This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

opening text messages in thunderbird mail

  • 11 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by david

more options

I have several people on my Thunderbird contacts list that I can send and receive t ext messages from. But i do not know how how to open them directly without Notepad or word pad. How do i open read it with out having to use word pad or note pad some times they come up as an attachment I would like to open directly with out having to rd in note pad or word pad how do i open that directly to read see attachment

I have several people on my Thunderbird contacts list that I can send and receive t ext messages from. But i do not know how how to open them directly without Notepad or word pad. How do i open read it with out having to use word pad or note pad some times they come up as an attachment I would like to open directly with out having to rd in note pad or word pad how do i open that directly to read see attachment
Attached screenshots

All Replies (11)

more options

Try setting View>Display Attachments Inline

more options

have it already

more options

Hi, Mary, I tried a test myself and it displays with that setting turned on. I also checked with the Thunderbird beta with similar results. I suspect that TB must be seeing something it's unsure of, possibly the difference between MMS and SMS. Your example shows MMS and my guess - and it's just a guess - is that this happens only when the incoming message is MMS. You can do a web search for ' sms vs mms' to get more info on the differences - mostly technical mumbo-jumbo, but there are differences.

more options

some are not mms some are just @ texts and still do not pen directly i have attachments in line checked for example i have this not mms or what ever one @txt.att.net> ans still does not open directly

have to use either not pad or  word pad is there any other way to get a direct open in email
more options

but yes some mms text @vtext.com> here is another one vtext

more options

i love thinderbird as opoosed to my Comcast direct email which thunderbird is attached to but i can never read the text messages directly

more options

there has to be a way in setting or comfig to get this

more options

Well, I just retested, using an SMS message and an MMS message. Both were immediately viewable. I am aware of no setting that does this. It even worked when view>display attachments inline was turned off. I do know that antivirus programs sometimes intervene during TB updates, but other than that I have no ideas.

more options

This may help: - click tools>preferences>general - scroll down to config editor button on lower right - type in mail.inline_attachments.text - if it is set FALSE, click to change to TRUE and save and exit. - I suggest clicking config editor a second time and typing the text in to confirm that it is set to TRUE. then close. - let me know if that worked.

more options

hopefully it dies work now will i see it come up automatically instated of going to note pad?

more options

I feel confident it will work. I had forgotten that extra step, as it was a long time ago that I had set it. Do let me know for sure when it works. And do keep View>display attachments inline switched on, although that may not be necessary.