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mailto not working

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since my drive died and I did a new install of windows10 I can not get mailto: in any browser to open an email window in thunderbird when thunderbird is already running. If I set any other program as default for mail in windows settings then a mailto: link will open that program. If I set thunderbird as default and thunderbird is not running then I get a new email window exactly as it should. If thunderbird is already running (24 hours a day on my pc) then nothing at all happens. After installing thunderbird on my new drive, I copied the whole thunderbird folder at users\me\appdata\roaming\thunderbird from my backup. Could this have caused the problem. How do I fix it ? Cheers

since my drive died and I did a new install of windows10 I can not get mailto: in any browser to open an email window in thunderbird when thunderbird is already running. If I set any other program as default for mail in windows settings then a mailto: link will open that program. If I set thunderbird as default and thunderbird is not running then I get a new email window exactly as it should. If thunderbird is already running (24 hours a day on my pc) then nothing at all happens. After installing thunderbird on my new drive, I copied the whole thunderbird folder at users\me\appdata\roaming\thunderbird from my backup. Could this have caused the problem. How do I fix it ? Cheers

All Replies (3)

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ps, I am up to date with v78.10.0

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I have the same problem as above, however I have had no problems with this PC or my HD. I just noticed that all of a sudden clicking on a mailto link in any browser will not cause Thunderbird, v. 78.12.0 (64-bit) set as default in Settings > Apps > Default Apps and by File Type, Protocol and by App, to open a blank message. I have tried with all add-ons disabled with no change. I temporarily changed my default to Outlook Express and the same links worked flawlessly. Changing back resulted in the same failure. It appears to have been broken by a recent update.

07/19/2021 Added Info. If Thunderbird is not running, the mailto links will open a new compose email instance. If Thunderbird IS open and running, it will not open a new compose email instance. Tested across multiple browsers with the same results.

Modified by Gene

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Similar problem. Thunderbird is my default mail client. If a message containing a mailto link is opened in Thunderbird and then the link is clicked on, Thunderbird does not open a write window. However, if the message is opened in Outlook and the link is clicked, a Thunderbird write window is opened.