Thunderbird 3 Litters Desktop on OS X

thunderbird-logo-64x64After upgrading to TB3 users on Mac OSX ones finds that a copy of every attachment you open is saved to the Desktop. There is a underlying problem in the Gecko engine causing this, but until then the fix is pretty simple.

  • Click Thunderbird > Preferences > Attachments
  • Select “Save files to..” click “Choose..”
  • Hit COMMAND+SHIFT+G and type in /tmp , Hit GO and then Open
  • Switch back the toggle back to “Always Ask me where to save files”

Now when you open attachments they will go to the /tmp folder.

10 Responses to “Thunderbird 3 Litters Desktop on OS X”

  1. Ecofinn says:

    Thanks for that! Worked a treat. It was driving me insane!

  2. Jim says:

    is there a way not to save the attachment anywhere, but just to view it? my concern is that the /tmp folder will get full of unnecessary files.

  3. Keith Page says:

    OS X will keep the tmp folder clear as a matter of its operation.

  4. Jim says:

    ok, thats good – thank

  5. sue says:

    where can I locate the tmp file?

  6. Richard says:

    Thanks for the tip; easy solution for an irritating problem. Thanks, good people:-)

  7. meg says:

    Superstar … this has been driving me nuts for a month!

  8. Gordon Burton says:

    Do you perhaps know a work around for this issue:

    Need the ability to select WHICH address book to add the address to.

    In prior versions of T-Bird, when you right clicked on an email address, it allowed you to select which address book to add the address to.

    Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.2.9) Gecko/20100915 Thunderbird/3.1.4

  9. Keith Page says:

    In Thunderbird Options/Preferences you want to select “Composition” > “Addressing” > “Automatically add outgoing email address to: …..”

  10. jim says:

    Fantastic. Worked perfectly. No more desktop cleaning!!!

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