How to prevent thunderbird from creating ~/Thunderbird folder ?

Lone_Wolf · 2026-01-26 12:12:46

A few days ago I noticed cli completion of ~/T didn't give me ~/Temp as intended.

Checking the directories under $HOME revealed the existence of a directory Thunderbird .
I didn't create it, it was empty so I deleted it.

Unfortunately every time I start thunderbird (.desktop, /usr/bin/thunderbird, /usr/lib/thunderbird/thunderbird ) it recreates this folder.

My thunderbird profile is in the same location it has always been ( ~/.thunderbird ) and works fine.

StarWolf3000 · 2026-01-26 12:33:33

External bug report: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2007074

Seems to be related to XDG changes.

Last edited by StarWolf3000 (2026-01-26 12:51:54)

Lone_Wolf · 2026-01-26 13:58:35

Thx, bookmarked.

StarWolf3000 · 2026-02-02 12:09:09

Still present in Thunderbird 147.0.1 (but Firefox 147.0.1 has it fixed already). Hoping for fix in 147.0.2 or greater.

Nikolai5 · 2026-02-05 14:47:10

Was just about to make a post seeing if others had seen this too and because Mozilla really prefer if it's replicable on multiple PCs, nice to see its not anything I've done and that there's already a bug report with Mozilla.

Thanks

Lone_Wolf · 2026-02-23 12:36:33

Thunderbird 147.0.2-1 still does this.

https://hg-edge.mozilla.org/comm-centra … b7d2988a76 has been merged and supposedly solves the issue.

Unfortunately the new code appears to only change the created folder to thunderbird with a small t, not ensure it's not created.

imply_option("MOZ_APP_PROFILE", "Thunderbird", when=target_is_windows | target_is_osx)
imply_option("MOZ_APP_PROFILE", "thunderbird", when=~target_is_windows & ~target_is_osx)

Looks like we need to create a custom .desktop file to ensure the empty folder gets deleted after closing thunderbird.

mico · 2026-03-08 08:22:56

This has changed from bad to worse. Thunderbird 148.0-4 creates not one but two folders on each startup: ~/Downloads and ~/Thunderbird.

StarWolf3000 · 2026-03-08 10:40:19

At least for me ~/Downloads was created, when I installed the Plasma desktop (through xdg-user-dirs).

Lone_Wolf · 2026-03-08 13:28:04

Correct , see https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/XDG_us … irectories

In case you want to stop the creation of some of those folders try running

# systemctl --user --global disable xdg-user-dirs

In case you only want to do this for one user, don't add --global and run the command as that user.

fijarom · Yesterday 01:24:06

This issue is going on for a couple of months AFAIK, it really is one of the strangest bugs I've ever encountered.

SimonJ · Yesterday 04:59:39

I have been testing browsers and Floorp also creates a directory, luckily Librewolf does not. I know you can add to .hidden but it was a contributing factor to not using Floorp.

dimich · Yesterday 05:26:10

fijarom wrote:

This issue is going on for a couple of months AFAIK, it really is one of the strangest bugs I've ever encountered.

Ordinary situation for cross-platform project which attempts to implement migration to new layout in one of supported platforms but keep compatibility with previous versions, and nobody understand how it is implemented under the hood.
I bet they prefix user's directory with dot in one place but forget to prefix it in some other place.

mico · Today 10:00:20

No it is not ordinary situation.
Ordinary situation is placing user specific settings and other similar stuff in ~/.config or other dot file in user home or AppData or whatever location is appropriate for the OS. Most cross-platform projects do that perfectly fine.
From an active project that has been around for as long as Thunderbird I would expect to do better or at least fix this in weeks or months at least.

mithrial · Today 10:24:49

In short, you can't prevent the creation on your side. It looks like they tried to follow XDG conventions and create a folder in probably ~/.config but didn't completely, so they created a folder in $HOME instead.
The only thing is to either become active and report this on their bugzilla page or wait until someone else does .

Nikolai5 · Today 10:31:07

mithrial wrote:

In short, you can't prevent the creation on your side. It looks like they tried to follow XDG conventions and create a folder in probably ~/.config but didn't completely, so they created a folder in $HOME instead.
The only thing is to either become active and report this on their bugzilla page or wait until someone else does .

It has already been logged here: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2007074

dimich · Today 13:12:14

mico wrote:

Ordinary situation is placing user specific settings and other similar stuff in ~/.config

I mean general situation with knowledge of internals for the project with a history of more than two decade development teams changing and codebase rewriting.

mico wrote:

...I would expect to do better...

Expect? For several years Thunderbird was (and maybe still is) on the verge of discontinuation. We have to appreciate efforts of people who keep it alive.

Last edited by dimich (Today 13:13:06)

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#1 2026-01-26 12:12:46

How to prevent thunderbird from creating ~/Thunderbird folder ?

#2 2026-01-26 12:33:33

Re: How to prevent thunderbird from creating ~/Thunderbird folder ?

#3 2026-01-26 13:58:35

Re: How to prevent thunderbird from creating ~/Thunderbird folder ?

#4 2026-02-02 12:09:09

Re: How to prevent thunderbird from creating ~/Thunderbird folder ?

#5 2026-02-05 14:47:10

Re: How to prevent thunderbird from creating ~/Thunderbird folder ?

#6 2026-02-23 12:36:33

Re: How to prevent thunderbird from creating ~/Thunderbird folder ?

#7 2026-03-08 08:22:56

Re: How to prevent thunderbird from creating ~/Thunderbird folder ?

#8 2026-03-08 10:40:19

Re: How to prevent thunderbird from creating ~/Thunderbird folder ?

#9 2026-03-08 13:28:04

Re: How to prevent thunderbird from creating ~/Thunderbird folder ?

#10 Yesterday 01:24:06

Re: How to prevent thunderbird from creating ~/Thunderbird folder ?

#11 Yesterday 04:59:39

Re: How to prevent thunderbird from creating ~/Thunderbird folder ?

#12 Yesterday 05:26:10

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#13 Today 10:00:20

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#14 Today 10:24:49

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#15 Today 10:31:07

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#16 Today 13:12:14

Re: How to prevent thunderbird from creating ~/Thunderbird folder ?

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