Debug Thunderbird on Windows

Thunderbird Logging (POP3, SMTP)

To configure logging via a Thunderbird Preference, you must create a hidden Thunderbird preference, not an environment variable. In Thunderbird:

1. From the main menu go to Settings > General
2. Type config editor in the Find in Settings search bar
3. Click the Config Editor button in the search results
4. In the search field at the top paste or type the preference name for the service you wish to log:
   1. POP3 - mailnews.pop3.loglevel
   2. SMTP - mailnews.smtp.loglevel
5. If you are presented with choices of Boolean, Number, String
   1. choose String
   2. click the + (plus sign) to add the preference
6. Click the edit icon next to the preference that appears
7. Change the value to All (case-sensitive; often set to Warn by default)
8. Click the tick button to save the new configuration setting

Logging will be on until you reset or delete the preference again. You do not need to restart Thunderbird as logging starts immediately.

To view the logging output:

1. Main menu > Tools > Developer Tools > Error Console (or press Ctrl+Shift+J)
2. Expose the timestamp for each entry by clicking the gear icon in the top-right of the Console and turning on Show Timestamps
3. Perform the task/s that you want to log (e.g. sending email (SMTP), receiving email (POP3))
4. The logging information will appear in the console

Once you have performed the task that you want to log, you can save the logging output by right-clicking any of the console messages and choosing Save all messages to file.

If asking Farbyte for support with an issue, attach this log to your Farbyte support ticket.

Gecko Logging (IMAP)

IMAP uses Gecko logging, which requires environment variables and must be started from a batch file:

1. Create a text file on your Desktop and rename it to imap_log.bat
2. Open the file in Notepad and paste these lines:

set MOZ_LOG=IMAP:5,timestamp
set MOZ_LOG_FILE=%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\imap_log
"%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe"

3. Save and close the file
4. Right-click imap_log.bat and select Run as administrator (UAC requires administrator privileges or the log file will not be created)
5. Thunderbird will launch
6. Perform the IMAP actions you want to log (e.g., receiving email, syncing folders)
7. Close Thunderbird completely
8. The log file imap_log.moz_log will be on your Desktop

Note: For Windows XP or Vista, change %ProgramFiles(x86)% to %ProgramFiles% in the batch file.

If asking Farbyte for support with an IMAP issue, attach the imap_log.moz_log file to your support ticket.