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

Open thunderbird with main tab only

  • 4 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 66 views
  • Last reply by jnoreman

more options

In trying to move several THOUSAND emails from one email account (which will be shut off) to another, after we selected all emails in the old account, we inadvertently we must have asked Thunderbird to open all of those emails. I have manually tried to close these tabs (either using the x in each tab, or Ctrl-W). Nonetheless, Thunderbird is slow as molasses with this crazy number of tabs open. Is there a way to reset Thunderbird without any of these tabs open, just the main mail window? Right-clicking to close other open tabs does not respond, so I need to know how to actually open Thunderbird with just the default tab opening and now other. Thank you.

In trying to move several THOUSAND emails from one email account (which will be shut off) to another, after we selected all emails in the old account, we inadvertently we must have asked Thunderbird to open all of those emails. I have manually tried to close these tabs (either using the x in each tab, or Ctrl-W). Nonetheless, Thunderbird is slow as molasses with this crazy number of tabs open. Is there a way to reset Thunderbird without any of these tabs open, just the main mail window? Right-clicking to close other open tabs does not respond, so I need to know how to actually open Thunderbird with just the default tab opening and now other. Thank you.

Chosen solution

jnoreman said

…right-clicking to close other open tabs does not respond…
How long did you wait? Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (4)

more options

Chosen Solution

jnoreman said

…right-clicking to close other open tabs does not respond…
How long did you wait?
more options

I waited over an hour...

more options

Yes, that sounds broke.

Close Thunderbird, open its profile and delete/move/rename the session.json file.

This file appears to store the display status; checking here, it recorded an open tab when I deliberately closed Thunderbird with a tab open.

I would suggest you don't delete the original file, just in case this process doesn't deliver the required outcome.

Information on the profile: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-thunderbird-stores-user-data

more options

Awesome. Thank you.