Windows Secrets & Thunderbird

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Greetings. I hope everyone had a very nice Thanksgiving.
My computer has the Win 7, 64 bit operating system; I have the most recent version of Thunderbird for a mail handler; and my internet/e-mail provider is centurylink.net. For a few years I have been receiving my Windows Secrets newsletter without a problem. A few months ago, when I received the newsletter e-mail, it was empty upon opening. The letter showed up just fine when accessing it on the centurylink website. It also showed up just fine when accessing my email on my android cell phone. I originally thought the problem was with centurylink, because the issue went away when I changed my Windows Secrets email preference to an msn.com account. After a few weeks I changed my windows secrets preference back to centurylink, and things worked fine again for awhile. The problem has resurfaced, but now occurs with both the centurylink and MSN accounts. Again, I can read the letter by bypassing thunderbird and going directly to the centurylink website. Additionally, the letters continue to arrive on my android device without problem. I also have no problem reading any of the older windows secrets emails I have saved. I can’t be sure, but I think the most recent difficulty may have surfaced with the last thunderbird update. I have version 24.1.1. I suspect one of my t-bird settings got messed up, but any advice would be appreciated. Thanks,.

Casey H.

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I am using 24.1.1 and I can read the email text, but not the embedded links – TB correctly blocks links in email. See this Mozilla article.

cheers, Paul

p.s. only the USA had Thanksgiving, the rest of us didn’t notice anything special.

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p.s. only the USA had Thanksgiving, the rest of us didn’t notice anything special.

In the UK, we used to give thanks on the Fourth of July. Is this still the case?

Chris

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I generally try to give thanks as much as possible. Most holidays find me grateful over one thing or another. Seems like one of today’s larger issues–people expect too much from everybody other than themselves, then don’t take the time to even offer up even a kind word. In this particular case, I am thankful for the kind folks who have weighed in to help me with my T-Bird problem.

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Thanks for the reply, Paul, and I am aware of what you are saying about the blocking. I experience that regularly. But I have been receiving the Windows Secrets newsletter for years using the current settings without problem. Only recently has something changed. I’m just trying to figure out what that something is. And sorry about the Thanksgiving bit. I tend to forget the global nature of the Lounge.

Cheers, Casey

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Are you saying the newsletter contains nothing at all?
What size is the email showing? My most recent one shows 266k.
Can you view the source to check if the data is there? Highlight the message and select View > Message Source.

cheers, Paul

p.s. no need to apologise.

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Yes–no message content at all. I just get the Header showing that it’s from Windows Secrets, the Subject (in this case “A hands-on look at Microsoft’s new X box One [Newsletter Paid Subscription], and the To field showing my email address. That’s it–nothing else. Again if I go back to several of the older newsletters I have saved, they all open normally. That’s the part that doesn’t make sense to me. If I’ve got a setting that’s messed up, you’d think it would affect all of the newsletters. And like I said, I can view the newsletters on my android cell phone reading my centurylink email account, and I can read them just fine going to my account on the centurylink website and opening my email there. If it works like last time, I suspect that one of these days, things will revert to normal. Thanks.

Casey

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Not sure this helps:
In T-bird, Menu-View-Message Body As-Simple HTML, or Original HTML.

Choose Simple HTML if you prefer privacy, from being tracked, and to avoid spam.
Choose Original HTML if you are sure the email is legit and no tricky embedded stuffs.
Reason:
Some emails are in pure HTML format (web page format). T-bird maybe in text-only view. Then you’ll see blank content from HTML-only emails.

Text-only View is a more secure method (will not auto download malware/virus, and prevent tracking). The next level of security is Simple HTML. In this viewing method, only the text portion of HTML is downloaded. All graphics and other embedded scripts (apps and programs) are not downloaded.

Your emails maybe all in web format (HTML). And they may not embed pure text as an option. Good business practices should provide both to allow the widest access. I see some laziness at work that shows a single word ‘Text’ if you choose Text-only view! Some are simply blank if the the emails are HTML-only.
In fact, when you setup T-bird, it has option to transmit your composed email by HTML-only, Text-only, or Both. I myself elect to do Text-only transmission. It prevents propagating virus. If needed, I can always change to ‘Both HTML and Text’ option.
Additional note:
Some business account profiles have courtesy allowing you to receive Text-only emails from them. If you choose HTML (default), yet T-bird is set to Text-only view, you’ll see blank emails from them.
Hope this helps.

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Thanks for the input. Still struggling. I have my message body set at original HTML.

Casey

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