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Thunderbird 78.9.1 under Win 10; suddenly noticed there's no clickable "send" or address lists on outgoing email creation window

  • 10 replies
  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by car-nuts

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I am a very long-time user of Thunderbird (and have been using it under Win 10 for several years) I do not know when my Thunderbird updated to 78.9.1

Encountering a weird problem today with Thunderbird when I try to create an outgoing email...

If I click the "Address Book" tab, all my saved addressees are intact, so that function is normal. If I click the "Write" icon (or "Reply" button when I am viewing a received email), I get a window (sample image uploaded) that has no email addressees from my address book to choose from, and even if I manually fill in an email addressee, there is no "send" button. Am I missing something obvious here?

If the recommended solution is to download and (re)install Thunderbird, will the (re)install keep all my old settings, emails, local folders, etc?

I am a very long-time user of Thunderbird (and have been using it under Win 10 for several years) I do not know ''when'' my Thunderbird updated to 78.9.1 Encountering a weird problem today with Thunderbird when I try to create an outgoing email... If I click the "Address Book" tab, all my saved addressees are intact, so that function is normal. If I click the "Write" icon (or "Reply" button when I am viewing a received email), I get a window (sample image uploaded) that has no email addressees from my address book to choose from, and even if I manually fill in an email addressee, there is no "send" button. Am I missing something obvious here? If the recommended solution is to download and (re)install Thunderbird, will the (re)install keep all my old settings, emails, local folders, etc?
Attached screenshots

Chosen solution

Actually, I seem to be OK now, I do now have the "File Edit View ..." etc menu at the top of the "Write any" window and the "Send Now" command on the pull-down "File" menu of the "Write" window, so I can send emails... maybe that's what I always had, previous to having problems yesterday (It's tough getting old, memory fails you). Sending an email was so automatic to me that I did it unconsciously, so perhaps I never had a "send" command on the top menu line of the "Write any" screen.

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All Replies (10)

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F9 to get your contacts sidebar back

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Appreciate the quick response...

That addresses part of the problem, indirectly (but why should I need to click F9, Thunderbird used to automatically append that contacts sidebar to the window of every email I composed; SFAIK I did nothing to lose the contacts sidebar or the send button so I am suspecting a Thunderbird update did the damage).

And, I still have no way to send the email I compose.

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Actually, now the contacts sidebar does appear when I start composing an email. but still no way to send the email.

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And now I see that the PF10 key adds a (temporary) command line menu to my email composition window, and if I click "File" on that menu, I get a temporary pull-down menu that includes the "Send" command. Is there a way to make that command line menu permanent/automatic, or to put a "Send" command on the "Write" window?

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Under View/Toolbars, enable the Composition Toolbar.

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Thanks for the reply, but I don't seem to have that option.

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Click View in the Write window, like your second picture, not the main window.

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Chosen Solution

Actually, I seem to be OK now, I do now have the "File Edit View ..." etc menu at the top of the "Write any" window and the "Send Now" command on the pull-down "File" menu of the "Write" window, so I can send emails... maybe that's what I always had, previous to having problems yesterday (It's tough getting old, memory fails you). Sending an email was so automatic to me that I did it unconsciously, so perhaps I never had a "send" command on the top menu line of the "Write any" screen.

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If you follow the instructions above, you should see a Send and other buttons, as in the attached picture. If you still can't enable the toolbars, Help/Restart with Add-ons disabled, check 'Reset toolbars & controls' at the safe mode prompt, then 'Make changes & restart'.

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Just looked again at sfhowes' reply, apparently sent while I was composing my last post. That was very helpful, all is well now.

Thanks!