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Thunderbird Inserting Unnecessary Line Breaks

  • 9 cavab
  • 2 have this problem
  • 311 views
  • Last reply by sfhowes

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After an extraordinary amount of testing, I can conclude that Thunderbird is placing linebreaks inappropriately in emails sent from Thunderbird.

In other forum posts, I saw these described as "soft" line breaks that email clients could ignore, but in my testing, Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook/Office 365 all display these false line breaks (in both webmail and mobile apps). In fact, the only email clients that did not display these false line breaks were Outlook 2016 (Windows 10) and Thunderbird (Windows/macOS).

The issue is that Thunderbird is inserting these line breaks where the line changes in the view of the composer. This is an arbitrary line that really serves no obvious purpose, given the thousands of possible variations in screen sizes on mobile or desktop?

Toggling between sending in HTML or plain text seems to not have an impact in resolving this issue, and neither does switching between "Paragraph" or "Body Text" modes.

Example images are attached of how this looks.

Any hope for a resolution on this issue? (via Extension or correction by the developers?)

After an extraordinary amount of testing, I can conclude that Thunderbird is placing linebreaks inappropriately in emails sent from Thunderbird. In other forum posts, I saw these described as "soft" line breaks that email clients could ignore, but in my testing, Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook/Office 365 all display these false line breaks (in both webmail and mobile apps). In fact, the only email clients that did not display these false line breaks were Outlook 2016 (Windows 10) and Thunderbird (Windows/macOS). The issue is that Thunderbird is inserting these line breaks where the line changes in the view of the composer. This is an arbitrary line that really serves no obvious purpose, given the thousands of possible variations in screen sizes on mobile or desktop? Toggling between sending in HTML or plain text seems to not have an impact in resolving this issue, and neither does switching between "Paragraph" or "Body Text" modes. Example images are attached of how this looks. Any hope for a resolution on this issue? (via Extension or correction by the developers?)
Attached screenshots

Chosen solution

Set mailnews.wraplength to 0 (zero) in Options/General/Config. editor to wrap plain text messages to the window width and then see how they look to recipients.

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All Replies (10)

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Seçilmiş Həll

Set mailnews.wraplength to 0 (zero) in Options/General/Config. editor to wrap plain text messages to the window width and then see how they look to recipients.

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Hi sfhowes: I have the same unnecessary lines/page breaks in TB Version 68 BUT - I can't find the 'mailnews.wraplength' SETTING in the 'Options/General/Config. editor' to make the wraplength-value to 0: are you sure you have stated the correct place to make this adjustment ...?!?

- ALSO: would you know if there is a setting in TB to change the frequency of new version 'Update' notifications - I'm getting this Firefox notifications every 10 seconds and this drives me crazy ...! In advance - thanks for any help. Tony H.

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The mailnews.wraplength preference has been in Config. editor for years (see picture). Did you open Config. editor?

I don't know why you get a Firefox notification about updating TB. Do you have a security program that has a software updating component?

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Hi: sfhowes:...and many thanks for your reply ...! I'll try to answer all your questions first: - I have tried many times to find the 'mailnews.wraplength' preference in Config. editor to adjust it to '0' but it's NOT there (!) - please keep in mind that I have TB version 68.12.1 (32-bit) installed

- re the constant Firefox notification about updating TB: I've tried to find the 'Updating'-notifications of ALL Programs and have TURNED them off - EXCEPT the 'Windows Program Updates Program - but it did NOT help(!) ...any other suggestions to check?

- I'm still trying to recover the bookmarks & news & other original settings from my original TB Ver 68 (see my previous postings and your great advice at this list!), and I would like to ask you for a follow-up advice in trying this recovery - and like to ask you the following: 1) While desperately searching for the specific Profile with the lost data, I have found that I made in the past some 68-version back-up files of the bookmarks, news, etc. USING the TB Back-up .CSV-text files 'Export' Option: if they could be 'Imported' back into this 68-downgraded version - how to do it ...? I've asked this question many times but NOBODY seems to know how to correctly use these 'Back-up' files, and it's nowhere in any of the TB-guidelines described ...!

2) ALSO: as I've posted before, I've definitely successfully Upgraded from TB Ver 68 to 78 WITHOUT the loss of the data above BUT - I did NOT like the visual & other changes of the 78-Upgrade and that's why I've decided to downgrade back to the original TB 68 version and my question is: the 78-Upgrade version still MUST BE somewhere in my PC, right (?) so - would you know in what specific Folder to FIND it and how to properly re-install it ...IF I DON'T succeed in recovering the lost 68-version data by using the 'Back-up .CSV-text files' mentioned above under 1) ...?

In advance - many thanks again for your further help. Tony H.

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thorsak said

Hi: sfhowes:...and many thanks for your reply ...! I'll try to answer all your questions first: - I have tried many times to find the 'mailnews.wraplength' preference in Config. editor to adjust it to '0' but it's NOT there (!) - please keep in mind that I have TB version 68.12.1 (32-bit) installed

If the pref. isn't there, right-click in Config. editor, New, Integer, name the pref. and give it the value 0.

- re the constant Firefox notification about updating TB: I've tried to find the 'Updating'-notifications of ALL Programs and have TURNED them off - EXCEPT the 'Windows Program Updates Program - but it did NOT help(!) ...any other suggestions to check?

Firefox notifications are totally separate from TB notifications. If you aren't going to update from 68 to 78, I suggest you just ignore them as these are the least of your problems.

- I'm still trying to recover the bookmarks & news & other original settings from my original TB Ver 68 (see my previous postings and your great advice at this list!), and I would like to ask you for a follow-up advice in trying this recovery - and like to ask you the following: 1) While desperately searching for the specific Profile with the lost data, I have found that I made in the past some 68-version back-up files of the bookmarks, news, etc. USING the TB Back-up .CSV-text files 'Export' Option: if they could be 'Imported' back into this 68-downgraded version - how to do it ...? I've asked this question many times but NOBODY seems to know how to correctly use these 'Back-up' files, and it's nowhere in any of the TB-guidelines described ...!

No idea why you're referring to bookmarks with TB; they are a Firefox quantity. Also, don't know anything about TB Back-up to csv; only TB address books can be exported as csv and they can be imported from Tools/Import.

2) ALSO: as I've posted before, I've definitely successfully Upgraded from TB Ver 68 to 78 WITHOUT the loss of the data above BUT - I did NOT like the visual & other changes of the 78-Upgrade and that's why I've decided to downgrade back to the original TB 68 version and my question is: the 78-Upgrade version still MUST BE somewhere in my PC, right (?) so - would you know in what specific Folder to FIND it and how to properly re-install it ...IF I DON'T succeed in recovering the lost 68-version data by using the 'Back-up .CSV-text files' mentioned above under 1) ...?

You might have multiple TB programs in ...\Program Files (x86) and ..\Program Files. Uninstall the unwanted versions or just delete the installation folder.

In advance - many thanks again for your further help. Tony H.
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Hi: sfhowes: ...and many thanks for your prompt reply ...!

- I'll try your suggestion how to adjust the 'wrap-length' problem in TB and let you know about it ... - re the CONSTANTLY-BOTHERING Firefox Update-reminder notifications: I'm sorry I've mixed up the Firefox with TB-reference - you're right, it is the FIREFOX Updating which I seem not to be able to control in anyway ...isn't there somewhere in Firefox 'hidden' way of controlling it to a more reasonable degree, do you know? Most of such notifications can be controlled in majority of Programs ... - re the TB Back-up .CSV-text files 'Export' Option: I found this feature in TB, and I 'tried to open them and they contained bookmarks & some other useful info missing before the 'degrading' ver 78-to-68 process ...I'm a little bit surprised that the usage of these 'Back-up .CSV-text files' are NOT more known which might be very helpful to a lot of people who were posting missing-files after degrading process of various versions, and I would greatly appreciate if you could check with your fellows-experts about more guidelines/info how they could be correctly used in such trouble-shooting situations ... In advance - thanks for your further advice/info, Tony H.

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The only way to export mail in csv format, that I'm aware of, is with the ImportExportTools NG add-on. That may be useful for viewing a message set in a spreadsheet, but I don't think it offers any way to import back to TB. Exporting to eml or mbox format is the usual way to make backups that can be re-imported.

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Hi sfhowes: ...and many thanks for your quick response - you are a great communicator ...where are you located?

Thanks for further info re the TB Back-up .CSV-text files 'Export': do you have more information re your statement 'Exporting to eml or mbox format is the usual way to make backups that can be re-imported'...like: how effective is the re-importing in the 'eml or mbox' format into the TB - and if yes, would then the bookmarks & other re-imported data from my 'degraded' 78-Ver-back to 68' work correctly within the TB (have ver 68.12.1, 32-bit) ...? Tony H.

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Eml or mbox files can be imported from a backup profile folder, either manually or with the IET NG add-on. This works across all versions of TB.

There is a semi-obsolete article here: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Importing_folders

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This is driving me up the wall to have TB suddenly produce this kind of fragmented copy.

I fought my way to 'mailnews.wraplength' and found it set at '0' so it doesn't cause the problem. Cannot find a cause or how to fix it. Not long ago, fragmentation came out of the blue... and went away in a couple of weeks. This time it's sticking around.

If I reinstall TB and save 20+ years worth of date with MozBackup, could that handle the problem? Please help. Thank you, [email]@Gmail.com

Modified by Andrew