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Red Thunderbird badge active only when open

Whoviane -  
 Whoviane -

Hello everyone

So, I switched to Thunderbird because Courrier has disappeared, which I liked a lot. My surprise is the following:

When I had Courrier, the taskbar icon (small envelope) indicated that I had new arrivals in my mailbox without me having to open the box (that's the point, apparently: to avoid having to open the program if no emails have been received).

With Thunderbird, I was surprised not to have a notification in the taskbar, even though I indicated this option (both in Thunderbird and in the PC's notification settings).

And then I realized that, in fact, yes the red dot was indeed there, but... it only appeared when I was in Thunderbird! So: what is it for if you have to be in your emails to see if you have received any?

I presume something is not working, yet I have checked everything (at my small level, of course, but by following the instructions given here and there on the net).

My version of Thunderbird is 115.8.1

Thank you for your insight

:-)


2 answers

  1.
    Pierr10 Posted messages 13833 Registration date   Status Moderator Last intervention   5 843
     

    Hello,

    Thunderbird indeed needs to be running for you to receive notifications.
    The purpose of these notifications is to alert you when an email arrives, while you have minimized the Thunderbird window while using another application.

    In order for Thunderbird to behave as you wish, it should be automatically launched at the startup of the Windows session and remain active in the background.
    This is not currently supported. This is not a unique case: Outlook doesn't do any better.

    In any case, the benefit would be limited, as a laptop is normally not active 24/7. It typically runs only a few hours during the day at best, and emails can very well arrive when the computer is in sleep mode.

    If you want to be immediately notified of the arrival of an email, you need to use a smartphone.

    What is well conceived is clearly stated,
    And the words to say it come easily.
    (Boileau)

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    1. Whoviane
       

      Thank you very much for this response (which I only discovered now by chance while returning to check my question, because I don’t know why, but for over a year, I have never been notified of a response, even though I have never unchecked the box "be notified...". I contacted the site about this, but I have not received a reply).

      It’s a shame about this issue with the notification not appearing when TB is closed. I found the Mail system very, very convenient, with its closed envelope when there were no incoming emails, and open when there were....

      If the TB window needs to be active, then I don’t see the point: if it is minimized, one can click on it from time to time to check if we have emails, which takes only 2 seconds, no need for a red dot. On the other hand, the red dot was useful when TB was closed. And in my opinion, it wasn’t a "very reduced interest" but rather a very... interesting interest :-)

      Or perhaps I don’t understand everyone’s logic.

      I don’t quite understand what you mean by "portable that only works a few hours a day": by portable, do you mean a laptop or a mobile phone? If it’s the laptop, mine works about 10 hours a day or more, as I work on it in the morning, afternoon, and often in the evening, sometimes late (I proofread and correct large documents).

      My laptop is therefore only off at night. And during the day, it is rarely on standby (automatic). I know that emails arrive even when the computer is on standby, my issue isn’t that they don’t arrive, but that I am not notified of their arrival...

      Well. In any case, I don’t like the TB configuration very much, even if I find it better than Outlook, which is terribly dull and hard to read for my eyes.

      I will look elsewhere to see what I can find...

      In any case, thank you very much for looking into my (small) issue.

      Have a good week!

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  2. Pierr10 Posted messages 13833 Registration date   Status Moderator Last intervention   5 843
     

    Good evening,

    I think the best thing you can do is:

    • to enable notifications in Thunderbird settings; (you've probably done that)
    • to not close Thunderbird but minimize the window

      Since Thunderbird does not have an automatic startup, you need to launch it yourself when you start your computer.

      It is impossible for you to receive notifications when the computer is in sleep mode (or hibernation). This is related to the operation of the computer; it does not depend on Thunderbird.
      However, notifications should continue to arrive if it is just the screen that has turned off.

      That’s why I advised you to use a smartphone if you want to be immediately notified of incoming emails. From that perspective, it's the most effective.
      But for writing, nothing beats a computer.

      What is well understood is clearly stated,
      And the words to say it come easily.
      (Boileau)

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    1. Whoviane
       

      Thank you very much for these answers.

      I think (wisely, it seems to me) that I will still stick with Thunderbird because it has the advantage of retrieving all the history and Mail contacts without having to go into POP, IMAP and company on a case-by-case basis by provider. And I will get used to the layout (clearer than Outlook in any case!).

      As for the red dot, well... too bad, I don't need to know in real time when an email arrives. There's no urgency to the point that I always have it minimized (which doesn't interest me).

      So that's the matter closed and I thank you again for looking into it. I see on the forums that we are already a number of us regretting the simplicity and clarity of Mail, and... its great power, from what I understand, since this little client had the ability to notify us without being open, of the arrival of new emails. :-)

      Best regards, have a good end of the week.

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