You can only tell Thunderbird to encrypt all messages to be sent from an account. Obviously this will only work for recipients where you have a public key. Otherwise you'll get an error, and have to turn off encryption manually.

Now that I have S/Mime set up is there anything else I should be backing up?

For Thunderbird it is sufficient to backup the entire profile. You should certainly backup your own cert including the private key.

Damn. I was looking around and saw the add on 'Encrypt if possible'. I might give that a try. Have you heard of it?

No, I didn't know such an add-on exists.

I have thunderbird 52.9.1

Staying on such an old version will ultimately bite you at some point.

I know. It's risk I will have to take until I can find replacements for the add ons that later versions break.

Damn. I was looking around and saw the add on 'Encrypt if possible'. I might give that a try. Have you heard of it?

It has been around for many years, but it is non functional in Thunderbird 78.

If you are determined to on the path, this addon is sometimes helpful as it does not do it "when it can" so you never really know if you are sending encrypted mail or not, This addon specifies which contact get encrypted mail from an address book setting. But it still leaves you sending unencrypted email when one of the ten recipient can not receive encrypted email.

https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/security-settings-from-addr/?src=dp-dl-othersby

I'm on 52.9.1. I'm researching upgrading to v60. Seems most of the add ons I use are supported or there are alternatives. When I looked past that I couldn't find working addons or alternatives.

So I guess Encrypt if possible addon is OK at present? Or are you saying it is unreliable even on my current TB version?

My scenario is I have a few select people I email for which I will now only use encrypted email. The bulk of the people are public. Like doctors, various businesses etc. They obviously don't want encryption. Interferes with their tracking beacons and other unpleasant stuff, so I found out recently. I never mix and match. It's either all recipients or none of them.

Given that; when you say "This addon" are you referring to Ecrypt if possible, or the one you linked to?

I gather the one you linked to and Encrypt if possible won't co-exist? I'll give the linked addon it a try shortly.

thanks

I am saying any opportunistic encryption is unreliable.

You say you have some people that you only communicate with encrypted. All good, so you include someone that is not on that list in a communication, suddenly the email is sent unencrypted because one of the recipients can not receive encrypted email. A simple and easy mistake, but completely negates the desire to only communicate with this person encrypted. Hence why I point you to the addon I did. As it says it enforces encryption based on address book entries.

Oh, ok. When you said "this" I wasn't sure which addon you were referring to.

I'm pretty careful with my emails. (My sons say it's my OCD).

I'll download v2.01 which supports v52 - v60 of Thunderbird and see how it goes.

The main add on that I have issues with is Minimize to Tray, which only supports up to TB v63. Nothing is more irritating than programs that don't support "Start minimized"

UPDATE: Works as hoped. Thank you.