If you’ve set up Indicator Applet to include Mozilla Thunderbird, you may have noticed that the notifications are somewhat limited compared to what you get for the default email client, Evolution. But by installing a Thunderbird add-on and a small package, you can get a green envelope notification for newly received mail in the Indicator Applet, as well as a “black bubble” pop-up notification that blends in with the rest of your Gnome desktop.
First off, download the “Indicators for Thunderbird” add-on and install it:
In Thunderbird, go to Tools > Add-ons, click the Install button, locate/select the file you downloaded, and click OK.
You will note that the envelope indicator will be green when you get new mail, but you may also get an error message complaining about that libnotify-bin must be installed (to get popup notifications), so just enter the following into a terminal:
sudo apt-get install libnotify-bin
Once installed, you’ll get the familiar “black bubbles” popups for incoming mail.
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Bonus: Also works with other distros like Arch.
Limitation: Only works with your Inbox; if you filter your incoming email into different folders, you won’t be informed when new (filtered) email arrives.
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Remove Evolution Mail Notifier from Indicator Applet in Ubuntu’s Panel
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Hi,
Thanks for this solution, but I have a question: For receiving notifications, Thunderbird has to be launched. Is there any possible solution to do it without opening the program? (Maybe like “run in background”) I mean I don’t want to see Thunderbird on the panel, just want to see the green envelope notification.
Best regards,
Hermit.
Hi. Unfortunately, that would come under “impossible”, since the only way your system knows you have new mail is purely because you have an email client checking for it. Unless you can find some small app whose task it is to check for mail without actually downloading it, it’s pretty much a given you need an email client open. You’re not the first to ask, and to be honest I’m not sure what the attraction is with the need to have the email client closed, but I can offer a compromise. Obviously, you can have it open and just minimise it, but if that isn’t enough, check out: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/minimizetotray-plus/. MinimizeToTray Plus will make Thunderbird minimise to the system tray, to be restored with a single click. While that still means there is a button on the top panel, at least it isn’t showing in the taskbar at the bottom. Hope that helps!
PS: note that MinimizeToTray Plus has a “command line flag -turbo for starting the application so that only the tray icon is visible”, which means basically that you can make Thunderbird open in background mode, already minimised to the system tray, and quietly checking for mail in the background. See the “Minimize To Tray Options” pic at http://codefisher.org/minimizetotray/.
Hi again,
Thanks for the solution, i guess that’s what I need. And one last question (maybe another “impossible” one): Is it possible to combine Thunderbird icon that’s shown on the tray with the one on the notification area?
Hi. Yes, I think it’s quite an acceptable solution. Sure, it needs to be open to check for mail, but other than that it’s out of the way. As far as I know, there wouldn’t be any way to combine the two icons, as one is controlled by a Thunderbird plugin, the other being a Gnome app. But if you find a way, please let us know!
“Indicators for Thunderbird”
no longer available..help pls!
Hi. Yes, you’re right – it seems they have removed all reference to it at the Mozilla site! But don’t forget you can always Google it, in which case you would have found the Softpedia link, amongst others. For your convenience, the download link now points there. Cheers
I also agree that since Thunderbird message alert is now intergrated into the mail notifier icon, for me there’s no reason to have a separate tray icon for Thunderbird. For now I’m using the FireTray addon to keep Thunderbird running in the background. Any suggestions on how to keep Thunderbird running but hidden from the panel?
Hello Am using firefox 5.0 on ubuntu 10.10 and i managed to get thunderbird on the system tray but now i think two things happened
1. I can’t get the green envelop coz indicator for thunder bird add on is not support by F5.0
2. why can’t i see the contacts, compose mail, and inbox options under system tray below thunderbird like in your second image in this post.
Thanks
Hi. First off, I’m confused why the Firefox version is an issue, since it is a Thunderbird add-on. As for the 2nd question, I have no idea, as even after upgrading to 11.04, mine still works, even in the Unity desktop. Mind you, the green icon indicator no longer works, which is probably due to that compatibility issue you mentioned. Still, not sure why the Firefox version matters when it’s a Thunderbird add-on. Obviously if that’s the issue then the only thing to do is find a compatible version, or wait for the same one to be updated.