuntu and it supplied the badge.
- That is probably due to Thunderbird now using native Linux notifications since the release of version 60.
With native Linux notifications you get a notification at the top of the screen with the number of new emails.
When you say "native Linux notifications" which appear at the top of the screen, are you referring to notifications like the "Device can be removed" I get when I have clicked on an icon to eject a USB drive?
That is the notification.
If so, then I am not getting notifications there concerning the number of new emails.
I have found it to be inconsistent when using a Thunderbird where I haven't disabled it.
Do you have "Show an alert" enabled in Preferences > General?
Until several months ago, IIRC, the count displayed in the badge would decrement when I clicked on an unread email in the Thunderbird interface. Then something changed and for several months the count in the badge would remain constant until I had clicked on all unread emails (or marked them as read). That was annoying, but tolerable.
In the past week, however, I am not getting the badge at all, causing me to have to scan all folders for incoming mail.
I don't use the distro build. It is installed for support.
In my 68.3.0, I disabled the native notification by going to Preferences > Advanced, clicked the "Config Editor" button, dismissed the warning, searched for the word biff, toggled mail.biff.use_system_alert to false.
Now I get an alert with the number of emails and clickable messages that I can use to go right to that message in Thunderbird.
Native Linux notifications for email are crap. IMHO.
I have Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS Gnome with the Ubuntu build of Thunderbird 68.2.1 and also don't have the red badge. I get the native Linux notification.
I have Linux Mint 19.2 Cinnamon with the Ubuntu build of Thunderbird 68.2.1. The icon in the dock is completely different and never showed the number of new emails.
I'm sure other distros and desktops are also different.
I think this is more a Ubuntu Gnome bug and should be brought up on Launchpad.
There is a bug asking for a persistent notification.
Well, I'll try at Launchpad. However, given the fact that I've updated the Thunderbird package via Software Update multiple times since the last OS upgrade, I doubt that Thunderbird is entirely off the hook.
Thunderbird is in the process of converting over to web extensions. The Ubuntu developer of that extension probably didn't want to bother.
Thank you very much.
Jim Keenan
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Comment 4•6 years ago
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The messagingmenu addon that enabled integration with Gnome messaging systray was not updated to support WebExtension API which Thunderbird 68+ new requires. The details may be found here: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1599924
The Thunderbird addon developers are not going to consider updating the messagingmenu addon: https://thunderbird.topicbox.com/groups/addons/T67d58466f3ab58c2/messaging-menu-and-unity-launcher-integration-broken-in-68-2-1
I have not yet filed a report with the Ubuntu bug tracker. Honestly, I have little hope that Canonical would look into this issue. One day when I have some spare time I might take a stab at porting the messagingmenu addon to WebExtension API, but this is probably not going to happen soon.
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Comment 5•6 years ago
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AFAIK The Thunderbird developers never had anything to do with that extension and the extensions developer never hosted it on ATN or AMO and it only works in Unity. Maybe Gnome. I would have to boot up a LiveCD/USB and test.
Thanks for pointing out bug 1599924. I think this one could be resolved as a duplicate.
Also thanks for considering taking a stab at porting it.
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