User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:91.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/91.0

Steps to reproduce:

Copy old profile into new Thunderbird installation. Start Thunderbird.

Actual results:

Error message appears on Thunderbird startup: "There is no email program associated to perform the requested action." after entering the password. I have to confirm the message, then Thunderbird opens up.

This ONLY appears with the copied, old profile. Not with new ones I create. Thunderbird is properly set as default mail client. There are exclusively deactivated add-ons in my list (A little extra anger at devs for killing lots of efforts from plugin-devs)

.

Full GERMAN error message:

E-Mail

Zum Ausführen der gewünschten Aktion ist kein E-Mail-Programm zugeordnet. Installieren Sie ein entsprechendes E-Mail-Programm, oder erstellen Sie in der Systemsteuerung unter "Standardprogramme" eine Zuordnung, wenn bereits ein Programm installiert ist.

OK

Expected results:

There should not be an error.

Sorry for the bold text: bug 1708984

Hi, please provide full steps to reproduce. I don't think that sheer copying an old profile... somewhere (?) magically makes some dialog appear somewhere? Also, if you think that "Thunderbird is properly set as default mail client", please explain why you think so (again, steps). Thanks.

Just how similar to this bug is Bug 1722256? My feeling is it is a duplicate.

Apart from the dialog in my case having an outlook window title and this one apparently having email. I do have to wonder if it just goes away if the Preference > check system integration is used to reset all the defaults.

I can not reproduce it with new profiles either once I check set system integration. My feeling is this may be related to the system integration of the calendar objects, which were not historically set by Thunderbird. But I was particularly disappointed. I installed a daily build, the installer ran and after a while updating a new daily version started telling me there was a problem. That this is caused by Thunderbird I have no doubt.

After researching the error message for the first time, these are the steps I already took:

1. Try and replace x64 with x32 version of Thunderbird
2. Go into Thunderbird settings - System integration - and checked to register Thunderbird in all listed categories (even though I do not want it to be the default calendar...)
3. Go into Windows App settings and make sure Thunderbird is the Default association as Email program and mailto protocol
4. Make sure MAPI is registered in regedit as by this tutorial: http://nctritech.com/2020/03/12/fix-thunderbird-there-is-no-email-program-associated-to-perform-the-requested-action-error/
5. Scrolled other default protocols and manually set Thunderbird for NEWS, NNTP and SNWES (those were blank)

As a feature request: The error window appears at startup and gives no information what was attempted that caused this error to appear. Make it more specific?

I'd remark that this bug is still present in 91.1.1 on Windows (and I'd also note that bug 1727772 includes details about registry keys set, etc.).

Please check out registry settings:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail]
Does it say default Value is "Mozilla Thunderbird"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail]
Does it say default Value is "Mozilla Thunderbird"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail\Mozilla Thunderbird]
Does it say the default Value is: "Mozilla Thunderbird"
Does it say "DLLPath"="C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\mozMapi32_InUse.dll"
OR
Does it say "DLLPath"="C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Thunderbird\mozMapi32_InUse.dll"

Please check:
Is Thunderbird installed in 'Program Files' or in 'Program Files (x86)' ?

You would expect Thunderbird to be installed in 'Program Files (x86)'

I'm wondering if Thunderbird is in 'Program Files (x86)' but DLLPath is pointing to the location used previously, so it looks like it does not exist.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail]
Yes, as by #4 in comment 4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail\Mozilla Thunderbird]
Yes, "Mozilla Thunderbird"

"DLLPath"="C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Thunderbird\mozMapi32_InUse.dll"

Thunderbirs is installed in "Program Files (x86)"

If you have a computer that has Cortana and you use it, then there is a setting that lets Cortana use the Email.
Windows search 'Cortana' to open it then > Permissions > Select 'Manage the information Cortana can access from this device'
There should be an option to switch off access to email etc.

Does anyone effected have this type of setting selected ?
If yes, does switching it off help?
It is just worth checking to see if Cortana permissions are throwing a spanner in works.

Cortana is completely disabled on my Windows 10 machine. (Using the ShutUp10 program)

When I open Cortana manually I would have to log in, which I will not do. I tried to find according setting earlier (and now checked again) but it seems that, as I deactivated it, these settings are not even available to me.

I think the most straight forward solution to this would be to implement a full-debug information on what caused the "no email program associated" error window to be shown. I mean it is clear enough if I perform a button click or something and then this happens, but it is way too vague on startup.

Last week I upgraded from TBird 78.14 to 91.1.1. I run the same TBird profile across three PCs. Two are 64 bit Windows 10 machines (20H2) and one is a 32 bit machine (also 20H2). The 64 bit machines run 64 bit Thunderbird (from Program Files) and the 32 bit runs 32. All are fully patched.

Two of the machines - the 32 bit and one of the 64 bit machines - produce this error. They will display the English version of the box shown in Tobias' first entry above two or three times upon starting TBird. For fun, I have systematically compared the above mentioned registry keys between these three installations:

HKCU\SOFTWARE\Cleints\Mail - default is set to "Mozilla Thunderbird" on all three machines.

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail - default is "(value not set)" on BOTH machines WITH the error. The third machine WITHOUT the error the default is "Microsoft Outlook" although TBird is the default mailer.

Please that on the machines WITH the error the number of times this box displays seems to correspond to the number of non-TBird mail programs listed as subkeys of HKLM\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail. (Coincidence?)

Also note that when I replaced the default value (alternately with Mozilla Thunderbird and then Microsoft Outlook) on the 64 bit machine producing the error and it did NOT remedy the problem.

Last week I upgraded from TBird 78.14 to 91.1.1.

Wondering if computer has managed to get confused over Thunderbird. Sounds crazy but possible.
Did you uninstall 78.14.0 first and then download and install 91.1.1
OR did you install over previous?

Have you tried to reset the default mail app?
In Default apps select something other than Thunderbird eg: Mail
REstart computer.
Now go back and reset the Email default to Thunderbird and restart computer again.

if this is actually a MS product not correct and it's causing an inteference.
If anyone has eg: Microsoft Office installed regardless of whether you use Thunderbird.
Please check if repairing Office has any effect.
Settings > Apps > click on Office and select Change/Modify and see if there is a 'Repair' option.

This was an upgrade over previous, as documented in bug 1727772. That bugs also details steps taken to attempt to solve this (resetting the default mail application, choosing Windows Mail, then switching back, etc.).

No Microsoft Office products are installed.

Bug is still present with 91.1.2 64-bit release.

For me it was a clean install of Windows 10, new Thunderbird and transferring my profile from an old machine.

(In reply to Anje from comment #15)

Last week I upgraded from TBird 78.14 to 91.1.1.

Wondering if computer has managed to get confused over Thunderbird. Sounds crazy but possible.
Did you uninstall 78.14.0 first and then download and install 91.1.1
OR did you install over previous?

Install over in all three cases. One was from the update notification in TBird (the one without the problem but that may be conincidental), the other two were via execution of the 91.1.1 .msi install (without uninstall).

Have you tried to reset the default mail app?
In Default apps select something other than Thunderbird eg: Mail
REstart computer.
Now go back and reset the Email default to Thunderbird and restart computer again.

I will try this when I have an opportunity.

if this is actually a MS product not correct and it's causing an inteference.
If anyone has eg: Microsoft Office installed regardless of whether you use Thunderbird.
Please check if repairing Office has any effect.
Settings > Apps > click on Office and select Change/Modify and see if there is a 'Repair' option.

The machine without the issue has MS Office and Outlook is run occasionally. One machine has the issue but MS Office is not installed. One machine has the issue but MS Outlook has likely never been run.

I can confirm that this bug exists and is somehow being caused by the profile being copied over from another system. It is not a duplicate of Bug 1722256 as in my case, MAPI works fine. On my system, it only occurs with the copied profile, not with a new profile. I copied the profile from a Linux machine running Thunderbird, but I don't think that has anything to do with it as other users in this thread indicated they copied the profile from another Windows machine. Here are the steps I used that triggered the bug:

1. Did a completely fresh install of Windows 10 and latest version of Thunderbird.
2. Started Thunderbird. It behaved as expected.
3. Copied Thunderbird profile over from Linux. Used ProfileManager to switch to the copied profile. This error message pops up every time I start Thunderbird.
4. Created a new profile in Thunderbird and switched to it with ProfileManager. The error message went away.
5. Switched back to the copied profile. The error message reappeared and happens every time I start Thunderbird.

This is clearly being caused by something in the copied profile, as again, it does not happen with newly created profiles. That's as much as I know right now because the error message is vague and gives no indication of what action was requested.

MWhisper -

Copied Thunderbird profile over from Linux -

Assuming you copied the actual 'profile name' folder from the .thunderbird folder in Linux and pasted it into the 'Roaming'/'Thunderbird'/'Profiles' folder in Windows.

What version of Thunderbird was being used on Linux machine?
Is it exactly the same version as you installed on Windows PC?

In that copied linux 'profile name' folder there will be a 'compatibility.ini' file - what are the contents?
In the created 'profile name' folder there will be a 'compatibility.ini' file - what are the contents?

Wouldn't we save time if there was a Thunderbird version that can give debug information / trace how the error window gets triggered?

(In reply to Anje from comment #20)

Yes, I copied the entire folder. On the off chance that it might make a difference, I also tried copying the contents of the folder into an existing profile and overwriting everything. But it resulted in the same problem.

Here are the contents of the compatibility.ini files from the Windows version and the Linux versions. The Linux version is from before I copied it. After I copied it, Thunderbird modified it to be identical to the Windows version (it changed platform dir info, etc).

Also, this profile is probably 8 years old or so and has been copied multiple times between different Linux systems with no issues at all. This is the first time I've copied it to a Windows system and the first time this problem has shown up.

Windows version:

[Compatibility]
LastVersion=91.1.2_20210924213438/20210924213438
LastOSABI=WINNT_x86_64-msvc
LastPlatformDir=C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird
LastAppDir=C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird

Linux version (before copying):

[Compatibility]
LastVersion=91.1.0_20210907134030/20210907134030
LastOSABI=Linux_x86_64-gcc3
LastPlatformDir=/usr/lib64/thunderbird
LastAppDir=/usr/lib64/thunderbird

(In reply to Anje from comment #20)

Just to be clear, the Windows profile is from the newly created one. Not from the one I copied over. But the one I copied over is identical to the newly created one after the first time I ran Thunderbird with it. The Linux I posted is prior to copying.

(In reply to Tobias H from comment #21)

Wouldn't we save time if there was a Thunderbird version that can give debug information / trace how the error window gets triggered?

The error message is coming from Windows, not Thunderbird. Unfortunately, Windows is very fond of giving vague error messages that don't give you any details about what went wrong.

The error message is coming from Windows, not Thunderbird. Unfortunately, Windows is very fond of giving vague error messages that don't give you any details about what went wrong.

Windows seems ok with Thunderbird as one profile starts as normal. So I'm thinking what can be in the other profile which is triggering a Window error message problem.

If you added any extension addons on Linux machine - did you uninstall them before copying profile?

In the profile name folder - one copied over from linux - in the 'prefs.js' file which can be opened using Notepad - are there any preferences which still have a linux path directory?
If yes, then carefully manually edit path . - Make a copy of 'prefs.js' first as a backup.

Some files may contain wrong path directories - delete these files and they will get newly created when you restart.

pkcs11.txt
panacea.dat
permissions.sqlite
session.json

Just my observation, but I first saw this issue when the calendar was added to the integration box, so I am guessing this is in some way related to that event.

Another way to maybe pin down the problem: Even tough the dialog box is a Windows thing (according to @MWhisper), it halts all Thunderbird activity until 'okay' is pressed. It could be a way to track it using some timing logs. I know this might not be ideal, but in case it can help I want to drop it in. 😊

Sorry for the delayed response. Been really busy and haven't had much time to work on this. To the best of my knowledge, there were no plugins installed in the Linux version, but I can't say for sure because the drive containing the Linux version has been wiped clean. But if I look in the extensions on Windows, it doesn't list any installed except for uBlock, which I tried removing and reinstalling. The prefs.js file does reference some old plugins (for example, an image resizing plugin) that I know for certain were not actually installed on the Linux version, and hadn't been for several years. It appears that references to them never got cleaned out of prefs.js, though.

I deleted the files you mentioned, but it didn't fix the problem.

When it comes to prefs.js, there are quite a few references in it to the old Linux /home/username directory. I haven't had time to edit those yet and see if it fixes the problem. How should I rewrite those paths? Should I use Windows style path separators (C:\Users...)? Or POSIX style ones (C:/Users/...)?

(In reply to Anje from comment #25)

The error message is coming from Windows, not Thunderbird. Unfortunately, Windows is very fond of giving vague error messages that don't give you any details about what went wrong.

Windows seems ok with Thunderbird as one profile starts as normal. So I'm thinking what can be in the other profile which is triggering a Window error message problem.

If you added any extension addons on Linux machine - did you uninstall them before copying profile?

In the profile name folder - one copied over from linux - in the 'prefs.js' file which can be opened using Notepad - are there any preferences which still have a linux path directory?
If yes, then carefully manually edit path . - Make a copy of 'prefs.js' first as a backup.

Some files may contain wrong path directories - delete these files and they will get newly created when you restart.

pkcs11.txt
panacea.dat
permissions.sqlite
session.json

(In reply to MWhisper from comment #28)

When it comes to prefs.js, there are quite a few references in it to the old Linux /home/username directory. I haven't had time to edit those yet and see if it fixes the problem. How should I rewrite those paths? Should I use Windows style path separators (C:\Users...)? Or POSIX style ones (C:/Users/...)?

In Windows OS - here are examples in my 'prefs.js' file - perhaps this may help you work out what needs to be put into any that currently have wrong path. You may find the everything before the profile name folder needs to be altered.
user_pref("mail.root.imap", "C:\Users\User Name\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\yba3h802.default\ImapMail");
user_pref("mail.root.none", "C:\Users\User Name\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\yba3h802.default\Mail");
user_pref("mail.root.pop3", "C:\Users\User Name\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\yba3h802.default\Mail");
user_pref("mail.server.server1.directory", "C:\Users\User Name\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\yba3h802.default\Mail\mail.btinternet.com");

Searching on the web, it seems related to "EDS - Evolution Data Server" (http://kb.mozillazine.org/Sharing_address_books#EDS).

For me, removing the lines which contains "ldap_2.servers.eds" from 'prefs.js' file in the profile folder seems to have fixed the problem.

Make a backup copy of 'prefs.js' and do some tests.

I can confirm Cris486's fix of removing all entries with ldap_2.servers.eds.*

I just did so and my error message is gone. (Not knowing why / What these settings are for).

I do NOT recall by the way that I switched from Linux to Windows. As far as I remember I copied my profile from Windows 10 to Windows 10, what caused the error.

Thanks Cris and Tobias! I'll confirm the same result - removing these keys has solved the problem!

user_pref("ldap_2.servers.eds.description", "EDS Address Book Bootstrapper");
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.eds.dirType", 3);
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.eds.filename", "eds.mab");
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.eds.position", 1);
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.eds.uri", "moz-abedsdirectory://");

(In reply to Cris486 from comment #30)

Searching on the web, it seems related to "EDS - Evolution Data Server" (http://kb.mozillazine.org/Sharing_address_books#EDS).

For me, removing the lines which contains "ldap_2.servers.eds" from 'prefs.js' file in the profile folder seems to have fixed the problem.

Make a backup copy of 'prefs.js' and do some tests.

I want to note that Cris486 solution didn't work for me because I have no 'eds' keys to remove. I will check several other addr book syncs when I get time.

(In reply to Cris486 from comment #30)

Searching on the web, it seems related to "EDS - Evolution Data Server" (http://kb.mozillazine.org/Sharing_address_books#EDS).

For me, removing the lines which contains "ldap_2.servers.eds" from 'prefs.js' file in the profile folder seems to have fixed the problem.

Make a backup copy of 'prefs.js' and do some tests.

So I played around. I had previously used the ExQuilla for Exchange add-on in TB. I leaves a WHOLE bunch of "ldap_2.servers.ews://...."
entries in the pref.js. Upon deletion of the entries the problem appears remedied.

Thanks Cris for giving me a direction to try.

I still have this problem when Thunderbird 91.3.0 starts. It started some days ago after the automatic upgrade from 78 to 91. When Thunderbird starts I see this message 9 times. I have to click OK 9 times to get the Thunderbird Window. This happens on an up-to-date Windows 10 system.
I can't find the lines mentioned above in prefs.js. Any other suggestion?

(In reply to Fred. Zwarts from comment #35)

I still have this problem when Thunderbird 91.3.0 starts. It started some days ago after the automatic upgrade from 78 to 91. When Thunderbird starts I see this message 9 times. I have to click OK 9 times to get the Thunderbird Window. This happens on an up-to-date Windows 10 system.
I can't find the lines mentioned above in prefs.js. Any other suggestion?

Note my last comment right before yours. All you can do is "go fishing" by looking for groups of lines beginning with the string - user_pref("ldap_2.servers. I found the offending items in my installation by trial and error.

1 - Pick a name group (like ones starting with user_prefs("ldap_2.servers.eds - mentioned by Cris486 above), 2- back up your existing prefs.js and 3 - launch TB and see if you get fewer error boxes at start up.

If it gets better, keep the new prefs.js. If not, exit TB, restore your backup and try a different group of entries.

Reporter, do you still see this issue when using version 102?

I guess I will not try to reproduce the error again. I don't even know anymore on what profile files that happened...

Maybe Cris or Robert can report on this? (They confirmed the error)

I applied the manual fix recommended by Cris and Tobias and haven't looked back.

(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk) from comment #37)

Reporter, do you still see this issue when using version 102?

I too reproduced and manually fixed this issue without looking back. Don't think that I could find an old copy of pref.js to even test with.

I still see these messages, but now I plan to also fix it manually.

I still see them in Thunderbird 102.3.1 (64 bits) Windows.

After the manual fix, the problem has gone.

I can confirm this with Thunderbird 102.4.1 (x64).
I had a very, very old Tb profile on a Win11 Pro x64 machine. I installed Tb x64 on a new Win11 Pro x64 machine and copied my profile from the other one.
Now, even when just clicking on the pinned Thunderbird icon on the taskbar to launch Thunderbird, the error appeared:

E-Mail
Zum Ausführen der gewünschten Aktion ist kein E-Mail-Programm zugeordnet. Installieren Sie ein entsprechendes E-Mail-Programm, oder erstellen Sie in der Systemsteuerung unter "Standardprogramme" eine Zuordnung, wenn bereits ein Programm installiert ist.
[OK ]

(Which is something like "There is no email program associated to perform the requested action")

After clicking OK, Thunderbird launched and seemed to be doing fine. But I wanted to get rid of above error message, so I'm glad I found this bugzilla issue.

This did solve it for me, as well: I closed Thunderbird, made a backup of the prefs.js file and then disabled these lines in the prefs.js (by adding "// " at the beginning of them):

user_pref("ldap_2.servers.eds.description", "EDS Address Book Bootstrapper");
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.eds.dirType", 3);
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.eds.filename", "eds.mab");
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.eds.position", 1);
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.eds.uri", "moz-abedsdirectory://");

Saved file, clicked on Tb icon in the Windows taskbar: Thunderbird launches without any issues since. And obviously it removed the commented (// ) lines from the prefs.js.

Question is: Where did these "ldap_2.servers.eds" entries come from?

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Sharing_address_books#EDS

Another confirmation of the manual fix.

I've been putting up with this error for a long time now. Recently did a clean Win11 install and fresh TB 115.1.0 install but copied my very old TB profile across.

The error was still present in 115.1.0, but manually removing the ldap_2.servers.eds.* entries from user.prefs fixed the issue.

Thanks everyone!