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My incoming emails are displayed only in machine code -why?

  • 5 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 33 views
  • Last reply by pjtrevelyan

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A few months ago, Thunderbird started including machine code in messages I forwarded to friends. Since last week, all my incoming emails are only displayed in machine code and I have to open the message in a new window in order to read it. Why has this happened? How can I return the message display to normal?

A few months ago, Thunderbird started including machine code in messages I forwarded to friends. Since last week, all my incoming emails are only displayed in machine code and I have to open the message in a new window in order to read it. Why has this happened? How can I return the message display to normal?

Chosen solution

Well, that's what these forums are for.

There used to be a detailed listing of all the menu items, but I think it fell short of actually explaining what they did.

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In the main Thunderbird menu, check that you are set for

View|Headers|Normal

If it is set to "All", you will see a lot of technical stuff to do with message routing, and all of this is included if you forward or print a message.

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Zenos -very many thanks. Your solution worked. I don't recall ever clicking on "View, Headers" before so who the devil corrupted it? If only Thunderbird had a crib to tell us what all these options were for; so many of them mean absolutely nothing to the average computer user.

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Chosen Solution

Well, that's what these forums are for.

There used to be a detailed listing of all the menu items, but I think it fell short of actually explaining what they did.

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Additionally, I am of the belief that Thunderbird occasionally forgets settings and when it does, it reverts to the default. In this case, I think "All" is the somewhat unfortunate default.

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I'll try to remember that.