Error when clicking mailto link: "Thunderbird is already running, but is not responding. To open a new window, you must first close the existing Thunderbird process, or restart your system." (linux?)
Categories
(Thunderbird :: OS Integration, defect)
Tracking
(Not tracked)
People
(Reporter: komputes, Unassigned)
References
()
Details
Attachments
(1 obsolete file)
Comment 1•14 years ago
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Comment 3•13 years ago
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Comment 4•13 years ago
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Comment 8•9 years ago
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Comment 9•5 years ago
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Is this really linux only? (not according to comment 7)
Comment 10•5 years ago
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(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk) from comment #9)
Is this really linux only? (not according to comment 7)
I can confirm this also occurs on Windows (10) with Thunderbird 60.8.0 (without -no-remote) when running Firefox with -no-remote (to use two Firefox profiles simultaneously).
Comment 11•5 years ago
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Martin beat me to it.
Seems to be a cross platform problem, and I can confirm that it happens when using -no-remote on Win10 and Pop_OS! 19.04 on TB 60.8
Could the issue really be in Firefox as it is the common denominator?
Comment 12•5 years ago
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(In reply to Brian Vanderburg from comment #8)
I create custom .desktop files that execute
"firefox -P <default|empty> -new-instance %U"
I don't create custom .desktop file with -new-instance
for FF but still get the "already running error" when trying to open "mailto:" links while TB is open.
How is that?
Comment 13•5 years ago
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- If I run it with
firefox
command, which is a script, I get the "already running error" onmailto:
links problem - If I run it with
/usr/lib64/firefox/firefox
, which is a binary - no problem
Comment 14•5 years ago
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I have no idea whether some of the old, old comments in this bug report are still relevant or not, but there was no mailto problem between Firefox and Thunderbird in Fedora 29, or any earlier Fedora release in recent years that I can recall. I first saw this symptom in Fedora 31, which currently has Firefox 75.0 (64-bit) and Thunderbird 68.7 (64-bit). It does not occur when Chrome is the browser and Thunderbird the default email client.
It is unclear whether the recent visibility of this symlptom is caused by underlying changes in Fedora 31, Thunderbird, or Firefox, but since the error only occurs when both Firefox and Thunderbird are involved, that points the finger at one or both of those applications. From the users viewpoint, these are two independent applications. Whatever status information or internal support that Firefox and Thunderbird are sharing that causes this problem, they obviously shouldn't be sharing. It should be irrelevant to Firefox's external behavior whether Thunderbird is the default email client, and irrelevant to Thunderbird external behavior whether it receives a mailto request from Firefox or some other browser.
This defect is a major annoyance, as I frequently use web sites with mailto links, and Firefox and Thunderbird are my preferred applications for browsing and email.
Comment 15•3 years ago
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I had no problem like this until Ubuntu 21.04 (which I upgraded to lately).
Clicking on mailto-links in Firefox result in the error message by Thunderbird "TB already running..."
I have FF 88.0 and TB 78.8.1 - system is 64 Bit.
I recently had a problem (since the aforementioned upgrade) with Firefox not able to open tabs or windows when clicking on a link in an email (in TB), but today it was gone. Maybe as a result of an update I received yesterday?
Comment 16•3 years ago
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I hav a question on this case. Why does this "Already running" dialog even exist?
In my opinion Thunderbird should all time automatic open the existing application. I do not know any other application with this nonsense Dialogs. What user would be interested in such a detail if the app already run or not. In all cases a normal user inter act with thunderbird I personally know no situation where this error shows a good information.
- If the Thunderbird app already run do something in thunderbird.
- If thunderbird do not run start it and than do something in tunderbird.
- If there is a case that Thunderbird do not react on a call say something like:
"Thunderbird do not answer. Should I kill it and start a new one. If you wish check yourself leaf this dialog open. It will disappear the moment thunderbird do answer."
Comment 17•3 years ago
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Similar reports https://mzl.la/3J81rqF
Comment 18•2 years ago
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I have this problem in Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS with Thunderbird 91.11.0 and am shocked to see that this bug has persisted for 12 years.
Updated•2 years ago
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Comment 20•2 years ago
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Same problem here on Fedora. Please let me know when this is fixed
Comment 21•2 years ago
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I reported first seeing this problem three years ago after upgrading to Fedora 31 with Firefox 75.0 and Thunderbird 68.7; but at some point, for sure by Fedora 35, the problem for me had disappeared. I just assumed they had fixed it, either intentionally are as a side effect of some other change.
I'm currently on Fedora 37 with Firefox 109.0.0 and Thunderbird 102.7.1 and haven't seen the problem re-occur after installing Fedora 35. If you are on Fedora 35 or later and seeing this problem, it has to be something perhaps unique to your system, like some combination of configuration or account settings, or a timing issue that is affected by hardware speed, etc. It definitely doesn't affect all users of Fedora, which makes it a difficult to fix if the conditions to make it occur on other systems are unknown.
Comment 22•1 year ago
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I can confirm the same bug, using Librewolf Flatpak and clicking on a mailto link.
Thunderbird latest Flatpak from Flathub
--- Software ---
OS: Fedora Linux 38.20230814.0 (Kinoite)
KDE Plasma: 5.27.6
KDE Frameworks: 5.108.0
Qt: 5.15.10
Kernel: 6.4.10-200.fc38.x86_64
Compositor: wayland
Comment 23•1 year ago
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(In reply to Mannshoch from comment #16)
I hav a question on this case. Why does this "Already running" dialog even exist?
In my opinion Thunderbird should all time automatic open the existing application. I do not know any other application with this nonsense Dialogs. What user would be interested in such a detail if the app already run or not. In all cases a normal user inter act with thunderbird I personally know no situation where this error shows a good information.
- If the Thunderbird app already run do something in thunderbird.
- If thunderbird do not run start it and than do something in tunderbird.
- If there is a case that Thunderbird do not react on a call say something like:
"Thunderbird do not answer. Should I kill it and start a new one. If you wish check yourself leaf this dialog open. It will disappear the moment thunderbird do answer."
Firefox has the same dialog, but normally only when its not responding. Thunderbird is the only app that has this dialog and I agree its totally useless as its not meant to be ran with multiple windows (even though possible, for example "thunderbird -p")
Comment 24•1 year ago
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(In reply to Brian Vanderburg from comment #8)
I'm running Debian Jessie and I seem to have the problem as well.
First, I have two main Firefox profiles, "default" and "empty". Empty has
few extensions while default is my fully loaded profile. In order to be
able to easily run them, I create custom .desktop files that execute
"firefox -P <default|empty> -new-instance %U" If I don't use the
"-new-instance" (or "-no-remote"), and I decided I want to run the empty
profile but the default is already running or vice versa, I get the "already
running error".It seems, when I create a shell script to execute "xterm" and set it as the
mail application in Firefox, I get a bunch of MOZ_ environment variables. I
played around with un-setting the variables before running Thunderbird. It
just so happens that, at least for me, if I unset a variable
"MOZ_NEW_INSTANCE" then it seems to work. To verify I start Thunderbird and
then open a terminal without any MOZ_VARIABLES and execute "thunderbird
mailto:tmp@dummy.com". Everything works. If I then execute
"MOZ_NEW_INSTANCE=1 thunderbird mailto:tmp@dummy.com" I get the "already
running" error.So it seems that what is happening, at least for me, is when I run Firefox
with -new-instance, it sets an environment variable that is in turn passed
to child processes. When I click on an email link it launches Thunderbird,
but that environment variable is set and Thunderbird tries to start a new
instance. The same seems to happen if I use -no-remote instead, it just
sets a variable MOZ_NO_REMOTE=1I create the following script and set it as the mail handler for the time
being.#!/bin/sh env -u MOZ_NEW_INSTANCE -u MOZ_NO_REMOTE thunderbird "$@"
Currently there is no way around "-no-remote" or "-new-instance" with
Firefox it seems. If I launch one profile, and wish to launch another
profile, then it will complain unless I use one or the other. Ideally,
there should be a way to launch multiple profiles, but to have "remote"
features with both, either designating one as the default to receive remote
commands or a chooser to list available instances to receive remote
commands. For now, the shell script to remove the environment variables
seems to help.
This is great, this would be the flatpak version
#!/bin/bash
env -u MOZ_NEW_INSTANCE -u MOZ_NO_REMOTE flatpak run --branch=stable --command=thunderbird org.mozilla.Thunderbird
but how to set as a handler?
This is a test: testlink-to-email
Comment 25•1 year ago
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Okay tried it: created a new desktop entry linking to that script, in KDE set it as Mail program, in Librewolf set mailto to "open with system handler", still the exact same result
Updated•7 months ago
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Comment 27•5 months ago
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In Windows, delete the entry in Windows Environment:
In Windows Settings, search for environment | Choose "Edit system environment variables"
Select "Environment Variables" and under "System Variables," DELETE the environment variable MOZ_NO_REMOTE
It doesn't matter whether the variable value is set to 0 or to 1 — the mere presence of the variable appears to cause this problem, including if you try to send an email from Thunderbird from any browser.
Comment 28•1 day ago
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I have the same issue since a little while under Fedora 40, and I'm not the only one according to https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1463519 but I don't seem to have the environment variables reported here (I created a dummy script which saves its environment variables in a file and set it as mailto handler in Firefox:
MOZ_GRE_CONF=/etc/gre.d/gre64.conf
MOZ_CRASHREPORTER_STRINGS_OVERRIDE=/usr/lib64/firefox/browser/crashreporter-override.ini
MOZ_CRASHREPORTER_DATA_DIRECTORY=/home/ericl/.mozilla/firefox/Crash Reports
MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME=/usr/lib64/firefox
MOZ_DBUS_APP_NAME=firefox
MOZ_LAUNCHED_CHILD=
MOZ_CRASHREPORTER_PING_DIRECTORY=/home/ericl/.mozilla/firefox/Pending Pings
MOZ_ALLOW_DOWNGRADE=1
MOZ_APP_SILENT_START=
MOZ_CRASHREPORTER_RESTART_ARG_1=
MOZ_GMP_PATH=/usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins/gmp-gmpopenh264/system-installed
MOZ_ASSUME_USER_NS=1
MOZ_APP_LAUNCHER=/usr/bin/firefox
MOZ_CRASHREPORTER_EVENTS_DIRECTORY=/home/ericl/.mozilla/firefox/rkvgmvr5.default-release/crashes/events
MOZ_USE_XINPUT2=1
MOZ_APP_REMOTINGNAME=org.mozilla.firefox
MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH=/usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins:/usr/lib64/firefox/plugins
If I create a wrapper script and unset alll these variables, then thunderbird starts properly, something like:
#!/usr/bin/bash
for var in $(env | sed -n -e '/^MOZ/ s/=.*//p')
do
unset "${var}"
done
exec thunderbird "$@"
Description
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