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Why is T-bird Saving Attachments To Desktop?

  • 6 cavab
  • 1 has this problem
  • 7 views
  • Last reply by ALRUI

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If I open an attachment it always saves to the desktop even though the preferences in Preview and Acrobat Reader for example are set to ASK where to save. Even if you choose NOT to save and OPEN said attachment they are still saved to the desktop! This only occurs in THUNDERBIRD! Please help.

If I open an attachment it always saves to the desktop even though the preferences in Preview and Acrobat Reader for example are set to ASK where to save. Even if you choose NOT to save and OPEN said attachment they are still saved to the desktop! This only occurs in THUNDERBIRD! Please help.

All Replies (6)

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Are you using a Mac?

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Zenos said

Are you using a Mac?

Hi Zenos, Yes running El Capitan.

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There’s a file called mimeTypes.rdf in your profile folder to remember your actions for handling attachments, and it might be corrupted. Can you delete or copy/move it elsewehere and see if the issue is gone?

See this article in the MozillaZine KB for more info.

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I ended up using the technique here to direct files to the temp folder along with changing my preferences in Preview & Acrobat to NOT autosave.

https://sites.hampshire.edu/hamp-it/2015/04/02/keep-thunderbird-from-littering-your-desktop/

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Thank you for your feedback and good to see you solved it.

I need to say however that what you did is the basic action for setting where to save downloaded files, and we (or at least I) probably thought you tried that when mentioning the preferences above. Nevertheless, you should be able to find these instructions in the KB similar to the instruction for Firefox, but it currently isn’t listed. We’ll make sure it will be covered.

In case of any future issues where this or any related setting to downloads do not work, you can use the advice about removing the file above.

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Tonnes said

Thank you for your feedback and good to see you solved it. I need to say however that what you did is the basic action for setting where to save downloaded files, and we (or at least I) probably thought you tried that when mentioning the preferences above. Nevertheless, you should be able to find these instructions in the KB similar to the instruction for Firefox, but it currently isn’t listed. We’ll make sure it will be covered. In case of any future issues where this or any related setting to downloads do not work, you can use the advice about removing the file above.

Yes I realize its the standard method as Ive been using T-Bird for many years. I actually think my issue had more to do with El Capitan and the autosave feature in Preview & Acrobat as before changing the path to the temp folder is was set to "ask" but when "open" was chosen a file would still be deposited on the desktop each time. I have NEVER had this issue on older Macs running Snow Leopard and previous OS.