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Thunderbird is not using my new default printer even though I've deleted the old one from my system.

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  • 15 have this problem
  • 12 views
  • Last reply by woscar

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I replaced my old printer. I removed the driver from my computer and set up the new printer. I have selected it as my default printer. Thunderbird persists in looking for my old printer, doesn't find it, so doesn't print. I have to manually go into the printer selection box and select my new printer from the list. I see someone else had the same problem and was told to go to the Config Editor but when I do, it's just a long list of things I don't know anything about and am warned not to mess with. HELP!!!!

I replaced my old printer. I removed the driver from my computer and set up the new printer. I have selected it as my default printer. Thunderbird persists in looking for my old printer, doesn't find it, so doesn't print. I have to manually go into the printer selection box and select my new printer from the list. I see someone else had the same problem and was told to go to the Config Editor but when I do, it's just a long list of things I don't know anything about and am warned not to mess with. HELP!!!!

All Replies (2)

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I hadn't thought about this before (I don't print email much), but I found the following and discovered a slight improvement.

From previous posts: 1- Open Thunderbird. 2- Go to Tools -> Options. 3- Click on Advanced, and go to General tab. On the bottom, click on Config Editor (Be carefull making changes here!!!). 4- Scroll down (or use the filter) and locate the entry print.print_printer. If there isn't such entry, then your problem is somewhere else. 5- Right click on that entry and choose reset. (again, be carefull, don't change anything else!!!) 6- Close Thunderbird 7- Make sure you have the right printer set as default on your system. 8- Reopen Thunderbird, and your printer should be ok.

MY improvements: 4: Instead of scrolling down, put "printer" in the search line at the top. The first entry which comes up should be "print_printer" (not print.print_printer).

5: Double-click the "print_printer" and another window will come up with the current printer shown.

My 6: In the new window, replace the name of your printer with "Default" (without the quotes), then OK. Through experimentation, I found this allows Thunderbird to use whatever printer you have set to default in the Windows printer area.

You do not need to close and restart Thunderbird, at least I didn't have to. Your new printer should show up when you go to print a message. If not, be sure to check that the new printer is the DEFAULT (green check mark) in Windows Devices and Printers area (available off the Start button).

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When I executed the procedure you are referencing, I reset the line labeled print_printer. There was a line preceding it labeled print.print_printer and that showed the printer that should be the default. I didn't do anything to that line, because I was very worried about doing anything else that hadn't been mentioned. Now Thunderbird shows the headers for new emails but won't open them. Not sure what to do next, but suspect I'm going to have to reinstall Thunderbird.

I would certainly appreciate a simple way to select the default printer on the options menu in future versions, but I've never had this situation in previous versions.

Modified by woscar