How to Send in the Background in Thunderbird

Mozilla Thunderbird has a progress dialog that appears when you send an email. The dialog shows you the progress of the sending operation and prevents you from performing other operations while Thunderbird is sending the email. Thunderbird 3 and later versions of Mozilla Thunderbird contain a hidden preference that hides this progress dialog. Thunderbird will send the mail in the background if the preference is enabled, allowing you to use Thunderbird while it's sending emails.

Instructions

1. Click the "Tools" menu at the top of the Mozilla Thunderbird window and click "Options."

2. Click the "Advanced" icon at the top of the options window and click the "General" tab on the advanced pane.

3. Click the "Config Editor" button.

4. Click the "I'll Be Careful, I Promise" button in the warning window.

5. Type "SendIn" into the filter box at the top of the "Config Editor" window.

6. Right-click the "mailnews.sendInBackground" preference that appears in the window and click "Toggle" to enable it.

7. Close the "Config Editor" window.

Tips & Warnings

• Mozilla Thunderbird's "Config Editor" window contains a variety of advanced options; be careful when using it.

References

• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: Thunderbird Configuration for Gmail