Open Bug 429943 Opened 18 years ago Updated 3 years ago

Thunderbird will not use printer default; Firefox will use printer default

Categories

(MailNews Core :: Printing, defect)

Product:
MailNews Core
Component:
Printing
Platform:
x86
Windows XP
Type:
defect

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
REOPENED

People

(Reporter: raleigh2112, Unassigned)

References

Details

User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.14) Gecko/20080404 Firefox/2.0.0.14 Build Identifier: Thunderbird 2.0.0.12 and Firefox 2.0.0.14 had HP Deskjet 5940 installed; installed HP Officejet jetL7590 and set as default using Printers and Faxes; Word, Firefox, etc. all honor new default, but Thunderbird does not and continues to use my 5940 Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1.set up printer job on Thunderbird 2.print job 3. Actual Results: Thunderbird always ignores default printer and uses prior (and only printer) Expected Results: I wanted Thunderbird to use default printer - L7590 and not 5940
Does resetting the print.print_printer preference fix the problem?
Reproduce on TB/2008052503-trunk/WinXP. -> NEW (In reply to comment #1) > Does resetting the print.print_printer preference fix the problem? Yes. However, do not change last selected printer. Fx do it. It is toolkit problem?
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Ever confirmed: true
I think this is the same problem I noticed. I'm using Win XP Pro with TB 2.0.0.16 I got a new printer and installed it and set it up as my default printer. It works fine, except when I print from Thunderbird... TB wants to always use my old default printer (which is no longer attached), so I have to manually pick the new printer everytime I want to print from TB. You mention something above about resetting print.print_printer, but that is completely meaningless to me... can somebidy explain how to do that? Thanks
I found how to reset print.print_printer in the support forums for anybody else interested: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=39&p=4271345
can you try an early release and comment if it's fixed there? http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/early_releases/
Resetting "print.print_printer" does resolve the default printer not being selected issue. If this settings isn't supposed to get set permanently, then perhaps ensure that the application will check to make sure this preference setting is cleared upon closing and if not, clear it.
Flags: wanted-thunderbird3?
Do you still see this in version 3.1? Bug 600105 - Default Printer not selected - claims this happens. Bug 498436 - Thunderbird ignores default system printer as well as attempt to change the printer - claims the opposite
Component: General → Printing
Product: Thunderbird → MailNews Core
QA Contact: general → printing
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.17) Gecko/20110414 Thunderbird/3.1.10 OS: Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 I can confirm this is still present. I changed the default printer to a virtual printer, which was PDFCreator. I opened Thunderbird and selected and e-mail for printing. When the print dialog came up, it still has my old printer selected, instead of the new default printer, which should have been PDFCCreator for this test case.
I can't reproduce this in win7 pro with 3.3a4pre. I wonder if Scott and Rob will be able to reproduce this with 3.3 beta when it comes out in a week or two? <hint>
cannot reproduce with : Shredder-20110618/WinVista, WinXP Miramar-20110618/WinVista
Baffcan is not rob - but going to mark this WFM. Rob please let us know if you still have the issue.
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 14 years ago
Resolution: --- → WORKSFORME
Problem is still there. Thunderbird 6.02 and Vista SP1. There are two physical printers (one of them is a network printer - Canon ImageRunner and the other is an HP Officejet 6000) and PDFCreator. No matter what I do with Thunderbird config editor, printer is defaulted to PDFCreator.
Status: RESOLVED → REOPENED
Resolution: WORKSFORME → ---
I can confirm this is still present in Thunderbird 9.0.1 Once again, I changed the default printer to a virtual printer, which was PDFCreator. I opened Thunderbird and selected an e-mail for printing. When the print dialog came up, it still has my old printer selected, instead of the new default printer, which should have been PDFCCreator for this test case.
I can also confirm that I have this bug on one PC in Thunderbird 9.0.1. I have reset the print.print-printer and it will still print to the non-default printer.
Reset of print.print-printer works for me on TB14 Win7. Before reset I had to wait 10 seconds before the print menu opened; now it is almost instant.
The Windows 7 (64bit) default printer is not preselected in the printer dialog box. Thunderbird v17 Steps to Reproduce: 1. Display message. 2. Choose PRINT 3. Default printer not selected. Tried toggling adding and removing printers, same result. Tried resetting print.printer_printer same result. Notably print.print_printer showed the correct default printer. MSO applications show the correct default printer. Mozilla Firefox default to last selected printer.
I can confirm that this still happens with TB v. 17.0.3 in Windows 8 (64bit). Thunderbird refuses to "follow" the system default printer. Resetting print_printer works, but is a kludge rather than a fix. I can also confirm the issue does not occur in Firefox 19.0. This but has apparently been going on since TB 2.0. Is it this difficult to resolve?
This continues to be an issue. Someone said the problem would be corrected when a new version was available. I recently got version 24.1.1 and the problem continues to persist, i.e., Thunderbird doesn't use the currently set default printer. I tried the reset printer cure noted on the previous version and it didn't help. I'm not having any problems with any of my other software selecting the default printer as the correct printer to use.
This dates from *2008* and such a critical usability thing is *STILL* not fixed? I can confirm the continued issue in "Ice Dove" 17.0.9 on Linux, so it is not just Windows. Except, additionally, editing print_printer in the configurations does no good. This does not say good things about code quality.
P.S. looking into /etc/icedove/config and /usr/lib/icedove/defaults and ~/.icedove/ls*.default/prefs.js does no good either. After removing all references to HP-FAX and restarting, HP-FAX is back in my home "preferences" and is selected as my preferred printer. *ALL* other applications use the correct default. It is *ONLY* t-bird that selects the FAX.
This might be some other problem, but since the update to 24.4 (running Vista; HP laptop) when my laptop comes out of Sleep, it very often thinks it's supposed to print something and gives one of two error notices. I haven't figured out just what conditions cause this and I'm not even sure it's Tbird, but the coincidence of the update seems important. One error ends with "Do you want to install a printer now?" which is what I see if I click Print in the File menu (I don't have a printer). I don't recall the other but it's shorter. If I put the laptop in Sleep, wait a minute then start it up again, I cannot get this symptom. It may have to do with how I've been browsing with Firefox or Chrome, or maybe with new emails coming in to Tbird. I also have Notepad open sometimes and the Task Manager.
Here's a workaround that can lead to a persistent solution (very useful if you change your default printer frequently): http://blog.onireon.it/thunderbird-ignores-system-default-printer-double-solution-use-configuration-editor-or-create-userjs-makes-it-persistent/ Nerdy cheers. The O.
Confirmed that it still was a problem with Thunderbird 31.2.0 on Windows 7 64bit. The setting 'print.print-printer' was set to the correct default, while 'print-printer' (note the missing prefix) was not. Solved by setting 'print-printer' to "", then the default printer showed up as expected.
Win 7 Thunderbird 31.3.0 has had this problem for a couple weeks. Resetting printer defaults in control panel and restarting Windows and Thunderbird it seems to be fixed. Tbird now goes to my default printer.
Win 7Pro x64 TB 31.4.0 and Win 8.1 TB 31.4.0 shows the same problems. Edition print_printer variable manual an restarting TB fixes the problem at the moment
I tried to reproduce this with my setup (Windows 8.1 running days old TB 38) and could not. Looking at the code, it has hardly changed, so I don't think this is dependent on my recent version. Looking at the print code, this is largely shared with Firefox. There are a number of obscure print options that I have no experience with that affects whether print_printer is saved after use or not. Lightning seems to mess with these a little, there is a chance whatever users are seeing is related to Lightning. I suspect that this bug is actually either a documentation problem or an addon issue. That is, the code is probably working correctly, but something or someone is setting an obscure print option that is causing unexpected behavior. To make progress, someone needs to understand the print options, and particularly how and why nsIPrintSettings::kInitSavePrinterName gets set which seems to control this. Then see if particular users have these options set that explains the behavior they are seeing.
Windows 7 Professional X64. Thunderbird 31.5.0 Confirmed that the system default printer setting is being ignored. Thunderbird consistently selects the last printer in the drop-down list.
See Also: → 719341
tb 38.2.0 Win xp sp6 Regression: I want: use last printer that I selected from TB. I get: always system default printer. print.print_printer pref is set to the printer I want, but TB ignores it. Resetting it to that printer does not help. This is essentially the same issue as bug719341 mentioned above.
(In reply to swype44 from comment #27) > Windows 7 Professional X64. Thunderbird 31.5.0 > Confirmed that the system default printer setting is being ignored. > Thunderbird consistently selects the last printer in the drop-down list. In my case (38.2.0), it does not select the last printer in the list but rather the system default, which is in the middle of the list somewhere.
Severity: minor → S4
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