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Latest update (68.2.1) has changed message pane header settings, can't find how to change back and put + option back in to header

  • 4 replies
  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by Toad-Hall

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Since as long as I can remember, there was a + option on the message pane header to allow it to change from displaying only one line of the header, to then show all the header information.

That's changed with this release, the + option has gone, and more annoying, the header is now 3 lines rather than one line, and I can't find a way to change that, and there are also now extra settings options on the header bar that I can't change to reduce the real estate size on the screen .

Is there a fix, or a reversion to enable me to go back to how this worked in the earlier release?

Since as long as I can remember, there was a + option on the message pane header to allow it to change from displaying only one line of the header, to then show all the header information. That's changed with this release, the + option has gone, and more annoying, the header is now 3 lines rather than one line, and I can't find a way to change that, and there are also now extra settings options on the header bar that I can't change to reduce the real estate size on the screen . Is there a fix, or a reversion to enable me to go back to how this worked in the earlier release?

All Replies (4)

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Sounds like you were using an addon to allow it to do that as it is not in the default.

Thunderbird by default offers two options: full headers or 3/4 lines of basic headers , from, Subject, To and sometimes a 'Reply-to' . Tags is also added if used. Date is provided at the side. 'View' > 'Headers' > select: ' Normal' for the shorter version.


If you updated then you may need to install the up todate version. I think you were using this addon: https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/compactheader/

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Thanks, it would appear that all the addons I have been using since before I can remember have been broken by this latest release. There is no easy update to the add on I was using, there is a Beta version, which looks like it's only available from Github as source, which is not something I would have the ability on this computer to deal with, so I may have to forgo that facility, which is not ideal, but that's the way computing seems to be going now,

Reading some of the other threads being posted regarding this update, It raises the very valid question about the method being used to update the software, as presently structured, there is no option to get the system to perform any sort of backup before allowing the upgrade to proceed, which is not the best way to operate on something as fundamental as E-mail. Fortunately, my issue was relatively minor, but there do seem to have been a number of users who have been seriously affected by the failure of add on options that their work method depends on, and it would seem that the reversion options are not working for them in a seamless manner, so they are caught between a rock and a hard place in terms of how to proceed, That's not a good place to be if the day to day operation of a company depends on a working package, and for some (many) users, E-mail is a fundamental part of their daily operation.

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See the "Toggle Headers" add-on.

I had the same problem after updating, but found that this add-on still worked via a single-character short-cut H

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re :See the "Toggle Headers" add-on.

Allows to switch between the normal header view and viewing all headers when viewing a message by using a keyboard shortcut (H).

UPDATE INFO: A new release has been made for compact header. CompactHeader 3.0.0beta5 Works with Thunderbird 68.0 - 69.0a1