Cannot Print multiple messages at the same time or print conversations in Thunderbird 102.14.0 - worked in older versions
I recently did an upgrade from a much older TB version to 102.14.0 At one time I was able to print multiple emails at one time but no longer. Also why can I not print the entire series of of a conversation? How can these problems be fixed without reverting back to a much older version and the loss of emails? Thanks
All Replies (6)
To get the 'Print Preview' to work the email must be opened and have focus, it's not possible to do this with more than one email.
Old versions used to open email in background to access data. Some not so savvy people thought 'Print Preview' offered a more secure method of reading emails without opening them, not realising how you could see contents without opening them. The emails were opened in the background.
Then Firefox altered printing and so did Thunderbird as a certain amount of code is shared. The old opening in background ceased and now email must be selected and opened and have focus.
This then opens the 'Print Preview' window allowing you to make any necessary alterations.
For multiple: IF you select top level email of a collapsed thread so it shows the X number of messages in Message Pane Then right click on highlighted item in list and select 'Print'....
It does not open the 'Print Preview' window, but it should open the 'Print' window where you can select the name of printer.
I just tested this on an email which has 3 emails in thread (collapsed) and got the Print dialogue window. I selected printer and clicked Print
Now I do not need to actually print them and printer is turned off, so I accessed the 'Printer ' documents to see queue and there's 3 emails with same subject and slightly different sizes which match the ones in Message List. So it would have printed all three if printer was turned on.
Modified by Toad-Hall
Toad-Hall Thanks Unfortunately - For Multiple - doesn't work for me. Collapsed 'print' is greyed out. Expanded 'print' works, however, only for the focused email of the group. I am using both Windows 10 and 11 on different computers. Possibly it is different on a Mac?? Thanks anyways Bob
I'm on a Windows 10 using 102.14.0 64bit and I also have a beta version 117.0b6 which I'm also testing. I'm seeing the same in both versions.
I've added an image. You can see that another email has focus - blue dotted line on selected email.
The grey selected collapsed thread offers print system dialogue etc.
If you restart Thunderbird in SAfe Mode/Troubleshoot mode do you get same issue? In Thunderbird Help > Troubleshoot Mode click on 'Restart' and choose 'Continue in Troubleshoot mode'
Toad-Hall Thanks I followed your suggestions and all printing worked correctly. When I turned off safe mode the printing also greyed out for conversations and multiple files. Any idea what I can do from here? Thanks Bob
Toad-Hall I figured it out. I had installed an addon called Thunderbird Conversations. Helpful with multiple correspondents in the email chain. However, it has a column called "between" which referenced which correspondents were involved in each email within the conversation. Really very helpful, however, it seems it was this "between" column that was causing the printing issues. TB always wanted to restore this column even after removing it and a restart. In the the Thunderbird Conversations settings there is a check box that can override TB and completely remove the "between" column and then printing worked fine. Who would have guessed. Thanks for you help, as your idea of using the trouble shooting gave me the idea to trouble shoot the addons by turning them all off and then reactivating one by one. Bob
Many thanks for the good information about the addon 'Conversations'. Good to hear you can now Print again.