Your file is probably of to high a quality. Check the sample rate is 44100Hz or lower in your media player

I don't think that's it. Like I said, the .wav file plays fine when I hit the Play button in the Thunderbird Options window. It just doesn't want to play when new mail arrives. The same file used to work just fine with an earlier version of Thunderbird (and possibly an earlier version of Windows). It's a very simple and short .wav file of Radar (from M*A*S*H) saying "Mail Call!"

Perhaps an addon? Try holding the shift key while starting Thunderbird and see if it plays then.

Thanks for continuing to try, but as I said, I tried launching Thunderbird without add-ons. I only put the problem up on this forum after I tried things that had been suggested in other similar posts. It's just really annoying because it worked just fine for me for many years with earlier versions of Thunderbird. The current version has many nice features, but I do miss my "Mail call!"

Thinking a bit outside of the box....What happens if you set your computer to use same sound? Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Sound tab Under 'Program' section Scroll down to see: 'New Mail Notification' Click on 'browse' and locate the sound you are trying to get to work in Thunderbird. Use 'Test' button to see if it works.

Click on 'Apply' and 'OK'

assuming you still have the same .wav file selected as the notification sound in Thunderbird. Test to see if Thunderbird then plays the sound upon new mail alert.

Dang! I thought for sure that idea was going to work! It played just fine when I clicked Test, but no new mail alert sound in Thunderbird. I keep thinking that it should be working, but it isn't. Is anybody else out there using Thunderbird 31.6.0 with Windows 7 Enterprise, Service Pack 1? Does it work for you (with a .wav file of your choosing)?

I am running the same version of Thunderbird on Win 7 Professional w/SP 1 and I downloaded the wav file mail53.wav from this site and it plays fine when a new mail comes in. I saved the file to my desktop and selected the file in Thunderbird options.

http://www.clayloomis.com/mailcall.html

OK. Mine is mail53a.wav, so that pretty much eliminates that as a possible problem source. I have it in my Music folder (as opposed to the desktop), but I doubt that difference is significant. That leaves a possible difference between 7 Enterprise and 7 Professional and potential settings differences as the primary potential sources of my problem. Thanks for your contribution. We have tried many things. Unfortunately, there may be one possibility too many for us to "fix" my minor problem. Perhaps the problem will go away with the next version of Windows or Thunderbird....

Sigh....

Can you check and report back onwhat you have got in your Config Editor. Tools > Options > Advanced > General tab click on 'config Editor' button

In top search type: biff Do you have the following:

• mail.biff.play_sound.type; 1
• mail.biff.play_sound.url; file:///C:/Users/UserName/Music/mail53a.wav
• mail.biff.play_sound; true

Please copy paste your config entries for these 3 items into this question.

In a previous response, I suggested you set your computer 'New Mail Notification' to use the mail53a.wav file.

did you then try this:

• Tools > Options > General
• Select 'Play a sound'
• Select: 'Default sytem sound for new mail'
• click on OK

Another idea you could try:

Control Panel > Default Programs > Associate a file type or protocol with a program What has the .wav file got set as default? Windows Media Player ?

You could try this: download IrfanView from here: http://www.irfanview.com/

In the default programs then set: .wav to use Irfanview as default.

Toad-Hall said

Can you check and report back onwhat you have got in your Config Editor. Tools > Options > Advanced > General tab click on 'config Editor' button In top search type: biff Do you have the following:

• mail.biff.play_sound.type; 1
• mail.biff.play_sound.url; file:///C:/Users/UserName/Music/mail53a.wav
• mail.biff.play_sound; true

Please copy paste your config entries for these 3 items into this question.

Although those fields cannot be copied, please trust that these three config items that I checked. The solution does not appear to be here. It is an important first step for anybody else with this problem, though.

Toad-Hall said

In a previous response, I suggested you set your computer 'New Mail Notification' to use the mail53a.wav file. did you then try this:

• Tools > Options > General
• Select 'Play a sound'
• Select: 'Default sytem sound for new mail'
• click on OK

I had not. However, I have now (to no avail). Again, it sounds like it should have worked. Unfortunately, it did not.  :-(

Toad-Hall said

Another idea you could try: Control Panel > Default Programs > Associate a file type or protocol with a program What has the .wav file got set as default? Windows Media Player ? You could try this: download IrfanView from here: http://www.irfanview.com/ In the default programs then set: .wav to use Irfanview as default.

Another good idea that I think that I implemented according to your well-expressed directions. Unfortunately, this does not seem to have made a difference. This problem is drawing upon my worst OCD tendencies. It's not really a big deal, but I know that it should work!

Another tack.

Warning: I don't like noisy computers and therefore always have the sound disabled, unless it's required by a media player. So this is untested.

There is an add-on called ToneQuilla which aims to provide the ability to play different sound files for different correspondents. My thinking is that since it must intervene in the playing of notifications, maybe it will improve on Thunderbird's built-in audio playing capabilities. Tools|Add-ons, search for ToneQuilla.

The inability of Thunderbird to play the chosen sound seems to be a recurrent, if infrequent, cause of complaint. You're not alone, but I don't think there is a trivial solution.