file link with dropbox does not work

[ftr]

Hi,
Up to recently I used file link with Ubuntu One and it worked like a
charm.
Now Ubunto One has been withdrawn and I try to replace it with Dropbox.
When I tested the installation with TB latest version on windows Vista I
was ably to download the file linked.
But other recipients of my mails with files attached through TB file
link were not able to read the attachment. One uses Zimbra in their
offices behind a firewall so I don't know whether it is the fire wall
that makes linking stall. But recently another recipient at a different
place had the same problem. None of them has Dropbox installed.

Does anyone here use DropBox for file linking ? What are the conditions
to have it work ?

tia
ftr

[Barbara]

I use Dropbox to share files with others. On Dropbox, each person much
have or be given access to the folder before they can access it. That
means they need a Dropbox account set up. To give access, you send an
invitation to each person (by email) and they must accept it before they
can access the folder.
Dropbox can be used in the web-only version or a downloadable app
that will sync the folders on your computer and/or the other person's
computer if they use that option. To access files in a Dropbox folder,
it doesn't matter which type they they use. Each person much be given
permission by the owner of the file folder before they can access it.
You can give them permission to add others to the folder, or not - your
choice as the file owner.
Box.com is another site I use and it allows for "public" access to
anyone who has the folder link and that does not require the other
people to have an account on Box.com.
Hope that helps.

Barbara

[Maurice]

On Wed, 14 May 2014 15:06:34 +0200, ftr wrote:

> another recipient at a different
> place had the same problem. None of them has Dropbox installed.
>
> Does anyone here use DropBox for file linking ?

Though not a regular Thunderbird user (I'm just trying it out),
perhaps - as a Dropbox user - I can help in some way.

Can you see this file from your Thunderbird:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10969499/pressure-vessel-3.JPG

(This is just the link provided by selecting Copy Public Link from
the 'Dropbox Properties' option when right-clicking on a file in my
Dropbox.)

No need to have own Dropbox to use the above URL.

Good hunting!
--
/\/\aurice
(Replace "nomail.afraid" by "bcs" to reply by email)

[VanguardLH]

ftr wrote:

> When I tested the installation with TB latest version on windows Vista
> I was ably to download the file linked. But other recipients of my
> mails with files attached through TB file link were not able to read

> the attachment. None of them has Dropbox installed.

Dropbox has a Public folder where you need to place files that anyone
can access. In any other folder, you have to share the file with their
Dropbox account. See:

https://www.dropbox.com/help/16/en

Unlike what Barbara claimed, and even with the changes, those to whom
you give a public link DO NOT need a Dropbox account. "Quickly share
anything with friends and colleagues — even if they don’t have Dropbox."

Likely the problem is that Thunderbird doesn't create a correct public
link to the file or isn't doing the process properly. You have access
to the file because it's your account but others are not getting a valid
public link. When you send the e-mail with the Dropboxed attachment
(link to the file), is the file in the Public folder when you go look at
your Dropbox account? The file must be in the Public folder so anyone
can use the link. Any other folder requires you to setup sharing which
means the other parties need Dropbox accounts (so you can specify with
who to share). When you create a public link using the Dropbox web
site, is it the same one used in the e-mail that Thunderbird created?

[gNeandr]

Two notes ...

On 14.05.2014 20:08, VanguardLH wrote:
> Dropbox has a Public folder where you need to place files that anyone
> can access.

-- Just installed a new Dropbox account on a new computer and found
since 2012 there is no "Public" folder anymore for the standard Dropbox,
only for upgraded! So new accounts can make ANY folder and ANY file
"public". That way a link (as below) is generated
-- and ANYONE having that link can access the folder/file! Also if
he/she doesn't have a Dropbox aacount!

[VanguardLH]

gNeandr wrote:

> Two notes ...

Yes, the article says that after Oct 2012 that there won't be a default
Public folder but that doesn't stop you from creating one and sharing it
or files within it.

I suspect Thunderbird's concept of Dropbox is the old scheme where there
was a Public folder. When you use Dropbox as a link provider in
Thunderbird, in which folder in the Dropbox account does Thunderbird
deposit the file (that would otherwise be attached)?

While it isn't required that you have a Public folder in your Dropbox
account, where is Thunderbird expecting to drop the file?

[gNeandr]

On 15.05.2014 02:59, VanguardLH wrote:
> gNeandr wrote:
>
>> Two notes ...
>>
>>> VanguardLH wrote:
>>>
>>> Dropbox has a Public folder where you need to place files that anyone
>>> can access.
>>
>> -- Just installed a new Dropbox account on a new computer and found
>> since 2012 there is no "Public" folder anymore for the standard Dropbox,
>> only for upgraded! So new accounts can make ANY folder and ANY file
>> "public". That way a link (as below) is generated
>> -- and ANYONE having that link can access the folder/file! Also if
>> he/she doesn't have a Dropbox aacount!
>>
>>> In any other folder, you have to share the file with their
>>> Dropbox account. See:
>>>
>>> https://www.dropbox.com/help/16/en
>>>
>>> Unlike what Barbara claimed, and even with the changes, those to whom
>>> you give a public link DO NOT need a Dropbox account. "Quickly share
>>> anything with friends and colleagues — even if they don’t have Dropbox."
>
> Yes, the article says that after Oct 2012 that there won't be a default
> Public folder but that doesn't stop you from creating one and sharing it
> or files within it.
>
> I suspect Thunderbird's concept of Dropbox is the old scheme where there
> was a Public folder. When you use Dropbox as a link provider

> Thunderbird, in which folder in the Dropbox account does Thunderbird
> deposit the file (that would otherwise be attached)?
>
> While it isn't required that you have a Public folder in your Dropbox
> account, where is Thunderbird expecting to drop the file?
>

To be honest, I never used the TB feature for sending big files.
I'm going the kiss way (keep it simple and stupid).
Big files I want to share with others are stored to my 'Public' Dropbox
and I'm fetching the public link for that. Finally I just add that link
to my mail.
That way I have better control about files I share with others.

If the user doesn't have a 'Public' folder he/she is able to get that
'share' link for every folder/file as well. So no difference ;)

[VanguardLH]

The FileLink feature probably won't get fixed for a long time by
Mozilla. When you go to add a filelink service in Thunderbird, you're
presented with the following choices:

Box (their local client corrupts Start menu)
UbuntuOne (dead, no longer free)
YouSendIt (died, became Hightail, no free services)

So the only working and free filelink service that you can select is
Box. I quit using them after a month of having to remove the "Box"
subfolder their local client kept re-adding to my Start menu everytime
it performed a covert update. I moved the shortcut (not folder) for Box
to an Online subfolder where are shortcuts to OneDrive, Google Drive,
Dropbox, and where I had Box. No complaints with their service but
their local client kept screwing up my Start folder.

UbuntuOne discontinued their free file storage service. YouSendIt
rebranded to HighTail almost a year ago, so I doubt any URLs in the
filelink service coded in Thunderbird will work anymore, plus Hightail
doesn't have any free service. Yet I suspect we will see these listed
as filelink services for years to come in Thunderbird.

There is an add-on to add Dropbox as a filelink provider in Thunderbird.
I'll probably trial that add-on since I have a Dropbox account; however,
users have complained about it not working or with poor behaviors.
Their help (https://www.dropbox.com/help/5/en) says there is no max size
to the uploaded file (up to your disk quota) but I recall it was 500 MB.

There is an add-on to add hubiC (25GB free). There's an add-on for
FileSwap, too: 15GB disk quota but only 250MB max per file, plus they
throttle download speed to 250kbps for free accounts - DAMN SLOW for
large files which is what the filelink service is supposed to
facilitate. Dropbox downloads are slow, too. I've never measured
download speed for downloads from OneDrive (aka SkyDrive).

I'm currently using free aDrive: 50GB quota, 2GB max file size. They
also throttle their upload and download speeds. A 511MB test upload
went up at 130kbps but a smaller 37MB test upload went up at 200kpbs to
2Mbps. They all seem to do this and have you pay to get higher
bandwidths. Their desktop client is not available with free accounts.
Not only can I upload files but I can upload entire folders (rather than
upload a bunch of files). When sharing a file/folder, the recipient
doesn't need an aDrive account. The link takes them to the aDrive site
(yeah, they're going to advertize themself) but it points at a file the
recipient can download with no logon. The 37MB file downloaded so fast
that it was over immediately after I clicked the button. I had aborted
the 511MB test file because it would've taken an hour to upload, so I
didn't have that one to see how fast would be the download speed.

I wonder if I could add a filelink provider in Thunderbird *without*
installing their local client. Or are these filelink services in
Thunderbird using the local client to perform a background upload of the
file(s)? If so, it seem highly likely that the recipient of an e-mail
with a filelink will get the e-mail long before the file becomes
available on the server (uploads take time).

I've noticed some of the complaints about this FileLink service in
Thunderbird is that they stop working because the online storage
provider changed their login page. That leads me to believe that the
code in Thunderbird is either a screenscraper looking for input fields
or is using names of the objects, like the input textboxes with names of
"username" and "password", to walk through the web site. I remember
using YahooPOPs a long time ago (long before Yahoo Mail added POP, IMAP,
and SMTP access last November) to access my Yahoo e-mails. Any change
in the login page or the URL navigation between pages resulted in a
broken YahooPOPs proxy. You had to wait a couple weeks before the
author fixed his proxy so it matched on the changes at Yahoo Mail. So I
have to wonder how fragile are these filelink services in Thunderbird.

[gNeandr]

As said before ... KISS.
Just upload your file to a remote/cloud service, get the link and paste
it to your mail, send it, done.
Once uploaded you can reuse that link for other messages .. or just
delete the file/folder any time it's ok for you.
I don't see the need of an FileLink service .. but that's me ;)

[Barbara]

I deleted my message so as not to give out bad info. I've used Dropbox
for several years and have not seen the public option on a single
folder, and couldn't find it when I looked, so I learned something new :)
I did find the Public folder, which I have never used, so may find a
use for that eventually.
Barbara

Barbara

[Mike Easter]

Barbara wrote:
> I deleted my message so as not to give out bad info.

As a general rule, 'deleting' (translated here as cancelling; as in
removing from the news server by use of a control message) does not work
and the user does not have the power to control message the moz/giga
server to cancel hir own message. Tb's use of cancel causes your view of
that message/ any message/ to disappear, not be removed from the server.

News servers are so configured to not honor cancels to prevent the abuse
of persons other than the poster sending such a control message to the
news server. The moz/giga server is configured to allow the moz groups
moderator to cancel (or expire) messages with a control message.

Some news servers such as individual and eternal-september employ
cancel-lock/-key functions so as to allow a poster to cancel hir own
message while preventing abuse, and those equipped/configured servers
honor the cancels of each other.

x-posted & f/ups to .general


--
Mike Easter

[VanguardLH]

I tried the Dropbox filelink add-on. Didn't work. Couldn't get logged
in. Clicked the signin button, looked like it did something for half a
second, then the button was enabled again. No login. So Dropbox
changed something on their end that this add-on doesn't account for.
That's what I've heard regarding these screen-scraping or URL navigating
add-ons and proxies: a change at the site results in disabling the
add-on or proxy. That add-on hasn't been updated in 2 years. I'm not
waiting until the author decides to revisit his old project to fix it.
Just another of many - and I mean MANY - add-ons that get abandoned by
their authors but Mozilla keeps listing them on their addons site. Too
bad Mozilla doesn't require registration to list an add-on and requires
re-registration at periodic intervals, like every 6 months. Then, at
least, you know the author didn't abandon an add-on. Alas, that still
wouldn't prove the author is maintaining their add-on.

With OneDrive, I can easily copy a file using their local client that
syncs with my OneDrive account. Alas, to get a URL for the file shoves
me to their web site to login and create one. With the local client for
Dropbox, I can upload the file and also right-click on the file to get a
URL link to it. I only have the 2GB free account at Dropbox and a
quarter of it is already used so I tend to shy away from polluting it
with temporary stuff, like attachments to e-mails. OneDrive has more
breathing room but a nuisance to create the URL link. aDrive has 50GB
of breathing room and files can be larger. It is similar in you upload,
create a link, and dole that out to a recipient; however, no local
client for a free aDrive account so you're stuck using the web UI to
your aDrive account. Still, the problem I see with using any of these
online file storage services is delay in getting the file uploaded. You
have an asynchronous connection so upload bandwidth is much lower than
for download, sometimes around a 20 times difference. It also seems the
larger the file then the bandwidth slows down. The recipient could end
up getting your e-mail long before the file was available online. You'd
have to wait for the upload to complete before sending off your e-mail
with a URL link to the online file.

As for the KISS mentality, I find the more add-ons you install into
Thunderbird then the more problems you have with it. Although some
add-ons looks to be professionally coded (often from the source trying
to promote their service), the vast majority seem to be written by
dabblers often of whom don't survive in maintaining their code for the
duration of its listing at Mozilla's addons site. They tire and get
distracted easily. They completed their learning project and left.
I've tried many add-ons to Thunderbird but eventually discard them and
am down to just 4 now: Lightning, Lightning Calendar Tabs (*), Folder
Pane View Switcher (*), and Manually Sort Folders. The (*) ones are
pending the chopping block since they are handy but very few times and
are definitely not critical or even that important. There are enough
problems already in Thunderbird without adding more problems with flaky,
errant, or abandoned add-ons.

[Tanstaafl]

On 5/15/2014 8:20 PM, VanguardLH <V...@nguard.LH> wrote:
> As for the KISS mentality, I find the more add-ons you install into
> Thunderbird then the more problems you have with it. Although some
> add-ons looks to be professionally coded (often from the source trying
> to promote their service), the vast majority seem to be written by
> dabblers often of whom don't survive in maintaining their code for the
> duration of its listing at Mozilla's addons site. They tire and get
> distracted easily. They completed their learning project and left.
> I've tried many add-ons to Thunderbird but eventually discard them and
> am down to just 4 now: Lightning, Lightning Calendar Tabs (*), Folder
> Pane View Switcher (*), and Manually Sort Folders. The (*) ones are
> pending the chopping block since they are handy but very few times and
> are definitely not critical or even that important. There are enough
> problems already in Thunderbird without adding more problems with flaky,
> errant, or abandoned add-ons.

Just to provide another perspective...

I have consistently used a *lot* of Addons in both Firefox (currently 49
Addons) and Thunderbird (currently 46 Addons), and only had the rae and
occasional problems that come with major changes to the application that
causes some extensions to play catch up.

It has been a very rare occurrence that I had to stop using an extension
I really wanted to keep using (Mail Tweak and MRTech Toolkit to name two)...

[Chris Ramsden]

Tanstaafl wrote:
> On 5/15/2014 8:20 PM, VanguardLH <V...@nguard.LH> wrote:

>> ...There are enough

>> problems already in Thunderbird without adding more problems with flaky,
>> errant, or abandoned add-ons.
>

> Just to provide another perspective...
>
> I have consistently used a *lot* of Addons in both Firefox (currently 49
> Addons) and Thunderbird (currently 46 Addons), and only had the rae and
> occasional problems that come with major changes to the application that
> causes some extensions to play catch up.
>
> It has been a very rare occurrence that I had to stop using an extension
> I really wanted to keep using (Mail Tweak and MRTech Toolkit to name
> two)...

+1

25 In Firefox, 36 in Thunderbird.

I too miss MailTweak. :-(

--

Chris.

[WaltS48]

5 in Firefox, 2 in Thunderbird

--
Thunderbird 30.0b1
Jazz Live International
<http://pittsburghjazzlive.com/>
Go Bucs!

[Steve]

I haven't tried all the options in mailtweak (there are a lot), but
several of the ones I've tested in Earlybird or TB 24 seem to work. But
you do need to install Disable Add-on Compatibility Checks just to get
mailtweak to install.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/checkcompatibility/

http://mailtweak.mozdev.org/

[Christian Riechers]

On 05/16/2014 02:20 AM, VanguardLH wrote:
> I tried the Dropbox filelink add-on. Didn't work.

Did you allow cookies for dropbox.com in Thunderbird?

--
Christian

[Christian Riechers]

On 05/15/2014 10:38 PM, gNeandr wrote:
> As said before ... KISS.
> Just upload your file to a remote/cloud service, get the link and paste
> it to your mail, send it, done.
> Once uploaded you can reuse that link for other messages .. or just
> delete the file/folder any time it's ok for you.
> I don't see the need of an FileLink service .. but that's me ;)

This is exactly what Filelink does, it couldn't be more simple.

--
Christian

[VanguardLH]

Cookies for an e-mail client? No way (see next). Under Tools ->
Options -> Security, the "Accept cookies from sites" is disabled. It is
under the Security tab because enabling it reduces security. I never
want my *e-mail* client to behave like a web browser.

Even if Thunderbird had a setting to allow cookies, why would I enable
it? Allowing an e-mail client to create cookies just because some HTML
formatted e-mail wants to create them is a security issue. I get an
HTML e-mail (so the sender knows to what e-mail address they sent), it
creates a cookie for the author's domain that contains my e-mail
address, and if I visit their site in a web browser then they have my
e-mail address from the cookie for their domain. No thanks, no way.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Thunderbird/Cookies_In_Thunderbird

Why does an add-on try to use a [limited] web browser to login to a
site? It should only ask me for the login credentials (and encrypt them
in the RSA hashed section of the registry on encrypted in a data file
for Thunderbird, like for its password manager). I don't want my e-mail
client to ever behave like a web browser: no scripts, no cookies, no
local DOM storage, no external images loaded, no web browsing at all.

If the limited web browser window what was opened to capture the login
credentials for the site (rather than just having you enter them
yourself in a local form) is not due to the add-on but the FileLink
feature in Thunderbird then I'm not using any Filelink service. No
cookies created by my e-mail client, period!

Guess I'll have to review all the settings for Thunderbird both in its
exposed config UI and in the adv config editor to throttle Thunderbird
to only do e-mail.

Thanks for the heads up, however, on why the login probably failed.
Because of how they capture the login credentials from a web page
(instead of just asking me for them), and if cookies are the problem the
fails the login attempt (with no error message), I won't be using the
add-on or the Filelink feature.

[Christian Riechers]

On 05/17/2014 12:15 AM, VanguardLH wrote:
> Christian Riechers wrote:>
>> On 05/16/2014 02:20 AM, VanguardLH wrote:
>>> I tried the Dropbox filelink add-on. Didn't work.
>>
>> Did you allow cookies for dropbox.com in Thunderbird?
>
> Cookies for an e-mail client? No way (see next). Under Tools ->
> Options -> Security, the "Accept cookies from sites" is disabled. It is
> under the Security tab because enabling it reduces security. I never
> want my *e-mail* client to behave like a web browser.

You can allow cookies only for the domain dropbox.com. In that case TB
behaves like a web browser for the initial authentication, i.e. a single
time.

Cookies in general may have privacy issues, but I don't think they are
posing a security risk.

Dropbox do know your identity anyway, since you registered an account
with them. So I have no idea what you're complaining about.

<snip>

> Thanks for the heads up, however, on why the login probably failed.
> Because of how they capture the login credentials from a web page
> (instead of just asking me for them), and if cookies are the problem the
> fails the login attempt (with no error message), I won't be using the
> add-on or the Filelink feature.

I believe the underlying mechanism used is OAuth, and there is nothing
obscure about that. It's just the way it works.

https://www.dropbox.com/developers/blog/45/using-oauth-20-with-the-core-api

If you don't want to give it a try that's up to you.

--
Christian

[VanguardLH]

Christian Riechers wrote:

> On 05/17/2014 12:15 AM, VanguardLH wrote:
>> Christian Riechers wrote:>
>>> On 05/16/2014 02:20 AM, VanguardLH wrote:
>>>> I tried the Dropbox filelink add-on. Didn't work.
>>>
>>> Did you allow cookies for dropbox.com in Thunderbird?
>>
>> Cookies for an e-mail client? No way (see next). Under Tools ->
>> Options -> Security, the "Accept cookies from sites" is disabled. It is
>> under the Security tab because enabling it reduces security. I never
>> want my *e-mail* client to behave like a web browser.
>
> You can allow cookies only for the domain dropbox.com. In that case TB
> behaves like a web browser for the initial authentication, i.e. a single
> time.
>
> Cookies in general may have privacy issues, but I don't think they are
> posing a security risk.

Sorry. Sometimes security and privacy are a mixed concern. The
security or privacy of your Inbox is proportional to how well you
protect your e-mail address. When customer data is hacked or stolen
from a company, all that private information on customers is called a
security breach. I'm not interested in assisting spammers or trackers
in discovering my e-mail address.

> Dropbox do know your identity anyway, since you registered an account
> with them. So I have no idea what you're complaining about.

The options says "Accept cookies from sites" and has an Exclusion
button. I figured that meant all cookies were allowed EXCEPT the
specified domains. I hadn't clicked on the Exceptions button. I did
now and see that you not only list exclusions but also can define a
whitelist.

So I can enable the "Accept cookies from sites" which alone means
accepting cookies from ALL DOMAINS. If the Exceptions list has only a
single domain listed (dropbox.com), does that mean Thunderbird will NOT
accept all cookies unless Allowed or Within Session? This config is
convoluted in not knowing if "All cookies" for the option is how that
works unless anything is specified in the Exceptions list. It sure
looks like I could set Allow on dropbox.com but it doesn't appear that
will block cookies for other domains.

I'll have to further research the cookie feature in Thunderbird. That I
add a Block, Allow, or Per Session to a particular domain doesn't
necessitate that cookies from all other domains are blocked if an Allow
or Per Session rule were defined. If that were the case, allowing a
single domain would mean there would be no point in defining a Block
rule on other particular domains.

Note that this cookie setting is NOT just for the Filelink feature under
discussion here. It is for all web content that Thunderbird may display
or retrieve. Yes, Dropbox already has an e-mail address recorded for my
account with them. That's not the point. I don't want any domain to
use cookies via Thunderbird to discover my e-mail address by setting a
cookie in an HTML-formatted e-mail that they send to me (because
obviously they could simply embed the e-mail address to where they sent
their e-mail).

[VanguardLH]

Hmm, I just realized I could leave the "Accept cookies from sites"
disabled and still be able to add entries to the Exclusion list. I
figured if this option were disabled that I couldn't defined exceptions.

If I:
- Disable the "Accept cookies from sites" (don't accept any cookies).
- Add an Allow or Per Session exception for dropbox.com.
Will that then block cookies from all domains except Dropbox?

[Christian Riechers]

On 05/17/2014 07:04 AM, VanguardLH wrote:
> Christian Riechers wrote:
>> On 05/17/2014 12:15 AM, VanguardLH wrote:
>>> Christian Riechers wrote:>
>>>> On 05/16/2014 02:20 AM, VanguardLH wrote:
>>>>> I tried the Dropbox filelink add-on. Didn't work.
>>>>
>>>> Did you allow cookies for dropbox.com in Thunderbird?
>>>
>>> Cookies for an e-mail client? No way (see next). Under Tools ->
>>> Options -> Security, the "Accept cookies from sites" is disabled. It is
>>> under the Security tab because enabling it reduces security. I never
>>> want my *e-mail* client to behave like a web browser.
>>
>> You can allow cookies only for the domain dropbox.com. In that case TB
>> behaves like a web browser for the initial authentication, i.e. a single
>> time.

<snip>

> The options says "Accept cookies from sites" and has an Exclusion
> button. I figured that meant all cookies were allowed EXCEPT the
> specified domains. I hadn't clicked on the Exceptions button. I did
> now and see that you not only list exclusions but also can define a
> whitelist.
>
> So I can enable the "Accept cookies from sites" which alone means
> accepting cookies from ALL DOMAINS. If the Exceptions list has only a
> single domain listed (dropbox.com), does that mean Thunderbird will NOT
> accept all cookies unless Allowed or Within Session? This config is
> convoluted in not knowing if "All cookies" for the option is how that
> works unless anything is specified in the Exceptions list. It sure
> looks like I could set Allow on dropbox.com but it doesn't appear that
> will block cookies for other domains.

<snip>

Do not check 'Allow cookies from sites'. Just create an exception for
dropbox.com 'Allow for session'.

This works pretty much the same way as for Firefox.

--
Christian

[Christian Riechers]

You got it.

--
Christian

[VanguardLH]

I retried the Dropbox Filelink add-on with the above cookie setup. It
worked this time.

There is still the bug that the filelink provider is blank in the
listbox (shows as just an icon with a blank line). I have to select
that blank filelink provider to see it is for Dropbox. However, the
icon is the one for Dropbox so that gives a hint.

I'll have to test later if this filelink mechanism works with Dropbox.
Time for bed (until my insomia wakes me up in 4 hours).

[Christian Riechers]

On 05/17/2014 07:48 AM, VanguardLH wrote:
> Christian Riechers wrote:
>
>> On 05/17/2014 07:07 AM, VanguardLH wrote:
>>> Hmm, I just realized I could leave the "Accept cookies from sites"
>>> disabled and still be able to add entries to the Exclusion list. I
>>> figured if this option were disabled that I couldn't defined exceptions.
>>>
>>> If I:
>>> - Disable the "Accept cookies from sites" (don't accept any cookies).
>>> - Add an Allow or Per Session exception for dropbox.com.
>>> Will that then block cookies from all domains except Dropbox?
>>
>> You got it.
>
> I retried the Dropbox Filelink add-on with the above cookie setup. It
> worked this time.
>
> There is still the bug that the filelink provider is blank in the
> listbox (shows as just an icon with a blank line). I have to select
> that blank filelink provider to see it is for Dropbox. However, the
> icon is the one for Dropbox so that gives a hint.

I don't see that behavior.

--
Christian

[VanguardLH]

Christian Riechers wrote:

> VanguardLH wrote:
>
>> There is still the bug that the filelink provider is blank in the
>> listbox (shows as just an icon with a blank line). I have to select
>> that blank filelink provider to see it is for Dropbox. However, the
>> icon is the one for Dropbox so that gives a hint.
>
> I don't see that behavior.

I'm still using Thunderbird 24.3.0. Too many problems, some nasty,
reported with later versions. Which version are you using?

[Christian Riechers]

I do use both, 24.5.0, and 30.0 beta 1.
What nasty problems are you talking about? I haven't come across any.

--
Christian

[VanguardLH]

Christian Riechers wrote:

> VanguardLH wrote:
>
>> Christian Riechers wrote:
>>
>>> VanguardLH wrote:
>>>
>>>> There is still the bug that the filelink provider is blank in the
>>>> listbox (shows as just an icon with a blank line). I have to select
>>>> that blank filelink provider to see it is for Dropbox. However, the
>>>> icon is the one for Dropbox so that gives a hint.
>>>
>>> I don't see that behavior.
>>
>> I'm still using Thunderbird 24.3.0. Too many problems, some nasty,
>> reported with later versions. Which version are you using?
>
> I do use both, 24.5.0, and 30.0 beta 1.

Could be why our behaviors are different. This is what I see:

http://tinypic.com/r/34q63rc/8
(click on pic to enlarge and show by itself)

> What nasty problems are you talking about? I haven't come across any.

24.4.0:
- "Not responding" when deleting e-mails or very slow to delete e-mails.
Compaction does not help.
- Not retrieving new messages on startup although manual retrieves work.
Somehow an upgrade to this new version resulted in disabling the
"Include this server when getting new mail" option.
- Authentication fails to mail server. Deleting TB's cached password
doesn't help. Not even a fresh install of OS and TB helps. Users
that have updated their OS due to the OpenSSL Heartbleed vulnerability
have reported that the Thunderbird client ceases to connect to their
e-mail server. May not be version specific to Thunderbird but to
whatever SSL lib version that Thunderbird, any version, is using.
- Hyperlinks in e-mails stop working. Default web browser doesn't open.
- Attaching a file to an new e-mail and then opening that same file in
Windows Explorer causes TB to crash.
- TB hangs and eventually get a popup about "unresponsive script". TB's
safe mode doesn't help. Some hints that it might be the junk filter.

24.5.0:
- Unless somewhere tested and closed, the problems above exhibit also in
this version.
- Same SSL auth to server problem noted above.
- Account Setting dialog freezes under OSX when attempting to access any
settings group under an account.
- CPU usage slammed to 100% under OSX.
- Lightning shows up but calendars are missing (CALdav) under Kubuntu.
Reinstall of Lightning shows error in console. Was working before.
- McAfee users where TB worked before couldn't send or retrieve e-mails
after upgrading TB. Could be the Heartbleed issue again if McAfee is
using a transparent proxy (as many AV programs do).

Alas, http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewforum.php?f=39 doesn't let me
search on "24.4.0" and "24.5.0" only in the title of a thread or only
within the Thunderbird forum. Another alas, users often neglect to
mention their TB version when requesting help. So there are probably
many other problems that I have not noted here. Most problems I've seen
were reported here in this forum (I access it via NNTP, not a mailing
list) but I only retain posts for a month in my NNTP client. I gave up
searching at the forum after several pages since it wasn't my intention
to provide an exhaustive report of problems encountered with 24.4.0 and
24.5.0. I remember a discussing here where the user reported a problem
and the only solution was reverting to a prior version. I remember
because of all the posts about how to preserve the profile, if it would
work with an older version, and if stepping atop the new version with an
old one was okay.

[Christian Riechers]

On 05/17/2014 09:41 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
> Christian Riechers wrote:
>> VanguardLH wrote:
>>> I'm still using Thunderbird 24.3.0. Too many problems, some nasty,
>>> reported with later versions. Which version are you using?
>>

>> What nasty problems are you talking about? I haven't come across any.
>
> 24.4.0:
> - "Not responding" when deleting e-mails or very slow to delete e-mails.
> Compaction does not help.

This behavior is typically caused by anti-virus software, particularly
McAfee. It really is a McAfee problem, and there's an easy cure for it.

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird:Testing:Antivirus_Related_Performance_Issues#McAfee

See above.

> Could be the Heartbleed issue again if McAfee is
> using a transparent proxy (as many AV programs do).

I don't think McAfee problems have got anything to do with Heartbleed.

> Alas, http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewforum.php?f=39 doesn't let me
> search on "24.4.0" and "24.5.0" only in the title of a thread or only
> within the Thunderbird forum. Another alas, users often neglect to
> mention their TB version when requesting help. So there are probably
> many other problems that I have not noted here. Most problems I've seen
> were reported here in this forum

<snip>

There are certainly people having issues, however those are mostly
problems for a specific installation and profile. Many problems reported
in the forums do actually get resolved, and are not general problems
with a certain version of Thunderbird.

I don't think it is a good idea to use an outdated version of
Thunderbird with known security vulnerabilities.

If you have no issues with 24.3.0 it's unlikely you'll have any with a
later version.

--
Christian

[Chris Ilias]

On 2014-05-18 5:35 AM, Bob Henson wrote:

> https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=799040

Let's not turn this thread into a "List all your problems with later
versions" thread.

--
Chris Ilias <http://ilias.ca>
Mailing list/Newsgroup moderator

[VanguardLH]

Christian Riechers wrote:

> I don't think it is a good idea to use an outdated version of
> Thunderbird with known security vulnerabilities.
>
> If you have no issues with 24.3.0 it's unlikely you'll have any with a
> later version.

I just haven't enough idle time at the moment to prep my host for
recovery to then trial a newer version. It'll happen but not just now.

[Tanstaafl]

On 5/16/2014 12:35 PM, Steve <nos...@klik.net> wrote:
> I haven't tried all the options in mailtweak (there are a lot), but
> several of the ones I've tested in Earlybird or TB 24 seem to work. But
> you do need to install Disable Add-on Compatibility Checks just to get
> mailtweak to install.

Yeah, I know all about how to do this kind of thing (been using
Firefox/Thunderbird since about versions 0.8 or so), but... how best to
say this...

One of the things I love about Firefox and Thunderbird is the power of
customizability, both through Addons, and manual UI tweaks.

But, 'with great power comes great responsibility', and this power is a
double-edged sword.

Doing things like trying to use unmaintained/unsupported/buggy
extensions is the primary source of problems, and so I tend to avoid
using such Addons unless I have no other choice - and there is almost
always a choice.

[Tanstaafl]

On 5/18/2014 3:59 AM, Christian Riechers

<chrie...@netscape.net.invalid> wrote:
> On 05/17/2014 09:41 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
>> Christian Riechers wrote:
>>> What nasty problems are you talking about? I haven't come across any.

>> 24.4.0:
>> - "Not responding" when deleting e-mails or very slow to delete e-mails.
>> Compaction does not help.

> This behavior is typically caused by anti-virus software, particularly
> McAfee. It really is a McAfee problem, and there's an easy cure for it.

Seriously? McAfee?

Anyone who uses that piece of malware deserves whatever problems they get.

I consider anyone who does use it and blames any of their problems on
anything other than it (McAfee) a troll, plain and simple.