re :In the process, the images I've inserted into the e-mail often disappear

Can you offer a bit more info :)

How did you insert them? Did you drag and drop from a webpage? Website images may have remote content and you cannot guarantee that the website did not change the link image. You really should be wary of images with remote content and thunderbird blocks all remote content by default.

Are the images something you have saved on your computer? So you used the Insert > Image method and selected the image file located on your computer ?

What do you mean by 'disappear' ? Do you mean you can only see a black outlined box with a broken file icon in it?

Good questions!

The images reside on my hard drive, and I insert them with Insert > Image > Choose file...

And yes, when they disappear I still see the outlined box. Don't remember about the icon.

However, occasionally, instead of seeing the outlined box I see another image, once it was even one from an earlier e-mail.

Thank you,

Peter

When you insert the image Insert > Image > Choose file...

Select: 'attach this image to the message' Else it will only display a box and no image.

you could check this. Select the draft email with empty box and double click to open the Image Properties box.

That box is checked by default, and I always see the image at the point I insert it.

What happens is suddenly the images just disappear while I am editing. Or more often, all looks fine until I go to send it or save a draft. At that point it indefinitely tries to attach an image, and it's often one I can see in the e-mail.

I get out of being stuck at that point by deleting and re-inserting all the images.

Sorry, I should have given you all these details. Can't think of anything else I missed.

I thought maybe I was complicating things as I'll work on the e-mail a bit and insert some photos, then photoshop some more and add them.

This time I prepared all the photos ahead of time, so all I did was type and insert and type and insert... and eventually they disappear.

Sometimes all of them, once today just the first few. Actually in once case they visually disappeared; in the other I could still see them but when I hit Send it got stuck trying to attach them. I'd re-load the first one over itself, they try again. Then the next, until it went.

These images you edit in photoshop... what format are they saved in eg: jpeg  ? where do you save them after editing eg: in the Windows Picture folder.  ?

Do you have an anti-virus product scanning any folders in Thunderbird or scanning incoming and outgoing emails  ?

I save them to my hard drive as jpeg, i.e., .jpg.

Not the Pictures folder, just one I made.

Yes, I run Avast. I could turn off incoming e-mails and turn off Avast for a test.

Just had a thought, are you using an imap mail account ? What version of Thunderbird are you using?

If you are using an imap mail account, it sounds as if the img src details are changing when it is saved to the Drafts folder on the server.

If you do not have to save drafts to the imap drafts folder, could you please try saving them to the 'Local Folders' draft folder.

Right click on imap mail account in Folder Pane and select : 'Settings' Select 'Copies & Folders' for the imap mail account Keep message drafts in: Select: 'Drafts folder on' select 'Local Folders' click on OK

Retest the writing of email, saving to drafts, reopening, editing etc and sending.

Please post back results.

Hello again,

I have no idea what an imap mail account is. If I'm using one, I don't know it. I'm just using default Thunderbird, and it has a default Drafts folder.

However, and perhaps this is the problem, I don't ever use the drafts it automatically saves to that folder. When I am done working on my e-mail for the time, I send it to myself. Then when I want to continue, I start with the copy I sent myself and type Ctrl-E to continue.

I do this so that I can see how it is looking with several e-mail clients, for example I look at my progress to date in gmail.

My word-around is to work on a section at a time, then just delete the images. When the entire project is complete, I insert all the images again and send it.

I can continue to do that.

Peter

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.... had to shorten this

Thanks for the info. I can confirm that you are actually using POP.

However, and perhaps this is the problem, I don't ever use the drafts it automatically saves to that folder.

The point of the 'Drafts' folder is to store unsent work in progress emails. 'File' > 'Save as' > 'Draft'

When I am done working on my e-mail for the time, I send it to myself. Then when I want to continue, I start with the copy I sent myself and type Ctrl-E to continue. Once you have sent the email, then the draft copy should be deleted as it is assumed you completed the email and you would have a copy in the 'Sent' folder, so could use that.

I do this so that I can see how it is looking with several e-mail clients, I can see how you are thinking, but it is not worth the effort. Why ? Because you have no idea what their email client set up is and perhaps you have do not know what OS they are using. Perhaps you use a font which they do not have or if emails are viewd in Plain Text, then all those images are removed from the content and displayed as attachments anyway. Everyone can set up their email client to display as they wish and not necessarilly as the sender intended.

For example: I do not like multi coloured text, so I have it set to alter all incoming text to a specific colour. I also like tables to be central and not set to one side, so I have tweaked settings to do as I would like and not necessarilly as the sender sent it. I do not allow attachments to be auto displayed. I could go on, but the point is, what you see cannot be guaranteed to be seen exactly the same by others.

If you are sending something with a lot of images, it would be better to attach them instead of embedding them in the content. This makes it easier for the recipient to save them or detach them from the email.

I believe your images disappearing issue may be related to AVAST. Please stop AVAST from scanning your Thunderbird folders and stop scanning incoming and outgoing mail. Also make an exception in AVAST for the nsemail.html file in your computers temp folder.

• https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird:Testing:Antivirus_Related_Performance_Issues#AVAST

More info on AVAST: Avast might be adding a footer to your emails. You can stop this: http://www.getavast.net/support/remove-e-mail-signature

Thanks so much.

Peter

Hello,

I'd marked this solved because I thought I'd beat the problem to death, and the suggestions were getting over my head.

Then I got to thinking that it just seemed to happen at random times, and I thought of Auto Save.

I turned off Auto Save of drafts and the problem completely went away. I can now edit e-mails endlessly and never lose any images. When I want to stop working for a time, I just Send it to myself. Then when I want to work on it again, I open it and do a Ctrl E to continue.

Thanks, Peter