Thunderbird 142 lands with modest upgrades – plus talk of Pro service ahead
(2025/08/22)
- Reference: 1755891971
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/08/22/thunderbird_142/
- Source link:
Mozilla-owned subsidiary MZLA has released a new version of the Thunderbird messaging client and shared details on the forthcoming paid Thunderbird Pro service.
[1]Thunderbird 142 touched down at the same time as [2]Firefox 142 . The release notes list 25 bug fixes, and there's an [3]additional list of fixed security vulnerabilities.
One of the less obvious but still useful features in Thunderbird is the ability to sort the contents of the folder list. It's the top-left pane in the main window, and it has a [4]choice of views : All, Unread, Recent, and so on.
[5]
These views are not mutually exclusive. You can combine them, for instance, showing the unread folders first, then after that, another section with all folders. There is also an optional folder-pane header bar, from which you can show and hide more columns, such as unread message counts, sizes, and so on. We often see complaints that information is missing from this pane, or that users are unhappy with the default view. Presumably these come from people who haven't explored the app's View menu thoroughly.
[6]
[7]
In the folder list, you can drag folders up and down to rearrange them how you wish. Entire accounts can be re-ordered by dragging them up and down the list of accounts in Account Settings. Now, if you mess up the sort order, you can right-click at the top of the list and there's a new option: Reset folder order. You can also copy entire folders from one place to another.
The header pane for each message now has a command under the More Actions menu: Copy message link and Copy news link, respectively. This was [8]moved from the right-click context menu. You can put the resulting message ID, or mid , into a note-taking app or other program, and when it's clicked, Thunderbird will go straight to that message. These are internal ID values, though, so they probably won't work on a different installation of Thunderbird.
[9]
Yesterday, we reported on the [10]release of LibreOffice 25.8 , which now has the ability to produce encrypted PDF files, as well as to digitally sign them. Coincidentally, Thunderbird also improves PDF signing. This release can show signatures on PDF attachments.
Although these are relatively modest improvements, the [11]more rapid release cycle suggests to us that a lot of cleanup has happened in the Thunderbird codebase to permit this faster development. The latest [12]Development Digest on the [13]Thunderbird blog says that bigger things are coming, such as native Exchange Server support.
[14]Thunderbird ESR is here: Mozilla's email client adds new functions
[15]Thunderbird is go: 139 follows closely on Firefox's heels
[16]Thunderbird joins Firefox on the monthly treadmill
[17]Mozilla is rolling Thundermail, a Gmail, Office 365 rival
Thunderbird has had several significant UI revamps in recent years: [18]version 115 "Supernova" in 2023, then [19]version 128 "Nebula" in 2024, and [20]version 140 "Eclipse" last July. Enough people are unhappy to keep [21]the Betterbird fork in active development. It just takes a few clicks to revert most of the changes, though, and we recommend doing some research – maybe [22]UDM14-enhanced Googling – to find out how.
It's important to remember that Mozilla doesn't directly develop Thunderbird any more. It was [23]spun off to a new subsidiary five years ago. That organization, MZLA, also shared an [24]August update on its forthcoming paid Thundermail offering and Thunderbird Pro scheme, which it [25]announced earlier this year . The Reg FOSS desk is strongly considering signing up for this as we'd really like to reduce our dependencies on several cloud giants.
Whatever the [26]woes afflicting Firefox , Thunderbird is its own thing. There is nothing else quite like it out there. There are excellent email clients for Mac, Windows, and Linux, but Thunderbird isn't for any of them. It's for all of them, and the BSDs as well. As well as this, and Usenet, and Matrix, and XMPP chat, it can also talk to other cloudy messaging platforms via [27]its add-ons system , such as [28]Slack , [29]WhatsApp , or [30]Facebook Messenger . ®
Get our [31]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/142.0/releasenotes/
[2] https://app.slack.com/client/T0369U828/C03H3GGR3PT
[3] https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/security/advisories/mfsa2025-70/
[4] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/switching-folder-pane-view
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aKjodtJAbqbT_UXxyh4ABwAAAIk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aKjodtJAbqbT_UXxyh4ABwAAAIk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aKjodtJAbqbT_UXxyh4ABwAAAIk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1968470
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aKjodtJAbqbT_UXxyh4ABwAAAIk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/21/libreoffice_258/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/30/firefox_thunderbird_138/
[12] https://blog.thunderbird.net/2025/08/thunderbird-monthly-development-digest-july-2025/
[13] https://blog.thunderbird.net/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/09/new_thunderbird_esr_is_here/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/29/thunderbird_139/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/30/firefox_thunderbird_138/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/02/thunderbird_pay_services/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/14/thunderbird_115_supernova_complete_overhaul/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/18/thunderbird_128_nebula/
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/09/new_thunderbird_esr_is_here/
[21] https://www.betterbird.eu/
[22] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/14/openwebsearch_eu/
[23] https://www.theregister.com/2020/01/30/mozilla_thunderbird_has_a_new_nest/
[24] https://blog.thunderbird.net/2025/08/tbpro-august-2025-update/
[25] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/02/thunderbird_pay_services/
[26] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/08/firefox_isnt_dead/
[27] https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/
[28] https://services.addons.thunderbird.net/En-us/thunderbird/addon/slack-quick-access/
[29] https://services.addons.thunderbird.net/En-us/thunderbird/addon/whatsapp-quick-access/
[30] https://services.addons.thunderbird.net/en-GB/thunderbird/addon/messenger-quick-access/
[31] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
[1]Thunderbird 142 touched down at the same time as [2]Firefox 142 . The release notes list 25 bug fixes, and there's an [3]additional list of fixed security vulnerabilities.
One of the less obvious but still useful features in Thunderbird is the ability to sort the contents of the folder list. It's the top-left pane in the main window, and it has a [4]choice of views : All, Unread, Recent, and so on.
[5]
These views are not mutually exclusive. You can combine them, for instance, showing the unread folders first, then after that, another section with all folders. There is also an optional folder-pane header bar, from which you can show and hide more columns, such as unread message counts, sizes, and so on. We often see complaints that information is missing from this pane, or that users are unhappy with the default view. Presumably these come from people who haven't explored the app's View menu thoroughly.
[6]
[7]
In the folder list, you can drag folders up and down to rearrange them how you wish. Entire accounts can be re-ordered by dragging them up and down the list of accounts in Account Settings. Now, if you mess up the sort order, you can right-click at the top of the list and there's a new option: Reset folder order. You can also copy entire folders from one place to another.
The header pane for each message now has a command under the More Actions menu: Copy message link and Copy news link, respectively. This was [8]moved from the right-click context menu. You can put the resulting message ID, or mid , into a note-taking app or other program, and when it's clicked, Thunderbird will go straight to that message. These are internal ID values, though, so they probably won't work on a different installation of Thunderbird.
[9]
Yesterday, we reported on the [10]release of LibreOffice 25.8 , which now has the ability to produce encrypted PDF files, as well as to digitally sign them. Coincidentally, Thunderbird also improves PDF signing. This release can show signatures on PDF attachments.
Although these are relatively modest improvements, the [11]more rapid release cycle suggests to us that a lot of cleanup has happened in the Thunderbird codebase to permit this faster development. The latest [12]Development Digest on the [13]Thunderbird blog says that bigger things are coming, such as native Exchange Server support.
[14]Thunderbird ESR is here: Mozilla's email client adds new functions
[15]Thunderbird is go: 139 follows closely on Firefox's heels
[16]Thunderbird joins Firefox on the monthly treadmill
[17]Mozilla is rolling Thundermail, a Gmail, Office 365 rival
Thunderbird has had several significant UI revamps in recent years: [18]version 115 "Supernova" in 2023, then [19]version 128 "Nebula" in 2024, and [20]version 140 "Eclipse" last July. Enough people are unhappy to keep [21]the Betterbird fork in active development. It just takes a few clicks to revert most of the changes, though, and we recommend doing some research – maybe [22]UDM14-enhanced Googling – to find out how.
It's important to remember that Mozilla doesn't directly develop Thunderbird any more. It was [23]spun off to a new subsidiary five years ago. That organization, MZLA, also shared an [24]August update on its forthcoming paid Thundermail offering and Thunderbird Pro scheme, which it [25]announced earlier this year . The Reg FOSS desk is strongly considering signing up for this as we'd really like to reduce our dependencies on several cloud giants.
Whatever the [26]woes afflicting Firefox , Thunderbird is its own thing. There is nothing else quite like it out there. There are excellent email clients for Mac, Windows, and Linux, but Thunderbird isn't for any of them. It's for all of them, and the BSDs as well. As well as this, and Usenet, and Matrix, and XMPP chat, it can also talk to other cloudy messaging platforms via [27]its add-ons system , such as [28]Slack , [29]WhatsApp , or [30]Facebook Messenger . ®
Get our [31]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/142.0/releasenotes/
[2] https://app.slack.com/client/T0369U828/C03H3GGR3PT
[3] https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/security/advisories/mfsa2025-70/
[4] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/switching-folder-pane-view
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aKjodtJAbqbT_UXxyh4ABwAAAIk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aKjodtJAbqbT_UXxyh4ABwAAAIk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aKjodtJAbqbT_UXxyh4ABwAAAIk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1968470
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aKjodtJAbqbT_UXxyh4ABwAAAIk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/21/libreoffice_258/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/30/firefox_thunderbird_138/
[12] https://blog.thunderbird.net/2025/08/thunderbird-monthly-development-digest-july-2025/
[13] https://blog.thunderbird.net/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/09/new_thunderbird_esr_is_here/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/29/thunderbird_139/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/30/firefox_thunderbird_138/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/02/thunderbird_pay_services/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/14/thunderbird_115_supernova_complete_overhaul/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/18/thunderbird_128_nebula/
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/09/new_thunderbird_esr_is_here/
[21] https://www.betterbird.eu/
[22] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/14/openwebsearch_eu/
[23] https://www.theregister.com/2020/01/30/mozilla_thunderbird_has_a_new_nest/
[24] https://blog.thunderbird.net/2025/08/tbpro-august-2025-update/
[25] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/02/thunderbird_pay_services/
[26] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/08/firefox_isnt_dead/
[27] https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/
[28] https://services.addons.thunderbird.net/En-us/thunderbird/addon/slack-quick-access/
[29] https://services.addons.thunderbird.net/En-us/thunderbird/addon/whatsapp-quick-access/
[30] https://services.addons.thunderbird.net/en-GB/thunderbird/addon/messenger-quick-access/
[31] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/