Hi howardjw, a user running Microsoft Outlook 2007 on Windows 7 posted a similar report. Before the Firefox 68.0.2 update, the new Outlook message would come to the front automatically, but after the update, he has to switch over to it (for example, using the Taskbar).

On my Firefox, I have to switch windows the first time, but it's normal after that (I rarely close Firefox, so it's mostly normal for me).

I'm not sure what's going on. Are you also using Microsoft Office Outlook as your mail program, or are other programs affected, too?

Many thanks for the reply.

No, I don't use MS Outlook; I only use Mozilla apps, Firefox and Thunderbird, as well as Open Office (is that Mozilla or another developer?).

I use Firefox as my only browser, including to open articles from various publications and often, if they display an icon for sharing by email and I think the article worth sharing, I click on the icon and as I noted, until very recently the article would automatically minimize to show the email with link to article, ready to be addressed and sent, but now I have to manually minimize the article to expose the email, which, while not a huge issue, is, nevertheless annoying, as then I have to remember to afterward return and clear the article, which otherwise lingers.

I can only get the wrong behavior the first time I run Firefox (or Firefox Developer Edition) and use a mailto link like

• mailto:bob@example.com
• mailto:?subject=SUMO&body=https://support.mozilla.org/

I'm not sure why the problem occurs the first time for me, or why it repeats over and over for other users.

Are you keeping both Firefox and Thunderbird open throughout the process of reading article and generating new messages?

Firefox 68.0.2 contained a bug fix related to URLs sent to external programs (to fix a problem with "Skype for Business"), but perhaps the fix is causing this problem. It's a little technical, I'm not sure I get to the bottom of it.

Many thanks for your further communication and concern.

Yes, I have both Firefox and Thunderbird open throughout the process of reading articles and then initiating forwardings of the articles.

I don't want to trouble you further with the matter, as I'll just manually minimize the articles rather than depending upon Firefox doing so automatically for me as previous, but it does seem odd that for months the automatic minimization occurred, only to cease recently.

Have there been any recent automatic updates sent to Firefox users which could have caused the issue to begin?

howardjw said

Have there been any recent automatic updates sent to Firefox users which could have caused the issue to begin?

Yes, it seems to have started with the Firefox 68.0.2 bug fix release.

Thanks.

When did that release occur?

howardjw said

Thanks. When did that release occur?

Mid-August.

• https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/68.0.2/releasenotes/
• Related thread: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/1266968

I filed a bug report: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1576775

Please don't add comments there at this point. I'll update this thread if they have something for you to test or need further information.

Ok and many thanks!